The urban heat island effect is a costly bi-product of having a lot of land paved and built on. It can raise the air temperature in cities enough to send air conditioning bills through the roof, in addition to making things just plain un confortable. Green roofs, and lighter colored pavement help alleviate the problem, and a new innovation from Japan might help further - it's pavement that actually soaks up water, which then is released slowly into the air, reducing the pavement temperature.
This particular example actually uses the groundwater - so i'm not sure it's such a great idea, but I would imaging you could do something similar with stormwater or rain.
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Thanks for the info! I agree that using groundwater here in the US may not be a great idea, as we don't have as much as Japan does. But even just absorbing rain and snow and cooling the surface is a plus in itself. Other benefits would be longer tire life and maybe longevity of the roads (in that they could be less susceptible to cracking and potholes). I hope it catches on!!
It makes sense, however certain asphalt can actually expand and contract too much due to evaporation and cooling. Therefore, would this not create more potholes?
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