Pavements Modified with Pigments and Their Influence on the Urban Microclimate

Abstract

Paved roads are essential to connect places, cities or countries. Currently, the total mileage of roads in the world is 70 million kilometers. Streets, routes and pedestrian paths can be made of asphalt or concrete pavement. In summer, these surfaces become excessively heated by solar radiation, returning part of the heat to the environment and increasing thermal stress in urban inhabitants. This increases the air temperature in the city compared to the surrounding rural region, creating an Urban Heat Island (UHI). Modifying the composition of pavements, both asphalt and concrete, with pigments that increase albedo and have high emissivity of absorbed heat, will improve the quality of the urban microclimate. This study analyzes the thermal behavior of dense concrete pavement and asphalt mixture samples, conventional and modified with white titanium oxide pigments, and yellow and gray iron oxides. The samples were irradiated with sunlight in the summer of 2024 in La Plata.