Columbia, S.C., has approximately 45,000 roofs, 3,400 lane-miles of road, and 700 acres of parking lots–surfaces that absorb up to 95% of incoming solar radiation. The danger here is these areas can heat up the city during the summer months and lead to flooding issues. Left untreated, these dark and impervious areas can make parts of Columbia up to 13 ˚F hotter than less developed areas. Enter innovation.

My home city of Columbia (Yes, I moved from Chicago where I lived all my life a few years ago, although family and business has me retuning often. That’s a discussion for another day.) has recognized the danger of urban heat islands and is taking steps to create solutions to solve the challenges that currently exist.

The city has partnered with the Smart Surfaces Coalition to address the most flood-prone and heat-impacted neighborhoods and to use new ways to cool streets, lower energy costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s how it works. The benefit-cost analysis tool allows user to explore the financial, temperature, stormwater, and CO₂e impacts of targeted Smart Surfaces adoption. Then, the decision support tool allows these users to understand how surfaces heat and the hazard vulnerabilities that exist. Finally, the Smart Surfaces Policy Tracker allows users to search a database of 2,000 Smart Surface policies from all U.S. states.

Columbia is not the first state to take this step. Nine other major cities are also aiming to improve measures in public health, energy savings, infrastructure, climate action, and flood management through this program. These cities are embracing these Smart Surfaces, which include reflective roofs and pavements, porous and permeable surfaces, green stormwater infrastructure, and expanded tree canopy.

The potential benefits of the initiative are significant. Analysis shows adoption of these strategies can lower peak summer air temperatures by as much as 3.0 ˚F to 5.3 ˚F in the city’s hottest areas, while also providing long-term benefits for energy savings, infrastructure resilience, and quality of life.

Across Columbia and nine other major cities, these measures can deliver $7.6 billion in public health benefits, $3.3 billion in energy savings, and $9.9 billion in infrastructure savings. Scaling the approach to the entire 10 metropolitan regions—impacting 34 million Americans—just might produce $26.6 billion in health benefits, $10 billion in energy savings, and $34.8 billion in infrastructure savings, while reducing or offsetting 246 million metric tons of CO₂e and managing nearly a trillion gallons of stormwater in 35 years.

Of course, this is only one example of how we can solve the challenge of urban heat islands. Here at Connected World, we have written about many other examples including:

The rise of new materials: New innovative materials can help solve the challenges that arise because of urban heat islands. Here at Connected World, we have written about supplementary cementitious material that is engineered to address the global heat crisis and urban heat island effect. In this example, we see how material can reflect the sunlight and rapidly release heat. This will help cool, especially during the evening hours.

The rise of analytics: Technology can also help solve the challenges that exist in our cities. A combination of AI (artificial intelligence), digital twins, and more can model and manage urban infrastructure, helping identify current and future heat islands. ABI Research suggests global public and private investment levels in green urban infrastructure are expected to rise to $978 billion in 2030 across a variety of areas.

Certainly, there are many ways to solve the challenges of urban heat islands, and we are seeing one example of strategy in action right here in Columbia, South Carolina. No matter where you stand on this subject, we are building more, and we should always consider the environment. If we take the time to consider the environment at the time of construction, even before we build, we are shaping a community that is built for its citizens, by its citizens, and with its citizens. Now isn’t that a wonderful paradigm shift! It takes redesigning and thinking differently about the world around us to reduce all these heat islands.

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