The temperature of cities continues to increase because of the heat island phenomenon and the undeniable climatic change. The observed high ambient temperatures intensify the energy problem of cities, deteriorates comfort conditions, put in danger the vulnerable population and amplify the pollution problems.

To counterbalance the phenomenon, important mitigation technologies have been developed and proposed. Among them, technologies aiming to increase the albedo of cities and the use of vegetative – green roofs appear to be very promising, presenting a relatively high heat island mitigation potential.

This paper aims to present the state of the art on both the above technologies, when applied in the city scale. 

Author: M. Santamouris