Summer Cooling: Replace the Asphalt

A comparison of surface temperatures before and after the renovation of a shopping street for summer cooling. The left side shows before renovation: the entire street is dark asphalt and concrete, which absorbs a lot of heat, resulting in extremely high surface temperatures at noon, with heat haze distorting distant objects, and almost no one outside. The right side shows after renovation: the paving has been replaced with light-colored permeable materials, continuous street tree canopies have been added, and a linear water feature with water and several rain gardens have been incorporated; at the same noon, the ground is noticeably cooler, people are active under the shade of trees, and children are playing by the water feature. The buildings and street width in both images are identical. The difference in surface color lightness can be seen in the images. Avoid: making the two similar, retaining large areas of dark asphalt after renovation, eliminating cooling elements like tree canopies and water, making the pedestrian flow the same in both.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一段商店街改造前後的地表溫度對照。左側是改造前:整條街是深色的柏油與水泥,吸熱嚴重,正午時地表溫度極高,熱氣蒸騰讓遠處的景物扭曲,幾乎沒有人在外面。右側是改造後:鋪面換成淺色的透水材質、增加了連續的行道樹冠、加入了一道帶水的線性水景與數個雨水花園;同樣的正午,地面明顯較涼,人在樹蔭下活動,孩子在水景邊玩。兩張畫面的建築與街道寬度完全相同。畫面上可以看出地表顏色的深淺差異。避免:讓兩者相似、在改造後保留大面積的深色柏油、消除樹冠與水的降溫元素、讓兩者的人流相同。