Simpson, Charles H;
Brousse, Oscar;
Taylor, Tim;
Grellier, James;
Taylor, Jonathon;
Fleming, Lora E;
Davies, Mike;
(2024)
Modeled temperature, mortality impact and external benefits of cool roofs and rooftop photovoltaics in London.
Nature Cities
10.1038/s44284-024-00138-1.
(In press).
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Abstract
Population exposure to high temperatures poses health risks and increases mortality. ‘Cool roofs’ (high-albedo roofs) and rooftop photovoltaics (RPV) may reduce temperatures in urban areas. Here, using advanced urban climate modeling, we model impacts of these measures on air temperature and heat-related mortality in London during the record-breaking hot summer of 2018. We estimate changes in mean near-surface air temperature of −0.3 °C in the RPV scenario and −0.8 °C in the cool roof scenario. We find that the heat-related mortality in this period (estimated 655–920) could have been reduced by 96 (12%) by RPV, or 249 (32%) by cool roofs, in scenarios where all roofs have these measures. Monetized using value of statistical life, we estimate benefits for RPV and cool roofs of £237 M and £615 M, respectively. We estimate that up to 20 TWh of electrical energy would be generated in the full RPV scenario. We show that, for conditions such as in London June–August 2018, RPV or cool roofs may reduce near-surface air temperatures and associated heat-related mortality, with cool roofs having a larger effect.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Modeled temperature, mortality impact and external benefits of cool roofs and rooftop photovoltaics in London |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s44284-024-00138-1 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00138-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10198085 |
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