Research Insight 06: Urban albedo: developing a canyon albedo calculator

Urban albedo, the capacity of urban surfaces to reflect solar radiation, is one of the most important contributors to changes in outdoor temperature, intensifying the urban heat island phenomenon. As a result, it has significant implications for the urban microclimate, affecting thermal comfort conditions as well as building performance and energy consumption, all of which become more pronounced under climate change.

Urban albedo is affected by various parameters, such as the geometry of the urban configuration, the materials and the geographic location. However, most modelling studies approximate the urban albedo by using surface albedo, which can lead to significant errors in the modelling process. The research project ‘Urban albedo computation in high latitude locations: An experimental approach’ was primarily motivated by the need to provide accurate albedo estimates for urban configurations, which are lacking in most urban heat island models used to mitigate albedo’s effects. The project proposed a novel experimental study for the computation of urban albedo in high latitude locations, using London as a representative urban environment in the UK and employing laboratory and field measurements and computational methods to construct an albedo calculation tool.