Dive Brief:
- The Smart Surfaces Coalition, a group that advocates for cities to increase climate resilience through “smart surfaces” infrastructure, launched a peer learning network on Monday to connect city officials in the U.S. with funding opportunities and resources for project design and policy development.
- “Smart surfaces” include reflective, porous and green urban surfaces as well as solar panels and trees, according to the organization, which counts the National League of Cities, the American Planning Association and the American Lung Association among its more than 40 partners.
- City staff can sign up on the coalition’s website to participate in the network, which will meet quarterly starting in 2025. Participants will receive exclusive access to curated data, model ordinances, funding opportunities, grant templates, product databases and lessons from the coalition’s work with other cities.
Dive Insight:
As climate change brings hotter summers and more intense storms to communities nationwide, cities’ existing built environments aren’t doing them many favors. Buildings, roads and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit heat more than natural landscape, resulting in urban heat islands with higher temperatures than outlying areas. Meanwhile, swaths of concrete and aging drainage systems prevent stormwater from absorbing into the ground, contributing to floods.
The coalition hopes smart surfaces are the answer to these problems. The work the organization supports is not new for many communities: Notoriously hot cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix in recent years have experimented with cool pavement coatings, which reflect rather than absorb heat. Chicago is revamping its green stormwater infrastructure strategy, while Boston is deploying green roofs on bus shelters. In July, New York City announced its first large-scale implementation of porous pavement on seven miles of road in Brooklyn.
The Smart Surfaces Peer Learning Network follows two other initiatives from the Smart Surfaces Coalition. The organization partnered with 10 major U.S. cities in July 2023 to facilitate smart surfaces adoption, and it also leads the Cool Roadways Partnership, a forum for municipalities and researchers to discuss success stories and best practices for implementing cool pavement technologies.
