Meteorological, air-quality, and emission-equivalence impacts of urban heat island control in California

Overall, and accounting for both positive and negative impacts of increased urban albedo, the models show beneficial net effects for California. The results do not account for additional benefits such as reduced cooling energy use and associated reductions in emissions from point sources, or the potential negative impacts on heating energy use in winter. These have been addressed elsewhere. This paper is a summary of results from a study and detailed report (Taha, 2013a) that can be accessed at http://www.energy.ca.gov/2013publications/CEC-500-2013-061/CEC-500-2013-061.pdf.