Work

Scalable quantification of three-dimensional material albedo reveals consistent cooling mechanisms and unequal heat mitigation potential

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: As global warming worsens urban heat, accurate urban heat modelling is key to cooling strategies, which traditionally overemphasises coarse land cover while overlooking detailed three-dimensional (3D) materials like building façades and roads. This study operationalised a high-throughput pipeline to quantify 3D material envelope information across five diverse United States cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. We provided the first city-wide, street-level 3D material albedo dataset and revealed a consistent cross-city pattern: façade albedo shows a robust cooling association across diverse urban morphologies, supported by SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) interpretation and counterfactual scenarios, whereas road albedo interacts nonlinearly with canyon geometry. Our findings suggest a previously unquantified material-geometry regime and indicate effective mitigation measures to prioritise the hottest low-density suburban areas where low-income households dominate; high albedo renewal can yield a cooling potential of up to 1.14 °C in Boston. This study highlights the critical role of 3D material albedo in urban heat, offering actionable insights for equitable climate adaptation.

Source: Communications Earth & Environment

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-03952-8