City of Columbia leads with Smart Surfaces to cool hot neighborhoods

Cool Hot Neighborhoods by Up to 5.3˚F, Improve Health, and Reduce Flooding

New Analysis Finds That Roofs, Roads, and Parking Lots Make Parts of the City Up to 13 ˚F Hotter than Less Developed Areas

The City of Columbia is taking bold steps to cool neighborhoods, improve public health, and strengthen climate resilience by embracing “Smart Surfaces” such as reflective roofs and pavements, porous and permeable surfaces, green stormwater infrastructure, and expanded tree canopy. A new analysis shows that comprehensive adoption of these strategies could lower peak summer air temperatures by 3.0 ˚F to 5.3 ˚F in the city’s hottest areas, while also providing long-term benefits for energy savings, infrastructure resilience, and quality of life.

“Smart Surfaces, such as trees, solar panels, and reflective street coatings, help manage the impact of the sun and rain on our city. By using them, we can reduce the famously hot summer heat, minimize flooding, improve public health, and create jobs, all while saving money,” said City of Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann. “We’re proud to be involved in this coalition and look forward to seeing the difference it will make in our city.”

The comprehensive review, conducted by the non-profit Smart Surfaces Coalition, found that Columbia has approximately 45,000 roofs, 3,400 lane-miles of road, and 700 acres of parking lots–surfaces that absorb up to 95% of incoming solar radiation, heating up the city dangerously during summer months and exacerbating flooding issues. Left untreated, these dark and impervious areas can make parts of Columbia up to 13 ˚F hotter than less developed areas, increasing risks to public health and worsening flooding issues.

“We are proud to partner with the City of Columbia to create solutions to make the city’s urban areas cooler, healthier, and safer for all residents, especially for outdoor workers, children, seniors, athletes, and unhoused people,” said Greg Kats, CEO & Founder of the Smart Surfaces Coalition. “These strategies cut energy bills, protect vulnerable populations, and strengthen the economy.”

Recognizing these challenges, Columbia has partnered with the Smart Surfaces Coalition to target the City’s most flood-prone and heat-impacted neighborhoods with proven strategies that cool streets, lower energy costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Potential Benefits for Columbia

• Public health: $104 million in health benefits
• Energy savings: $78 million in reduced energy costs
• Infrastructure: $247 million in savings
• Climate impact: Avoidance of 2 million metric tons of CO₂e
• Flood management: Billions of gallons of stormwater managed
  (all over a 35-year period)

The City of Columbia is part of a growing movement of U.S. cities turning to Smart Surfaces. Across Columbia and nine other major cities, these measures could deliver $7.6 billion in public health benefits, $3.3 billion in energy savings, and $9.9 billion in infrastructure savings. Scaling the approach to the entire 10 metropolitan regions—impacting 34 million Americans—could produce $26.6 billion in health benefits, $10 billion in energy savings, and $34.8 billion in infrastructure savings, while reducing or offsetting 246 million metric tons of CO₂e and managing nearly a trillion gallons of stormwater over 35 years.

“Cities have never before had such a comprehensive, data-rich view of their surface infrastructure—or such clear guidance on where and how to act,” Kats said.

The findings come from new analysis by the Smart Surfaces Coalition, powered by high resolution micrometeorological modeling and a suite of web tools launched this summer as part of the Cities for Smart Surfaces Program. The data reveals the transformative potential of Smart Surface interventions to reduce peak summer temperatures, lower flood risk, mitigate climate change, increase resilience, and improve public health–especially in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

To help cities act on this potential, the Smart Surfaces Coalition and partners—including data partners World Resources Institute, Altostratus, Inc., Open Technologies,Trust for Public Land, and Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law—developed tools enabling cities to more easily conduct benefit-cost analysis, geospatial analysis, and data-driven policy implementation:

• The Benefit-Cost Analysis Tool enables users to explore the financial, temperature, stormwater, and CO2e impacts from targeted Smart Surfaces adoption.
• The Decision Support Tool empowers users to understand how surfaces, heat, and hazard vulnerability are distributed across the 10 metropolitan areas.
• And the Smart Surfaces Policy Tracker tool makes adopting Smart Surface policies easy and intuitive. The website features a new robust, searchable database of 2,000 Smart Surface policies from all 50 US states.

“Designing healthier cities is paramount in the reality of our rapidly warming world. Outdated, heat-trapping surfaces put millions at risk — especially in underserved neighborhoods,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association. “The Smart Surfaces Coalition’s new tools give cities the power to design healthier, cooler and more resilient communities.”

About the Smart Surfaces Coalition

The Smart Surfaces Coalition is proud to partner with 40 leading national and international organizations with a shared commitment to creating cooler, healthier, and more resilient cities by cost-effectively reducing the impacts of extreme urban heat and flooding. Smart Surfaces — reflective, porous, and green urban surfaces along with trees and solar PV — can cut peak summer citywide temperatures by 5°F or more, decrease flood risk, slow climate change, and improve public health, with the greatest improvements in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.