Porous sidewalks installed in Taipei last year have been found to reduce surface temperatures by up to 3°C in addition to absorbing excessive runoff, researchers said on Thursday.
The Taipei City Government has been experimenting with new building materials since launching a “sponge city” initiative in 2015 to improve drainage and flood controls in the capital.
Seeking to reduce runoff along Zhongxiao E Road, which is prone to flooding, the city replaced its asphalt and concrete sidewalks with a more porous material.
Photo courtesy of National Taipei University of Technology
To test the effectiveness of the renovation completed late last year, researchers from the National Taipei University of Technology’s Water Environment Research Center installed a sensor in front of Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT Station Exit 4 to monitor how much water was absorbed by the pavement.
They discovered that the material was not only effective at reducing runoff, but also had a lower temperature than other types of pavement.
Data gathered from March 9 to Aug. 31 showed that the sidewalk can reduce runoff by 13.8 to 63.4 percent, or about 40 percent on average, compared with traditional materials, the center said.
Its surface temperature was on average 2.5°C cooler than asphalt, center director Lin Jen-yang (林鎮洋) said.
The highest difference in temperature was recorded on July 26, when the porous surface was 3°C cooler than asphalt amid an atmospheric temperature of 37.4°C, Lin added.
The material can absorb more water because its porous structure allows runoff to seep into the ground instead of accumulating on top, he said.
In sunny weather, water evaporating from within the porous pavement helps cool down the surface and the air above it, he added.
“You can think of it like a sponge absorbing water,” Lin said. “The less runoff there is, the better the pavement is at absorbing rainwater.”
University president Wang Hsi-fu (王錫福) praised the renovation, saying that the wider sidewalks provide safer access to the school and complement the porous sidewalks installed on campus.
The university is the first school in the nation to use the more efficient pavement on a wide scale, directing the runoff to shallow decorative gullies surrounding the campus, Wang added.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS