Roofs, Roads & Parking Lots Make Parts of the City Up to 14°F Hotter

Published on September 25, 2025

A new analysis of Charlotte finds that areas of the city with an abundance of dark, impervious surfaces, including roofs, roadways and parking lots, are often 14°F hotter than areas with more green spaces.

The comprehensive review of surface infrastructure in Charlotte, conducted by the nonprofit Smart Surfaces Coalition, concludes that the city has approximately 294,000 roofs, 5,644 lane-miles of city-owned road, and 1,200 acres of parking lots. In Charlotte, these impermeable surfaces absorb up to 95% of incoming solar radiation, heating up the city dangerously during summer months and exacerbating flooding issues.

The new analysis finds that implementing “Smart Surfaces” — including trees, green stormwater infrastructure, porous and permeable pavements, and reflective roofs and road — can reduce peak summer air temperatures by 3.1˚F to 6.6˚F in hot neighborhoods in Charlotte and help manage stormwater runoff. That’s why Charlotte has partnered with the Smart Surfaces Coalition to identify the city’s hottest and most flood-prone pockets and to adopt smart solutions to mitigate extreme heat and stormwater flooding.

“Working with the Smart Surfaces Coalition has allowed us to further our progress toward meeting the city’s sustainability goals, as outlined in the Strategic Energy Action Plan Plus,” said Mayor Vi Lyles. “This work is critical, especially for our most vulnerable communities, and it is energizing to collaborate with a group equally as passionate about preserving our environment.” 

This initiative offers the city an opportunity to leverage existing efforts with up-to-date data and information on new smart surfaces to help continue making a positive impact. Charlotte has been utilizing cool roofing and solar panels for many years to help generate energy and cool the city. There have been many relevant programs, including the city’s Sustainable Facilities Policy, the Green Source Advantage program, and the Solarize Charlotte-Mecklenburg campaign — open now!

Charlotte’s tree canopy is one of the city’s most well-known attributes, and efforts have continued to support tree canopy preservation. Additionally, in May 2025, the city adopted the Strategic Energy Action Plan Plus (SEAP+) as an update to the original sustainability plan, which includes strategies focused on buildings, energy generation, transportation, and cross-sectional issues such as tree canopy preservation and extreme urban heat mitigation.   

“The city has been implementing smart surfaces like cool roofs, solar, and tree preservation for many years, but the Smart Surfaces Coalition has been a great resource in quantifying the impacts of the built environment on our community as a whole and has assisted us in prioritizing areas of the city to focus,” said Chief Resilience & Sustainability Officer Heather Bolick.

Charlotte’s adoption of Smart Surfaces could provide local residents with $368 million in public health benefits, $360 million in energy savings, and $969 million in infrastructure savings, while also reducing or offsetting 8.5 million metric tons of CO₂e and managing billions of gallons of stormwater over a 35-year period, the analysis shows. 

“We are proud to partner with the City of Charlotte 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 and founder of the Smart Surfaces Coalition. “These strategies cut energy bills, protect vulnerable populations and strengthen the economy.”

The findings by the Smart Surfaces Coalition are 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 analysis 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.

The Cities for Smart Surfaces Program is working with 10 major cities and their surrounding metro area communities, including Charlotte. Across the 10 cities — home to more than 8 million people — citywide adoption of Smart Surfaces could deliver $7.6 billion in public health benefits, $3.3 billion in electricity bill reductions, and $9.9 billion in infrastructure savings, while also reducing or offsetting 79 million metric tons of CO₂e and managing 275 billion gallons of stormwater. Expanding Smart Surfaces to the surrounding 10 metropolitan areas (impacting a total of 34 million Americans) could deliver a combined $26.6 billion in public health benefits, $10 billion in electricity bill reductions, and $34.8 billion in infrastructure savings, while also reducing or offsetting 246 million metric tons of CO₂e and managing 969 billion gallons of stormwater. 

“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.

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.
• 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.”