Cool Houston! is a program at the Houston Advanced Research Center designed to help reduce urban temperatures through use of cool technologies - reflective and green roofing, paving with light colored or porous materials, and a greatly expanded forest canopy.
The program builds upon several years of experience at HARC with urban heat island issues including projects with NASA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
For information on Cool Houston and other heat island activities at HARC, contact David Hitchcock at dhitchcock@harc.edu or (281) 364-4007.
The Cool Houston Plan provides:
- background on urban heat islands
- descriptions of what is needed to reduce urban temperatures
- descriptions of heat island technologies, and
- strategies for action.
Download the Cool Houston! Plan (July 2004)
If you would like to receive a copy of the Cool Houston Plan, please send an email with your mailing address to: coolhouston@harc.edu.
The streaming video below in Cool Houston is a 6 minute feature that describes cool roofing, cool paving and tree components of the plan. It features Houston Mayor Bill White, Karl Schaack (Price Consulting), Pete Smith, (Texas Forest Service), and Dr. Dale Quattroci (NASA Scientist).
It was produced by WMJK Production as part of their American Environmental Review series featuring Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer as commentators.
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Please note that all of our videos require Windows Media Player version 9 or above.
The Cool Houston! Program is currently sponsored by:
- Brown Foundation
- Houston Endowment, Inc.
- George P. Mitchell
Previous sponsors of urban heat island activities at HARC include:
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Headquarters
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region 6
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Texas A&M Sustainable Enterprise Institute
- Houston Environmental Foresight - a program of HARC
For information on Cool Houston! strategies, including cool paving, cool roofing and trees, download our flyer.
To sign up for the Cool Houston e-mail list contact: coolhouston@harc.edu.