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Hanaa Rohman

Jan 13, 2015
10:38

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Thanks for another creative proposal, Minka! It’d be helpful to learn about other places where parking lots were painted and what the outcome was. You can add these examples to your references. Is there a particular municipal or private parking lot that would make for a good pilot? Check out the heat maps on the resources page for some ideas. Best, Hanaa

Jennifer Lawrence

Feb 5, 2015
09:45

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Hi Minka: Thanks again! Ditto to my last email. Hope you're doing well. Jen

Climate Colab

Feb 18, 2015
12:14

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Congratulations on making it to the Semi-Finals for the Urban Heat Island Effect contest. Please take into consideration the comments left by the judges and do please incorporate that feedback into your final proposal. Specifically, if you can give some more details on cost and impact, that would be greatly appreciated. We look forward to seeing your ideas finalized in the next iteration!

Jennifer Lawrence

Feb 18, 2015
11:09

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Dear Minka: The CoLab had a typo in their previous message to you. The proposal revision period closes on March 1st, NOT the 31st. Below are your proposal's comments from the judging team. Thank you for participating! Judge 1: The proposal is fairly straightforward and well known. However, it does seem to have impact and if that was quantified then perhaps it is a proposal that can have a significant effect. I highly recommend that the project takes a calculation-based approach. What it the area of the roofs? How much is the impact of that area? Can this project be scaled up to other governmental buildings that the city can make use of? Depth is needed to this simple but potentially effective proposal. Judge 2: This sounds like an easy idea to implement - it would be great to have some insight into experience with painted parking lots. Beyond the initial cost of paint and labor to paint the lot, what is the maintenance cost (e.g., how long is the paint expected to last with normal wear and tear), any side issues that might be created (changes in run off? more slippery or click surface in winter? effect on visibility due to enhanced reflectiveness?) I bring up the reflectiveness question because, believe it or not, reflectiveness of large solar farms is one of the biggest issues that solar opponents bring up against big solar installations - they say that it obstructs the ability for birds to see, so you can imagine how someone might respond to parking lot being painted white... In short, It would be great to see an example break out of expected costs over the lifetime of the paint, and how we could respond to potential detractors of this idea.

Laur Hesse Fisher

Mar 4, 2015
09:38

Staff


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Dear proposal authors: The Finalist selection phase has been extended so Judges could finalize their comments. The Fellow team will be in touch with more details as they arise. Thank you for your patience and understanding. ~~ Laur Climate CoLab Project Manager

Climate Colab

Mar 6, 2015
12:55

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This is a simple strategy that has certainly been proposed before, and some important concerns have been raised previously with regard to the feasibility of this approach. However, it would be really nice to see if it works in a few pilot installations, because this would be a relatively simple and straightforward step to take, so I support pushing it through to the final phase of the competition. I would suggest that the diagnostic portion of the proposal be bumped up for this reason; where you say "Local academic talent (students) would measure continuous surface temperatures over summer months", I would consider suggesting potential partners who would be good candidates for this. If this ends up getting done, I certainly could help in doing some of this assessment work. That said, I think that just testing a white lot versus a black one would not be that informative. I would instead think about a few different kinds of illustrative installations that would be instructive in terms of the tradeoffs and potential applications of implementing such a strategy in different micro-environments, so that the learning would be less black and white, so to speak (sorry - had to!) :) Good luck in the final phase of the competition!

Lee Farris

Mar 15, 2015
01:38

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I would like a lot more trees in our city parking lots. Could the proposal include a description of a "tree boat" and what it costs? Is there a way to have many more trees without losing many parking spaces? I am concerned about glare from a white surface. Could you say more about using anti-reflective paint instead? Could you give an example of a place where this has been tried? What is the cost per square foot? Would zebra black and white strips possibly work better than all white? (Another proposal says they promote air movement better.) Might be worth looking at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, which uses black and white stripes for its seaside walk.

Jan Kunnas

Mar 20, 2015
05:39

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Hi, linked this interesting proposal to mine as it produce the bio fertilizers needed for your tree boats. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1301402/planId/1314801