thumb|Green roof of Chicago City Hall Painting rooftops white has become a common strategy to reduce the heat island effect. In cities, there are many dark coloured surfaces that absorb the heat of the sun in turn lowering the albedo of the city. White rooftops allow high solar reflectance and high solar emittance, increasing the albedo of the city or area the effect is occurring.
thumb|Green roof of Chicago City Hall Painting rooftops white has become a common strategy to reduce the heat island effect. In cities there are many dark coloured surfaces that absorb the heat of the sun in turn lowering the albedo of the city. White rooftops allow high solar reflectance and high solar emittance increasing the albedo of the city or area the effect is occurring