**4.2 The effect of colour**

The material property that defines its behaviour under the effect of solar radiation is reflectivity, which depends mainly on its colour (Givoni, 1998). Light-coloured materials record lower surface temperatures than dark-coloured ones. This fact has been largely documented by many researchers (Givoni, 1998; Akbari, et al., 1992; Doulos, et al., 2004) and was also evident from the results of this work shown above.

However, an important concern regarding light-coloured paving materials, is the effect of soiling and weathering on colour and, therefore, on their thermal behaviour. This fact is evident from the comparison of the maximum and the mean surface temperatures of the insitu and the experimental measurements carried out with light-coloured materials in this study.
