Impact of Urban Canyon Orientation on Microclimate and Thermal Comfort: Case Study of Central Jakarta

Jakarta faces social and environmental challenges as the densely populated urban areas. This study aims to analyze the impact of urban canyon orientation on the microclimate and thermal comfort modification. Numerical computer simulation model ENVI-met 3.1 was used to simulate the existing and hypothetical canyon urban configuration. The study compares air temperature (Ta) and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt). The simulation site was situated in Jakarta. The results show that the air temperature (Ta) and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) at both 0-degree (north–south) and 90-degree (east–west) canyons at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM did not fall into the categories of cool comfort, optimal comfort, or near comfort. Therefore, the canyon configuration is not recommended for achieving the comfortable level of heat stress and thermal comfort in the tropical climate context. However, the north–south canyon orientation contributes better microclimate or temperature degree.