Impact of Urban Configurations on Airflow: Tropical Context Study

The threat of climate change and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the environmental challenges to global living development. The UHI phenomenon causes energy demand and social issues in dense cities. The modification of urban surface as the result of the rapid development technically generates the air temperature increase within the urban spaces. The poor urban ventilation further worsens this situation. This study closely looks into the impact of the setting of urban configurations on the airflow within the urban spaces, particularly in the tropical Kuala Lumpur context. ENVI-met V3.1 was used to simulate four urban configurations with two scenarios of canyon directions; East–West and South–North. The results present that the airflow found very weak in four urban configurations. However, the setting of vertical obstruction in the urban configuration helps to improve the ventilation. The study recommends that the canyon feature develops a better airflow in urban configurations. The finding of this study is recommended to be one of the strategies in the Climatically Responsive Urban Configurations framework for urban planners and decision-makers.