THE IMPACT OF GREENING THE NARROW ALLEYS OF DENSELY POPULATED SETTLEMENTS ON THE REDUCTION OF URBAN HEAT IN JAKARTA

Abstract

Urbanization and industrialization have led physical changes in urban spaces. These changes cause environmental degradation such as urban heat. It stimulates negative impacts to human living condition including in densely populated settlements characterized by small yards, even no yard, and small alleys. Inhabitants of these settlements respond the urban heat by greening their neighborhoods, supported by the technical and financial assistants of the Government of Jakarta, namely “Green Narrow Alley / Gang Hijau”.
Based on the issues above, this research aims to measure the impacts of green narrow alleys on the reduction of air temperature and relative humidity. We study five Jakarta’s municipalities: North Jakarta, West Jakarta, Center Jakarta, East Jakarta, and South Jakarta. In each municipality, we chose four green narrow alleys and measure their temperature and humidity. Meanwhile, we chose four non-green narrow alleys as the green narrow alley’s counterparts and measure those indicators in order to make comparison. Our findings are that firstly, the temperature of the green narrow alleys is lower than that of their counterparts. Secondly, the relative humidity of green narrow alleys is higher than those counterparts. Thus, the greening activities in densely populated settlements reduce the negative impacts of urban heat.