Singapore is using technology to beat the heat and it seems to be working. Hello and welcome
to yet another exciting video. In this video, we will show you how planners in Singapore are using
advanced technology and clever action plans to reduce rising temperatures to appreciable levels.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in. Singapore is an island country that is just
above the equator. And so, temperatures regularly rise above 30C per annum which
is 2 times higher than the average world temperature recorded over the past 6 decades.
The daily temperature in various Singaporean cities has been on the rise since November 2020.
Furthermore, experts discovered that the urban setting of living quarters does
not help the situation. When you view the heatmap of a geographical area from above,
you will notice the regions with more vegetations
have lower thermal heat than those with little or no shrubs and trees.
That is because coal tar on the road, hot emissions from engines and metallic roofs of
buildings absorb more solar heat than trees. This is technically called the urban heat effect. Big
bustling cities usually have higher temperatures than the towns or rural areas surrounding them.
One expert even added that there is a temperature difference of about 7C between the more urbanised
areas than rural areas. The variance has widened compared to the 4.5C temperature
difference in 2004 across Singaporian cities. Another root cause of the intense heat waves is
down to the traffic and industrial activity around many urban centers. Add to the fact that the heat
released into these cities cannot escape as well as it should due to the prevalence of high-rise
buildings and narrow streets common in cities.. So what are ecologists, town planners and
engineers in Singapore trying to do to deal with the rising temperatures in the country?
Technology. And not just any technology, high tech innovations.
For starters, Singapore is keener now than ever to find ways to cool down the environmental
temperature. The climate change in Singapore has necessitated the use of foliage as the primary
way to cool urban cities. The authorities have launched an initiative called “Cooling Singapore”
designed to keep the heat under control. Since 2017, environmentalists and researchers
have been working on the Cooling Singapore initiative with a vision to
design inventive solutions that will keep the temperature levels down to habitable levels.
The Marina Bay Financial District for instance has constantly kept its interior and surrounding
temperatures at around 24C. With the use of technology, heat levels in the Marina Bay area
have dropped. The initiative has also introduced the technology into hotels and buildings some of
the world’s largest underground cooling systems, to make interior spaces more habitable.
The authorities have also designed a large central plant that generates cold water
which it supplies to residential towers, offices, hotels like the Marina Bay Sands,
shopping malls, and other public places. This cooling system saves nearly 40% of
electricity usage compared to air conditioners. Due to the technical ingenuity of engineers at
Cooling Singapore, the city is able to generate cool air using energy efficient plants.
Another plan that has been devised under the new plan is to create better building
designs and technological devices. In Singapore, high-rise buildings
built these days are meticulously planned with varying heights so that wind can flow through.
Reflective surfaces on pavements and facades are carefully installed to reduce heat absorption.
This tactic is not new though, because it was borrowed from New York’s CoolRoofs program.
Well, before the invention of a ground-breaking technology to combat the heatwave in Singapore,
the government had taken certain key steps. Chief among them is the use of vegetation.
The principal idea behind vegetations is to provide an ample oxygen supply. Singapore
as a city already has shady Angsana and rain trees that line some of the streets and roads.
In fact, it is nicknamed the Garden City. Many people know about the famous supertrees
that are shaped like flower petals near the Bay. These structures obtain solar energy and light
up the scenery at nighttime. Each structure contains as many as 150,000 local plants in
the trunk which has become the nation’s symbol of an inevitable green future.
Nevertheless, the government has future plans to plant more than one million
trees before the end of this decade beginning in 2020 all with hopes to reduce atmospheric
temperatures and provide good shade to citizens. The Cooling Singapore project uses grasses,
shrubs and trees on the ground and wall climbing plant species or flowering vines on the walls of
some buildings and on the roof. All these efforts have made Singapore one of the greenest cities in
the world with regard to urban vegetation. The CEO of Cooling Singapore has also proposed
a plan to install different forms of renewable energy on several buildings using a special
technology called a Digital Urban Climate Twin or (DUCT) system. This model reflects
all the strategic ideas of the Cooling Singapore project. The virtual model of the city covers the
ideal format for maintaining the existing buildings and constructing future ones.
It is designed to allow urban city planners and policy makers to foresee, test and control the
local surrounding temperatures and the global average temperature in different scenarios.
Transport routes and traffic are also well coordinated to ensure equitable
distribution of official and residential buildings with respect to the typical
patterns of population movements during the day and at night.
Interestingly, the model can be used for other cities worldwide who are concerned
with keeping heat at habitable levels or for ejecting excess heat. Climate experts
believe that these moves will go a long way to reduce the harmful effects of climate change
and lessen its devastating consequences. Other countries are taking cues from Singapore
and are also launching their own climate friendly projects.
In Los Angeles, for instance, the government authorities have launched “the Cool Pavement
Pilot Project” to mitigate climate change. It is an initiative that will transform the
road network within the city by painting the dark Asphalt surfaces of the roads white.
This is meant to help deflect heat away from the ground level into the atmosphere rather
than the absorption of thermal heat into paved roads. When the project was completed, planners
noticed that temperatures dropped by 5.6C. Similar programs were tried in New York,
Seattle and Chicago where roads and pedestrian walkways were painted with white along with new
roads paved with light color concrete. Masdar city is a city in Abu Dhabi from
which Singapore originally got the idea to develop its Cooling Singapore initiative..
Authorities planned the city to be a model or blueprint for the design of a future smart city.
There are no automobiles permitted here and buildings are close to each other with trees
that protect inhabitants from the blazing sun. What is noteworthy though is the wind tower
that is located in the city center which provides cool air down to the surrounding.
It is reported that Masdar is now about 15C cooler than the rest of the desert.
In the capital city of China, Beijing, authorities are fighting the environmental mess
caused by smog and trapped air by opening up parks and rivers which
provide green spaces that help reduce pollution. The government also encourages the use of public
transport systems like underground electric railways rather than personal automobiles.
Also, construction of tall buildings which will impede the flow of natural
clean air are discouraged. If global warming continues to worsen,
more than one-third of the world's electricity will be consumed by cooling systems in private
and commercial buildings by 2050. That is why Singapore is using smart technology
to beat the heat and improve the quality of life of its people.
Renewable energy, reduction in carbon emissions from industrial activities and combustion engines,
planting foliage on rooftops and on the streets are some of the practical measures taken by
cities like Singapore suffering the effect of urban heat waves. Experts hope that many
more cities will take a cue from Singapore and develop feasible plans to combat the harmful
effects of heat waves caused by climate change. If you enjoyed this video, Let us know what you
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