![]() “The built environment will have time to adapt.” We won’t see seawater inundation,” said Tan. City Developments Limited, which owns residential properties, offices, hotels, and shopping malls in Singapore, is building all new developments about one metre above ground level in line with government guidelines, raising the kerb heights in car park entrances, and fitting high-risk properties with flood gates.Īs the sea around Singapore is currently rising at an average of 4 millimetres a year, planners believe there is time to tweak adaptation plans. “Sea level rise will be extremely gradual. The kilometre-long Nicoll Drive on the vulnerable east coast was raised by just under a metre in 2016.īusinesses have also been busy flood-proofing themselves. Ramps and lifts will be needed to provide access to raised buildings, and road networks will have to be re-tarred and elevated as well, Tan told Eco-Business at International Built Environment Week in Singapore in September. “This will mean completely changing how we design road and urban infrastructure,” said architect Tan Szue Hann, managing director of circular economy design firm Miniwiz and adjunct professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. The obvious place to start is to lift buildings further above sea level. The parts of Singapore most vulnerable to sea level rise are Changi Airport, Marina Bay, the city-state’s most prestigious tourism and business district, industrial towns Jurong and Tuas, and the Southern islands, which include man-made landfill island, Semakau. However, a report by non-profit climate news group Climate Central examined the implications of different global warming scenarios of 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 degrees Celsius by 2100, and found that carbon emissions causing 4☌ of warming-a business-as-usual scenario-could cause Singapore’s median local sea level to rise by 9.5 metres, submerging 745,000 homes.Įven if carbon emissions were slashed in line with a 2☌ warming scenario, 101,000 homes would be submerged in Singapore, with the median local sea level projected to rise by 5.1 metres. But exactly how can Singapore protect its valuable built environment from rising seas?īy 2100, the sea level around Singapore will be about a metre higher than it is now, according to projections from Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat. ![]() Unlike less fortunate neighbours such as Jakarta, whose steady decline into the sea is to cost the metropolis its status as Indonesia’s capital, Singapore is one of the world’s cities best adapted to climate risks. “It’s our neighbours downtown who could be underwater,” he said. Speaking to Eco-Business at International Built Environment Week in September, a Changi Airport executive who did not reveal his name said that greenfield sites like the new airport terminal would be safe. Tan Szue Hann, managing director, Miniwiz Sea level rise will be extremely gradual. New buildings are to be built four metres above mean sea level, and critical infrastructure at least another metre higher. Singapore’s plans to defend against rising seas include building sea walls, polders, and new islands made from reclaimed land. One-third of Singapore, including the central business district, is less than 5 metres above sea level-not as low as the Netherlands, one third of which lies below sea level, but low enough to worry the city-state’s famously foresighted urban planners. Rising sea levels is a problem that the heavily urbanised city-state is taking very seriously. In August, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that S$100 billion (US$72 billion) could be spent on climate change adaptation, including ways to prevent the island from disappearing beneath the waves. ![]() So said Christiana Figueres, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, at a sustainability event in Singapore four months ago. ![]() If the world does not dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore’s flagship tourist attraction, will become “Gardens beneath the Bay.”
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