Speech by 2M Indranee Rajah at NUS Cities Symposium - "The Science of Cities"
Aug 31, 2023
It is a great pleasure to be here today at your inaugural Symposium. Let me begin by extending my warmest congratulations to NUS Cities on your successful launch earlier this year.
The Centre is an exciting and important addition to our thriving local research ecosystem. You have shown great leadership by developing critical platforms like NUS Sustainability CONNECT, and of course, this Symposium, which has gathered important thought leaders in the Science of Cities from different sectors and the community. It is programmes like these that enable us to build a pipeline of talent to tackle the challenges of urban sustainable development head on.
Where we are today
As a compact island city-state, Singapore has to deal with the perennial challenge of limited land of natural resources. We also have to contend with the complexities of a rapidly ageing society, an increasingly diverse population and evolving social norms. These factors contribute to overlapping demands for both land and space.
Given our constraints, our approach to planning and development is to make the most of whatever we have. Sustainability, innovation, and long-term planning have, by necessity, been deeply ingrained into us. This requires us to adopt a long-term perspective, integrate knowledge and expertise from across sectors, and uphold good urban governance. What are some of the guiding principles that have helped us get to where we are today?
First, embracing research. Research drives innovation. For example, to secure our nation’s existence, we invested heavily in water recycling and management strategies. This culminated in NEWater, which has made us a model of sustainability and global leader in water technology. NEWater was made possible through a combination of an adaptive mindset, and technological, policy and behavioural innovations.
Second, not taking a “develop first, clean up later” approach. Environmental considerations should be factored in early, before proceeding with development. To that end we introduced Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines so that projects could be carried out in an environmentally responsible manner from the get-go. This includes conducting environmental studies and putting in mitigation measures.
Development agencies work closely with technical counterparts, such as the National Parks Board to develop on science-based approaches for suitable mitigation measures. They also work closely with nature groups to share data and refine the methodologies and findings in the environmental studies. This collaboration improves the robustness of agencies’ approach and enables more informed and considered decisions on development proposals.
Third, integrated long-term planning and dynamic urban governance. These are key to addressing the challenge of limited land. The beautiful Marina Bay skyline we have today did not happen overnight, or by chance. It is the result of long-term planning, starting with land reclamation in the 1970s and culminating in the completion of the Marina Bay Sands in the late 2000s. Other “big moves” in our long-term planning include the consolidation of our port at Tuas to make way for the Greater Southern Waterfront and the relocation of Paya Lebar Airbase from the 2030s onwards.
Decades ago, we embarked on a decentralisation strategy to bring good quality jobs closer to people’s homes. Since then, we have developed an enabling urban structure that supports vibrant growth clusters across the island. We recently launched the new Master Developer site at Jurong Lake District, envisioned to be a model sustainability district with a goal to achieve net-zero emissions for new developments by 2045.
As Singapore continues to grow and develop, we will have fewer large tracts of undeveloped land for new developments, including for new homes. This means we will increasingly have to build our public housing in existing towns and nearer to the city centre.
At the National Day Rally (NDR) last week, the Prime Minister announced that we will be changing the way we classify our public housing. From the second half of 2024, BTO projects will be offered under the Standard, Plus, or Prime models based on their locational attributes. Flats in choicer locations will come with more subsidies – thereby making it more affordable and accessible – but also with tighter restrictions such as a 10-year Minimum Occupation Period, a subsidy recovery upon resale, and eligibility conditions on the resale buyers. What this does is that it makes housing more accessible to people, in terms of affordability, but it also discourages speculations – so when you buy, you are really buying for a home.
These are major moves that fundamentally change a longstanding system, but they are also necessary to keep up with the changing housing landscape and to ensure public housing stays affordable, inclusive, and fair for Singaporeans not just today but for generations to come. These transformational initiatives require significant investment, careful integrated planning, good governance, and years of hard work to realise. They are essential in helping Singapore achieve high liveability standards, despite our high population density, and create space for our dreams.
Science of Cities
As we continue to grow and develop, achieving sustainable development is becoming increasingly complex, particularly in the face of rising energy consumption, waste management concerns, competing demands for our limited green spaces and the impact of climate change. Advancements in technology, big data, IoT, generative AI, mathematical models and computer simulations have resulted in the emergence of a science of cities – and with it, an inter-disciplinary frame which perceives cities as complex systems, comprising unique, assorted agents operating at multiple scales.
A city is not driven by individual action but rather many actions interacting with one another, resulting in collective behaviour over time. This inter-dependency means that there are infinite possibilities to city planning and how a city’s development could unfold. It thus becomes particularly important for governments to strike a balance between deliberate planning and leaving space for self-organising, ground-up behaviours to emerge.
Moving forward
Cities everywhere are grappling with an array of global, regional and local changes that will have an impact on the future of urban development. These include the climate crisis, geopolitical instability, ageing populations, falling birthrates, disruptions brought about by new forms of work, digitalisation, and more. The outcomes of these accelerating changes are difficult to foresee. However, adopting a science of cities approach may help to navigate these changes.
First, we must continue to advance integrated planning and urban governance methods for sustainability and resiliency, through more science and evidence-based approaches.
Take for example the imperative to reduce carbon emissions and waste. New carbon modelling and measurement technologies can provide cities with better visibility of their carbon footprint, determine where emissions are most intense and recommend appropriate interventions. Combined with technical advancements in building maintenance approaches, these technologies can also offer a stronger basis for the proposed conservation or adaptive reuse of our building stock, as we saw in the rigorous process undertaken in our landmark conservation of Golden Mile Complex.
Next, new science of cities methodologies can help us better anticipate and tackle complex urban challenges through better understanding, planning and managing of cities.
The use of digital twins can help cities better anticipate challenges, as well as simulate a range of possible outcomes and unintended consequences for planners to sharpen their interventions and design better. Some notable digital twin initiatives in Singapore that are currently underway include SLA’s Virtual Singapore, our Smart Nation Sensor Platform, PUB’s digital twin for real-time utility management, and the use of digital twins in our ports to enhance operations and efficiency.
Finally, cities are more than just physical infrastructure; they represent thriving ecosystems with people at their centre. As cities are inhabited by people it is imperative that people must be involved in our planning.
At one end of the spectrum this could include large-scale efforts like the ongoing Forward Singapore exercise, where my ministry has engaged over 16,000 Singaporeans from all walks of life through a variety of platforms, as part of Our Housing Conversations. On the other end of the spectrum there are the ground-up initiatives like the Love Our ‘Hood initiative by the Municipal Services Office which provides local partners with a platform to develop community-based solutions to municipal issues. We must also continue to improve our digital platforms to harness the power of citizen science and crowdsourcing as a planning resource, and enhance social resilience. For example, the OneService App allows residents to give feedback on municipal issues quickly and conveniently.
Lastly, as cities evolve, so, too, must our policies. We cannot take for granted that successful current policies will always work in future. We must continue our collaborations with others – academics, industry, community – to ensure our policies and programmes evolve in tandem with our cities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me thank NUS Cities once again for recognising the need for an integrated and cohesive effort in tackling complexity in our urban challenges. Events like this Symposium provide a safe space for academics, policy makers, practitioners, and civil society to critically discuss emerging and cross-cutting issues, and engage in mutual learning.
I hope that your discussions today will throw up many new ideas and thoughts for the Singapore of tomorrow. I wish everyone a fruitful and rewarding Symposium. Thank you.