Speech by SMS Lee Yi Shyan at the World Engineers Summit 2015

Jul 22, 2015

New approach to sustainable development 

Sustainable development is a subject close to our hearts, whether it is from an urban planning point of view, smart cities or new industries’ development point of view, sustainable development brings about all kinds of opportunities for us. For today’s discussion, I will define sustainable development as being about pursuing economic growth and creating a people-centric living environment, while balancing resource efficiency.

Engineering innovations have brought about modern living. Today, we live and work in high-rise buildings. We commute via mass transit. We have access to clean drinking water. All these would not have been possible without engineers. 

Industrialisation has brought about an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in global warming. The world’s concentration of carbon dioxide has increased steadily. The carbon dioxide will stay in the atmosphere for many years to come and this will cause significant changes to our climate and our environment. Global mean surface temperature and mean sea level could increase by up to 4.8 degrees Celsius and 0.98 metres by 2100. This could result in flooding of low-lying coastal areas, more extreme weather patterns and loss of biodiversity.

Countries around the world will need to reduce our emissions significantly in order to safeguard planet Earth for future generations. We need a new approach to sustainable development to tackle these challenges. We will need to combine the expertise from multiple disciplines, such as engineering and social sciences, in order to develop a future-ready and people-centric living environment. So the emphasis here is really a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving.

Resilient Cities 

With climate change, sea level rise could cause flooding in low-lying areas. Extreme weather events could also become more intense and occur more frequently. So the question is how can we safeguard cities – especially in tropical cities like ours, against heavy rainfall, prolonged periods of dry weather and rising sea levels. 

Extreme weather events have posed significant challenges to cities as we all read in the newspapers. Periods of drought can put a strain on water supply, while sudden episodes of intense rainfall could overwhelm drainage systems and lead to floods. For example, in 2013, heavy rains also triggered flash floods in western Singapore, resulting in the closure of a section of a major expressway for about 40 minutes. About two months ago, torrential rain caused flash floods in New York for a few hours. Many were stuck when expressways had to be closed and more than 2,300 residents were affected by power failure.

To cope with more intense storms in view of weather uncertainties, Singapore’s national water agency, PUB, adopts a holistic “source-pathway-receptor” approach to introduce flexibility and adaptability to our drainage system. “Source” measures such as on-site detention tanks and bio-retention ponds to help reduce the peak stormwater runoff into the public drainage system. Drainage widening and deepening enhances the pathway, through which stormwater travels. Minimum platform levels and flood barriers are used to protect the receptor, areas where floods may occur.

Other than increased rainfall intensity, climate change can also bring about prolonged periods of dry weather. February 2014 was the driest month for Singapore since 1869. We are fortunate to have in place desalination and NEWater technologies that are independent of rainfall, to ensure that we have a sustainable supply of drinking water. NEWater is high-grade reclaimed water produced by purifying treated used water with advanced membrane technologies.

Sea level rise will also pose a challenge for Singapore, as with other small island states. Land is an important resource for us and we cannot afford to lose our land to the rising sea levels. We have put in place coastal protection structures, such as sea walls and stone embankments. Since 2011, the minimum reclamation level in Singapore was raised from 3 metres to 4 metres above the mean sea level to cater for the projected rise in sea levels. Nevertheless, we can also take a leaf from what other countries have done.

Following Hurricane Sandy, New York City organised a “Rebuild by Design” competition. Multidisciplinary design teams collaborated with the community to develop innovative ideas to protect the New York and New Jersey shoreline. The winning design, titled the “Big U” project, featured a series of raised berms and bridges planted with salt tolerant plants to keep the ocean water out. The raised berms doubled up as parks and recreational spaces. The design also allowed for flood walls that can be raised in a disaster. This is a fine example of how we can adopt a people-centric approach to enhance the resilience of the community and yet achieve sustainable development. I believe our engineers can rise up to the challenge to work with experts of other disciplines and the community to develop creative solutions here too.

Greener Cities

How can we bring more greenery into our built environment is another aspect of sustainable development. How can we develop greener cities that minimise its carbon and resource footprint?

Greenery makes a city more attractive. Other than aesthetics, green spaces help reduce air pollution and tree cover provides shade and reduces outdoor temperatures. Today, Singapore, like many other cities, faces the challenge of balancing greenery with urban development.

Given our dense urban landscape, we need to look skywards to go greener. The Urban Redevelopment Authority launched the Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High Rises programme, or LUSH in short. The programme encourages developers to provide communal green spaces at the ground and upper levels of buildings. Westgate, a newly built shopping mall in the west of Singapore, is a good example of a LUSH recipient. Westgate features vertical greenery, sky terraces and roof gardens.

Apart from physically greening buildings, new buildings have the opportunity to implement green building designs and technologies. They can be designed from the start to save energy and water. For example, 321 Clementi, another shopping mall, has a highly insulated facade with double glazing to minimise the energy required for cooling. The mall also focused on self-shading facades and naturally ventilated circulation spaces. 321 Clementi is a BCA Green Mark Platinum award winner for new non-residential projects. Existing buildings can also play a part to be greener. The National Library Building, for instance, also a BCA Green Mark Platinum winner, installed motion sensors at its escalators and staircases. LED lightings, which is more energy efficient, are also being used.

In addition to having green building designs, the building occupants need to be green users too. Recently, City Developments Limited’s (CDL) City House was conferred the top Green Mark Pearl Prestige Award, given only to building owners with a substantial number of Green Mark certified tenants. CDL has actively engaged their tenants to use less energy in daily operations, such as issuing green guides to green-fit their premises and encouraging tenants to recycle. 

Going beyond the building level, we can green our city at a larger scale and estate-wide. The Housing and Development Board has piloted the “HDB Greenprint” at Yuhua estate in Jurong, and this project covers 38 blocks of flats, benefitting about 3,200 households. The transformation of Yuhua into a “Greener Neighbourhood” will soon be completed by the end of this year, and residents there can look forward to initiatives such as solar panels, outdoor LED lighting, a pneumatic waste conveyance system, an enhanced pedestrian and cycling path supported with secured bicycle parking facilities, among others. Let us make our “City in a Garden” even greener than before. 

Smarter Cities

Now let me move on to smart cities. How do we enable cities to be smarter, and that understand or even predict our needs?

Big Data is poised to shake everything up from businesses to education and the Government. Citizens and businesses have been tapping on data to develop innovative solutions to improve the experience of city living. An example is GrabTaxi, a smartphone application which enables the matching of demand and supply of taxis in real time. The Singapore Government has also made available over 11,000 datasets from 70 government ministries and agencies. App developers can use these data to develop applications to enhance our daily lives and activities, such as informing about car park availability. This is only the tip of the iceberg and we need to be cognizant of the impact of Big Data and embrace new technologies as they emerge. 

Data analytics play a key role in making our cities smarter. When introducing new direct bus routes, the Land Transport Authority’s planners are equipped with the detailed characteristics of transit commuters along the busy corridors. The planners can then select the routes and stops of the new direct bus service, which help to ease the load of normal trains and buses. The Land Transport Authority, IBM, SMRT and StarHub are also working together to combine public transport farecard, video and anonymised telecommunications data. This will help provide situational awareness for managing public transport incidents through improved resource allocation and pre-emptive crowd management. 

We can therefore use smart sensors to monitor and calibrate our response to user behaviours. For instance, the National Environment Agency embarked on a pilot project to fit rubbish bins with sensors that can detect when they are full, and remotely monitor when cleaning service providers empty such bins. 

There are many ways that we can use data, sensors and dashboards to make our city even smarter. This is only the beginning of our journey to being a Smart Nation and I hope our engineers will leverage technology to develop smart and sustainable solutions. 

Conclusion 

Innovation is the way forward. We must transform these technical challenges into problems to be solved. We need a new approach to sustainable development to tackle these problems. We need a multi-disciplinary and people-centric approach. Engineers must join hands with professionals of other disciplines, such as architects and behavioural scientists, and the community, to develop innovative people-centric solutions that are future-ready and meet people’s needs. So on that note, thank you very much.