In tropical Singapore, temperatures are expected to increase over time due to climate change. What will warmer days and nights mean for us? How can we become more resilient to rising temperatures? To provide an overview of Singapore’s initiatives to enhance heat resilience, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is presenting its tenth edition of the Urban Lab exhibition series. 

Titled ‘Shaping a Heat Resilient City’, the exhibition was officially launched today by Ms. Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development. It is also a focal point of URA’s Draft Master Plan 2025 public engagement to ‘Strengthen Urban Resilience¹”, by driving ideas and conversations on more innovative solutions to combat urban heat.

Efforts to build a heat-resilient city

As with all cities worldwide, Singapore faces the challenges brought about by climate change, ranging from more intense rainfall to rising sea levels and temperatures. The rising temperatures in Singapore are exacerbated by the urban heat island (UHI) effect and further compounded by prevailing El Niño² conditions, which are expected to create warmer weather conditions in the region in the coming year. 

The exhibition showcases ongoing efforts to build a more climate-resilient city, and how government agencies, researchers, built environment professionals and the private sector leverage innovative technologies and products to create cooler spaces in Singapore. 

For instance, visitors will be able to learn more about the development and use of cool materials to reduce heat in our everyday living spaces, ranging from the piloting of cool paint on flat facades in Tampines, to the development of biomimetic tiles inspired by the textured skin of elephants that can be applied to walls for passive cooling.

Also featured is the inaugural project for the latest five-year strategic collaboration between URA and the Department of Architecture under the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering (NUS CDE). Started in October this year, the partnership focuses on applied research in urban planning and design, and on enabling knowledge exchange and collaborations between professionals and academics in this field.

This project explores the use of Doppler Wind LiDAR sensors at Jurong Lake District and the Central Business District to collect wind flow data for more robust environmental models. When such models are incorporated into upstream planning workflows, it can equip urban planners with the capability to design more thermally comfortable developments and districts in future. More information on this initiative and other highlights of the exhibition can be found in the Annex [PDF, 146kb].

“As a highly-urbanised city-state, we need to keep abreast of global trends and work together to ensure that our plans remain adaptable for different scenarios, such as the challenges from climate change. The continued investment in R&D will be a key strategy in strengthening our urban resilience in the face of extreme weather conditions and increasing temperatures. This will enable Singapore to remain sustainable for many decades to come.” said Mr. Lim Eng Hwee, URA’s Chief Executive Officer.

‘Shaping a Heat Resilient City’ will be exhibited at The URA Centre Atrium from 17 November 2023 to 1 March 2024. Admission is free and visitors may register here for guided tours of the exhibition.
 
About the Urban Lab
The Urban Lab is an initiative by URA to showcase innovative R&D and urban solutions for a more liveable, sustainable, and future-ready city. Since January 2015, this has contributed towards URA’s efforts to bring R&D out of the labs to the community and public domain, so as to foster a more conducive environment where the R&D community, industry and agencies can learn and share new ideas, trigger discussions, and forge partnerships and collaborations.

About the Draft Master Plan 2025
The Draft Master Plan 2025 (DMP2025) translates land use strategies developed with Singaporeans and stakeholders in the Long-Term Plan Review into detailed plans for the next 10 to 15 years. Long-term planning helps us steward our limited land resources through balancing our diverse needs today with those of the future.  

To make Singapore a liveable, inclusive and endearing home where generations can fulfill their aspirations, DMP2025 focuses on:

• Shaping a Happy and Healthy City with more inclusive homes and support for active lifestyles and ageing-in-place as well as connected and accessible spaces.

• Enabling Sustainable Growth with a vibrant economy that creates opportunities for all.

• Strengthening Urban Resilience by leveraging creative solutions to optimise land and combat climate change.

• Stewarding Nature and Heritage by enhancing our natural capital and shaping a home that we cherish.

Join us in shaping our city at go.gov.sg/URADraftMasterPlan.

¹ The theme ‘Strengthen Urban Resilience’ is one of four key themes anchoring the Draft Master Plan 2025 public engagement exercise. It focuses on creating plans with Singaporeans to combat climate change and optimise our limited land resources to sustain a good quality of life.    

² El Niño refers to the climate pattern where surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are much warmer than normal, causing a shifting of large-scale rain clouds over the western tropical Pacific Ocean, disrupting regional and local weather patterns. El Niño conditions are expected to strengthen until end-2023 and persist into early-2024.