Greenery & Heritage

We take a long-term approach to land use planning to ensure sufficient land for sustainable growth while providing a high-quality living environment for all.  

Stewarding a City in Nature

We are committed to carefully steward our green spaces to transform Singapore into a City in Nature. Today, approximately 7,800 ha of land have been safeguarded for Nature Reserves, Nature Areas, Nature Parks and other green spaces, such as parks and park connectors. Since 2021, a total of 130 ha of new parks have been added islandwide. The Park Connector Network has also expanded to 391 km, including 75 km of the Round Island Route. By 2030, more than 25 new parks and over 50 km of additional park connectors will be added. 

To guide the stewardship of ecological areas in Singapore, we adopt a science-based approach to identify core biodiversity areas and surrounding buffers that we want to retain for future generations. This is carried out through NParks’ Ecological Profiling Exercise (EPE), which has helped to develop a more comprehensive picture of Singapore's islandwide ecosystem and ecological connectivity based on a combination of least-resistance pathway and agent-based modelling as ecological profiling tools. The findings of the EPE allows planners to sensitively plan and integrate nature in our urban landscape upfront in our land use plans, and further extend our natural capital beyond our Nature Reserves. 

At the same time, while we pursue redeveloping brownfield sites as far as possible, some greenfield sites may still need to be developed to meet Singapore’s multiple land use needs, given our physical constraints. Any decision to develop such sites is made only after careful study of the trade-offs and alternatives, including assessing the ecological and biodiversity value through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework. In the process, we endeavour to retain the most ecologically-significant areas and sensitively integrate them with future developments as far as possible, balancing development needs with environmental considerations.   

Safeguarding our heritage in an evolving city

As part of our urban rejuvenation efforts, we also facilitate the retention and recollection of Singapore’s built heritage. We adopt a consultative and calibrated approach in balancing development needs with heritage considerations. The evaluation process takes into consideration the heritage significance of sites, buildings and structures, including their architectural, historical and social significance. Consideration is also given to the intended use of the site, future development needs, and the interests of relevant stakeholders such as the heritage community, future users, and our broader national interest.

To complement the above approach, under the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) framework, public projects that may have a significant impact on significant heritage sites are required to undergo an additional in-depth consultation with URA and NHB to ascertain whether heritage studies or other mitigating measures are required. URA and NHB may recommend heritage studies for selected sites to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the heritage significance of buildings and structures and the potential impact of development.  
 
The scale and scope of such studies may vary depending on the context of the site. For large-scale redevelopment projects (e.g. future housing estates and business centres) impacting clusters of buildings and structures with potential heritage value, HIAs, which are the most extensive heritage studies, may be required.