EDITORIAL: The Straits Times says- Another cool idea for Singapore

The second, three-year phase of the Cooling Singapore project is under way with a “digital twin” of the Republic being built which will allow researchers and policymakers to find out the various factors that affect outdoor temperatures, be it traffic flow, the type of land surface, or the proximity of a water body. They can also use the model to see how new strategies can be devised to make it more comfortable for people to be outdoors. Data on Singapore’s buildings, traffic, vegetation and land surfaces will be incorporated. Other factors, such as the direction and amount of wind that a particular area gets, or the relative humidity, will be incorporated in the model, called the Digital Urban Climate Twin, or Duct.

The Cooling Singapore project, which is funded by the National Research Foundation, addresses a key issue: Singapore has become warmer in recent years because of what is termed the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The UHI effect, which is the air temperature difference between rural and urban areas, helps explain how urbanisation and human behaviour contribute to higher temperatures in a city. In tropical Singapore, increased temperatures owing to the UHI effect have an impact on liveability, not least in the form of thermal comfort outdoors. Thus, reducing the effect will clearly improve people’s quality of life. The Cooling Singapore website warns that many of these problems are likely to become more severe, partly because of urban growth but also because of the impact of climate change on cities.