Cooling Singapore at World Cities Summit
At the Cooling Singapore Symposium, the team presented insights and findings, paving the way in developing a roadmap to mitigate the urban heat island effect and enhance outdoor thermal comfort.
The Cooling Singapore Symposium took place during the World Cities Summit in Singapore on 11 July. The largest Cooling Singapore event to date drew an audience of over 200 people including academics, industry, government, NGOs and the media.
Guest of Honour Mr Peter Ho, senior advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures and chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, graced the event by delivering a keynote speech. He described the challenges faced by high-density cities such as Singapore, of which, some are "invisible" but has long term effects, like the Urban Heat Island (UHI) . He remarked that a problem such as UHI requires scientific insight and a clear understanding of the social and economic drivers of urbanisation and lauded the Cooling Singapore's collaborative effort to tackle the UHI.
The Cooling Singapore team presented insights uncovered since it was established in 2017. Prof Peter Edwards, principal investigator of Cooling Singapore, explained the science behind the UHI effect, its causes, and possible solutions. Eighty-six possible measures categrorised under greenery, urban geometry, water features, material and surfaces, shading, transport, and energy were identified to improve outdoor thermal comfort.
Prof Gerhard Schmitt, lead principal investigator of Cooling Singapore and director of the Singapore-ETH Centre shared that the overaching goal of the project is to remove heat from the urban system. He presented the team's work on visualising energy consumption, emission, and heat release from buildings and transport in Singapore. He also shared valuable insights gathered from public consultations and community workshops to understand people's heat satisfaction levels.
Experts from academia, industry and government agencies brought diverse perspectives to the panel discussion and reflected on the work of Cooling Singapore. Key themes include how to translate scientific understanding into policy and planning, as well as and prioritising and contextualising possible solutions. The panel discussion was moderated by Asst Prof Winston Chow from the National University of Singapore, who is one of the principal investigators of Cooling Singapore.
Panellists included Ms Diana Chin from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Mr Foo Yang Kwang from the Singapore District Cooling, Assoc Prof Dr Jason Lee from DSO National Laboratories, Assoc Prof Dr Ren Chao from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prof Dr Nigel Tapper from Monash University, and Prof Dr Wong Nyuk Hien from the National University of Singapore.
Cooling Singapore Symposium
The symposium followed a morning session from Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) on Transformative Research for Future Cities, which launched an ambitious vision to create a global network focused on transformative research.