A virtual approach to tackling heat
In its second phase, the Cooling Singapore team is developing a digital urban climate twin to enable climate-sensitive urban design to improve thermal comfort, liveability and sustainability.
In the new phase of the Cooling Singapore project, the multidisciplinary team will allow researchers and policymakers to better understand the effects of various factors on outdoor temperatures, such as traffic, the type of land surface and proximity to a water body. The team is developing an island-wide digital urban climate twin (DUCT), which will make it possible to simulate the effects of new strategies in making the outdoors more comfortable for residents.
Prof. Gerhard Schmitt, lead principal investigator of the project, says that DUCT will let urban planners and policymakers generate different scenarios to understand how land use plans will affect urban heat and outdoor thermal comfort. In addition, the team is also planning social science research studies, and plan to produce new knowledge through outputs such as vulnerability maps of Singapore to identify locations that most urgently need intervention.
In the earlier phase of the project, the team put together a menu of 86 strategies to cool the city, from incorporating water bodies into the city to using paint that can reflect the sun's heat.
external page Prof. Winston Chow from the Singapore Management University, who is principal investigator of the multi-institutional project, says that people being more conscious of how urban waste heat is generated could lead to less use of petrol-powered cars or air-conditioning.
This national research initiative is funded by National Research Foundation Singapore, Prime Minister's Office, as part of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE). An NRF spokesperson said, "Tackling the urban heat island effect is a key aspect of Singapore's overarching climate adaptation and resilience plan."
Moreoever, as climate change is a global problem, solutions developed here could also be exported. "It is vital that we continue to invest in such research efforts to develop mitigation and adaptation measures that can be applicable in Singapore and around the world," she added.
Cooling Singapore project was featured in The Straits Times on 7 September 2020. Read the article external page A virtual first step to tackling heat in Singapore.