How Singapore is using science to keep the city's heat down

The journey of the modern world is progressing through an urbanized human civilization. But with increasing urbanization, people are making cities their own danger. Cities are seriously responsible for global climate change. Cities have become a major headache for a sustainable world around the world. Learn about the challenges of Singapore, a city with a global warming problem, and a city that uses science to solve the problem.

If the thermal map of a city is observed and compared to the map of vegetated areas, it can be seen that wherever there is green, the temperature is lower. Each material has different heat capacity and conductivity. Asphalt, concrete, and even wood shingle roofs absorb more heat from the sun than plants. This is called the urban heat-island effect. When the temperature of an area differs more than the temperature of the surrounding area, it appears as an isolated island on the temperature map.

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This heat-island effect is responsible for high temperatures in most cities. City streets, buildings, and other infrastructure absorb radiation more easily than natural environmental elements and release heat into the environment. As a result, the temperature of the city is several degrees higher than the surrounding area.

The increasing population in the cities of the modern world is causing the warming effects of climate change to become an increasingly serious threat to human health. A heat wave is an event that kills more people than any other extreme weather event—such as tornadoes, hurricanes, or even floods. A problem creates a need, so a group of researchers is researching urban heat-island mitigation strategies to overcome this thermal problem in Singapore. This project supported by Singapore government is known as 'Cooling Singapore'. The project is now combining their knowledge to create a digital tool that could potentially help cities around the world. Singapore is a hotbed, Singapore has a science and research environment, Singapore is committed to solving problems, so it starts with Singapore.

Due to its geographical location near the equator, Singapore's daytime temperatures regularly rise above 32 °C (90 °F). This geographical factor along with the structure of the city makes it more pathetic. And one glance at Singapore reveals that it is a concrete jungle. Much more urbanized, much more infrastructural dense. Even in Singapore, the temperature difference between the more urbanized and rural areas at the same time can be as much as 7 degrees Celsius.

The country's government has taken drastic measures to bring down the temperature steadily. A 250-acre bay side park in Singapore, Gardens by the Bay, is an award-winning park. A tree-like structure has been designed inside the park, which has retained greenery. In between is a greenhouse called the Flower Dome, which is shaped like an oyster or a dome. The temperature inside is a pleasant 24 degrees Celsius. People come to enjoy the time by buying tickets to get the tranquility of the greenery.

The crowded greenhouse, surrounded by two dozen towers, is kept cool by perhaps the world's largest underground air-conditioning system. Its name is district cooling system, in this system, cooling water or any other liquid is delivered from a central location to a network of buildings through underground pipes. A central plant cools the water, which is then piped to banks, residential towers, exhibition centers, shopping malls, and the city's iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino complex.

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The biggest advantage of using a district cooling system is that it saves 40% of electricity compared to conventional air conditioners. Since Singapore relies on natural gas as its main source of energy generation, the electricity savings in this method are equivalent to removing 10,000 cars from the city's roads. For the rest of the world, this event is a cause of great alarm. If things continue as they are now, by 2050 a third of the total energy produced will be used in buildings and vehicles just for cooling.

As the world is warming, warming is increasing, so the need for more air conditioners, refrigerators etc. will increase accordingly. And the more people continue to buy such household products, the more energy consumption will increase. And the growing number of devices will release more heat into the environment overall. As a result, climate change will create an increasingly alarming situation. It's a vicious cycle.

So since 2017, researchers in the 'Cooling Singapore' project have been developing designs to firstly reduce this excess demand for cooling air. Many cities have one thing in common in their emphasis—the importance of plants.

Urbanization heat reduction through shading is a very effective way, greening in public life also has a profound positive psychological effect. Because plants have inherent cooling properties through evaporation, large or shrubby plants on the ground can play a sustainable role in reducing temperature. And the movement of people will be under the trees. The structure is like a green canopy with trees above and people passing through it below. But this greening can also be facing the building, i.e. on the wall or on the building shell.

Fortunately, Singapore is striving to become a garden city. The first visionary of this idea in 1967 was the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He initially introduced this foresight, aiming to make people's lives more joyful, peaceful. And today, Singapore is one of the greenest cities in the world in terms of urban greening.

The kampung has a community center with health facilities, and social spaces. Amazingly, it now offers more green space than ever before, compared to the land it was built on. Its roof is covered with large aesthetic, native plants. It also serves as a community park. And at the center are farm plots landscaped with rural greenery to cater to residents.

Park Royal in Pickering was designed as a hotel within a garden, not a garden within a hotel! Its roof is covered with large aesthetic, native plants. It also serves as a community park. And at the center are farm plots landscaped with rural greenery to cater to residents. Now there are 15,000 square meters of open gardens, pools, artificial waterfalls, tree-planted terraces and green walls.

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The government also has big plans. Singapore wants to plant 1 million trees over the next 10 years and add more green spaces at the same time. It is basically an initiative aimed at mitigating the city's heat-island condition. On the other hand, this will allow city dwellers to be more connected to nature. But that's not enough, the city is still warming at twice the average global temperature over the past 6 decades. That's why the 'Cooling Singapore' project has created a farad of the most effective ways to mitigate the temperature.

In order to mitigate the temperature, the heat-island city must first start by shading its windows. Its surroundings should also be so free that air can flow through them. In cities, reservoirs must also have a certain depth of water, so that temperature balance is maintained.

In the construction of heavy buildings, such as skyscrapers, at least the exterior walls can be kept relatively light. It should also be able to prevent direct sunlight from entering. In the medium to long term, no combustion engine of any kind should be kept inside the city. That means, power generation has to be done outside the city. Supplying only renewable energy to the city in terms of energy production. Energy consumption should be brought to the minimum possible within the city.

At the same time, the city's rooftops, exterior walls are gradually being used to generate renewable energy. Unfortunately, this opportunity is often limited in Singapore. Yet in the long term, 25% of energy needs could be produced this way if all usable open space on roofs and buildings was utilized.

'Cooling Singapore' is designing a virtual model of the city with a number of different ideas. Which is named Digital Urban Climate Twin (Digital Urban Climate Twin or DUCT). The model can calculate how each element of the city's design contributes to the heat-island effect. That is, not only the geometric model of the city, but also transportation, insulation, temperature, solar radiation, weather, local weather, local climate, even small-scale climate systems of the city, water, human movement, etc. will be included. That is, full virtual simulation. After the scenario has been designed, it must be verified that the simulation works properly, as expected, and its usefulness becomes final. Because, what could not be done in reality, the real situation can be easily estimated by testing it virtually. And the most useful solutions from the simulation tests will be implemented.

This effort indicates a global good news for us. Any city in the world can be modeled using a similar approach. The significance of that model is then not only to keep the temperature down, but also to test how the temperature can be maintained if desired. Colder cities, or by moderating energy use during winter, slow temperature changes—all in all, this will contribute to improved quality of life.

So Singapore is ready to use this technology, architecture, urban planning and integrated science elsewhere. Singapore is one of the very few cities in the world where scientific advancements have evolved while implementing well-established urban-redesign and concrete design.

Singapore has achieved a lot in the past through good planning. If this scientific path continues, and the mix of ideas against the conventional notion of the city, we can expect Singapore to become a truly livable city for the future, though not yet less livable.