S’pore Is Getting Hotter Not Just Because Of Global Warming, & It’ll Get Worse

By
Boon Hun
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Do you feel that Singapore is getting hotter by the day? So much so you’d rather eat in office and see your boss’s face than to eat outside. 

I bet most, if not all of you, have thought that it’s because of our geographical location.

I mean, we’re a tropical island, isn’t it reasonable to have hot weather all year round?

Some even savvier ones might have thought (correctly) that it’s due to global warming.

Guess what? There’s more to the story than you might have imagined. And it comes with a catchy name: UHI.

Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, making the temperature 7 degrees Celsius hotter in parts of the country

Think back to Singapore in the past, what do you think is different?

Image: asianurbanepicenter.com

Fewer buildings, more vegetations, right?

And this is one of the reasons why you sweat and become sticky after being outside for a couple of minutes.

Now, I’m not an expert on this but here’s what I found out from Google.

According to a report on Todayonline, Singapore is experiencing what they call the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.

The formal description of this effect: “an urban area that is warmer than the surrounding rural areas due to human economic development.”

This is a problem that all city states meet with when there are lesser vegetations around and have tall buildings bunched together in one area.

Image: flickr.com

Tall buildings clustered together provide more surfaces for sunlight to be reflected and absorbed, heating up the area. 

In addition, these same buildings might also block the wind and prevent pollution from dispersing. And these pollutions trap even more heat within the area.

In parts of Singapore, temperatures can be 7 degrees Celsius hotter that more rural parts of the country.

And the best part? As Singapore is planning to develop more towns and buildings, it’s going to get worse. 

Not that I think we shouldn’t do it. Because Singapore has to develop, no?

But wait, before you wallow in self-pity and add this to your list of “reasons to chabot from Singapore”, here’s one piece of good news.

Image: sec.ethz.ch

A team was set up to combat UHI.

This team consists of experts from leading organisations like the Singapore-ETH Centre, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology, TUM Create and NUS.

They will be building a roadmap for Singapore to cool Singapore down. In 18 months.

They’re looking to redesign the city “in terms of the shapes, the forms of the buildings, the building materials, and so on.”

Some of their suggestions include Green parking lots that trap less heat, varying building heights and well-ventilated pedestrian walkways.

The aim? To cool Singapore down so much, people will, once again, feel comfortable outdoors.

I don’t know about you but I’m excited about that.

But they did mention that this is going to be a long process, so in the meanwhile, time to buy more 通风 clothes to wear liao.

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Boon Hun
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