Climate Change Information System for Urban Heat Island Effect for Urban Planning: A Singapore Case Study
Tian-Kuay
Lim
National Environment Agency of
Singapore
Noon Nov 3 in Room 2155
Abstract: The IPCC Climate Change Assessment Reports
recognised the potential impacts of climate change on cities. With
global warming, an increased frequency of heat waves and severity will
certainly amplify the current problems associated with urban heat
island (UHI) effects in a highly urban environment with densely
aggregated, tall buildings.
Climate change is an issue that will
increasingly require knowledge and information at the local scale. The
availability of high-resolution geospatial data, monitoring of land,
coastal and water resources and high-resolution environmental modelling
at local scales is able to support timely and reliable
climate-sensitive urban planning. A well-formulated
cyber-infrastructure design, incorporating recent advances in
informatics and geographic information systems (GIS), is essential for
the success of climate-sensitive urban planning efforts to track and
adapt to a changing climate and changing environments.
The
study will demonstrate the use of GIS as integrative platforms for
urban planning, based on coupled atmospheric and urban model and
geospatial information, to facilitate the analysis and simulation of
UHI in highly urbanized Singapore. The system will enable visualisation
of geo-located/geo-referenced climate change information with layers
that contain important infrastructure location and demographic data
such as transport infrastructure. The overlay information will include
highly specific and high resolution data to help government agencies to
plan ahead and make informed decisions for mitigation planning for UHI
and global warming and as well as environmental changes due to further
intensification of urban developments in Singapore.