RESILIENT FUTURE

COURTESY : Resilient future.

We will continue to undertake forward planning to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change. Studies to explore measures to protect the coastlines of City-East Coast and Jurong Island will commence this year. PUB will also develop a purpose-built model capable of analysing the combined effects of extreme sea levels and intense rainfall-induced inland floods. This Coastal-Inland Flood Model will enable PUB to holistically assess inland and coastal flood risks.

To further safeguard Singapore’s food security, the agri-food sector will receive enhanced funding support to transform and meet our ’30 by 30’ goal. A $60 million Agri-Food Cluster Transformation (ACT) Fund will be established to support the transformation of the sector into one that is highly productive, climate-resilient and resource-efficient. It will better cater to farms of different scales and developmental needs, and replace the Agriculture Productivity Fund. The Fund will be open for application later this year.

The Singapore Food Agency will also partner our aquaculture sector to unlock the potential of sea-based fish farming. SFA will tender out new sea sites on leases and encourage farms to adopt technology for higher productivity and review fish farming practices to enhance business resilience and sustainability over the next few years.

We will mitigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect through a three-pronged strategy: (a) Understand the UHI effect better by deploying an island-wide network of climate sensors to collect data; (b) Conduct research and modelling on UHI effects, e.g. the Cooling Singapore 2.0 project; and (c) Partner the industry and public to implement a UHI mitigation action plan, including piloting the use of cool materials and reducing human-generated heat.

The need for resilience and sustainability in the systems on which society depends is increasingly recognised as a global priority. It is also clear that to achieve resilience, input from science, technology and innovation will be essential. For this reason, the Royal Society, in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences, chose Science for a Resilient Future as the theme for the third Commonwealth Science Conference, which was held virtually in February 2021. The conference brought together 350 scientists (of whom 270 were early career researchers) from 32 Commonwealth nations to discuss three key areas within the overall theme of ‘science for resilience’: Developing resilient energy systems; Nurturing resilient ecosystems; and Building resilient societal systems.

Two new theme issues published in our journals bring together some of the speakers and attendees from the conference to highlight some of the topics discussed, from photovoltaics and water-energy-food security, to cetacean health and the Blue Economy.

Firstly, an issue of Philosophical Transactions A focused on the theme of ‘Developing resilient energy systems’, edited by Richard Catlow, Catherine Ngila, Legena Henry and Michael Taylor. The development of resilient energy systems is essential for the control of climate change and critical for the development of sustainable and circular modes of production and consumption. As well as wide ranging scientific and technological challenges, there is a complex interplay between science and policy; both of which are illustrated by several of the papers in this issue.

#SFA

#Urban Heat Island

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