While the efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change are commendable, let me add some comments.
(1) Information for the public. All climate change studies commissioned by the state should be accessible on a national portal. Uploaded draft reports can obtain better feedback from all sectors and not from selected government agencies. Property developers, insurance companies, law firms, etc, want to know the vulnerability from climate change. Accurate searchable elevation data and risk maps are needed.
(2) Adaptation pathways. Pathway analysis is a low-cost tool to assess long-term responses. Pathways approach allows planning, prioritizing and staggering of investments in adaptation options. Trigger points and thresholds help to identify and revise decisions or actions. Appropriate combination of decision analysis, land-use planning, public participation and conflict resolution approaches can help to address governance challenges in responding to climate change. In simple terms, we need plans A, B, or C or layered solutions?
(3) With regards to rising sea level, other adaptation strategies and measures must be considered seriously, e.g. “building with nature”, “living with water”. As sea level rises, local coastal topography and elevation can be utilized; this is often overlooked. On a more localized level the traditional homes on stilts will have to be transformed into floating and amphibious homes.
(4) Sea level rise (SLR) and extreme high tides. It is not necessary to insist on robust SLR projections for the tropics and Singapore. Accuracy of few cm or tens of cm will still mean that future SLR will be more severe. Singapore should prepare for severe SLR in future and not be obsessed with accuracy of SLR on our coasts. It should establish a King Tide Watch (already done in USA, Canada and Australia) so that concerned citizens and corporations can report every king tide event to a central agency, supplemented by a network of GPS stations and tide gauges. In February 1974 a peak astronomical tide in a millennium resulted in the highest tide recorded in Singapore (3.9 m), resulting in many flooded areas and virtually caught everyone by surprise. Another one will occur in January 2036. With rising sea level this can be higher than the one in 1974. Are we prepared for it??
While the efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change are commendable, let me add some comments.
(1) Information for the public. All climate change studies commissioned by the state should be accessible on a national portal. Uploaded draft reports can obtain better feedback from all sectors and not from selected government agencies. Property developers, insurance companies, law firms, etc, want to know the vulnerability from climate change. Accurate searchable elevation data and risk maps are needed.
(2) Adaptation pathways. Pathway analysis is a low-cost tool to assess long-term responses. Pathways approach allows planning, prioritizing and staggering of investments in adaptation options. Trigger points and thresholds help to identify and revise decisions or actions. Appropriate combination of decision analysis, land-use planning, public participation and conflict resolution approaches can help to address governance challenges in responding to climate change. In simple terms, we need plans A, B, or C or layered solutions?
(3) With regards to rising sea level, other adaptation strategies and measures must be considered seriously, e.g. “building with nature”, “living with water”. As sea level rises, local coastal topography and elevation can be utilized; this is often overlooked. On a more localized level the traditional homes on stilts will have to be transformed into floating and amphibious homes.
(4) Sea level rise (SLR) and extreme high tides. It is not necessary to insist on robust SLR projections for the tropics and Singapore. Accuracy of few cm or tens of cm will still mean that future SLR will be more severe. Singapore should prepare for severe SLR in future and not be obsessed with accuracy of SLR on our coasts. It should establish a King Tide Watch (already done in USA, Canada and Australia) so that concerned citizens and corporations can report every king tide event to a central agency, supplemented by a network of GPS stations and tide gauges. In February 1974 a peak astronomical tide in a millennium resulted in the highest tide recorded in Singapore (3.9 m), resulting in many flooded areas and virtually caught everyone by surprise. Another one will occur in January 2036. With rising sea level this can be higher than the one in 1974. Are we prepared for it??