Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
- connected greenspaces, urban ecological networks, biophilic design, eco-planning,
pavements and vertical gardens, and so on. There are increasing examples of cities
becoming nature friendly, making them increasingly important as biological reservoirs
and spaces for ecological restoration and repair. Singapore has been immensely
successful in this regard. It is a city state of five million people and because of its
geographical location has a rich natural heritage despite the fact that a great deal
of it was destroyed during the period when it was a British colony. Close to the
busiest shopping centre in Singapore lies the central catchment nature reserve and
the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. A network of parks, park canopies and connectors,
including elevated walkways, allow easy access to varied plant and wildlife habitats
throughout the island, which also has a large number of roof gardens, community-
based agriculture and horticulture, and iconic examples of innovative bioclimatic
architecture. In 2012, in a speech marking the opening of the Gardens by the Bay,
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong inverted the idea of a garden city to that of a 'city
in a garden'. He said:
The next phase from being a 'Garden City' is to make ourselves into a
'City in a Garden'. It is a play on words, but it means something different,
because it means connecting our communities and our places and spaces
through parks, gardens, streetscapes and skyrise greenery. And we already have
got 3,000 hectares of parks and we are going to add another 900 hectares,
another 2 Toa Payoh New Towns, of park land. And we are going to bring
the green spaces and the biodiversity closer to our homes and workplaces.
Butterflies, birds, all sorts of interesting flora, fauna; once in a while a wild boar,
but not here.
The City Biodiversity Index, also known as the Singapore Index on Cities'
Biodiversity, is a self-assessment that encourages city authorities to conserve and
enhance urban biodiversity. It is also a very useful public communication tool (Chan
and Rahman, 2010). For Beatley, biophilic urban population represents huge armies
of citizen scientists who can track and monitor ecosystem changes with their smart
phone apps as well as actively create habitats for birds, bats and other creatures.
A growing number of urban community-based action now revolves around the
protection of specific wild animals and animal populations within and beyond urban
environments. Many of these go beyond the issue of animal rights and welfare,
looking towards rebalancing human attitudes and relationships with other creatures.
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2012) have ten clear
messages for urban planners and citizens alike. These are:
•
Urbanization is both a challenge and an opportunity to manage ecosystem services
globally.
•
Rich biodiversity can exist in cities.
•
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are critical natural capital.
•
Maintaining functioning urban ecosystems can significantly enhance human health
and well-being.
•
Urban ecosystem services and biodiversity can help contribute to climate-change
mitigation and adaptation.
