Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods and Ecosystem Services

Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods

Learning Overview

• This sub-topic covers sustainable urban neighborhoods.

Key Points

• Sustainable development meets the needs of the present population while ensuring future generations can meet their own needs.
• Economic and social sustainability can be achieved through:
  • High population density to support local businesses and keep infrastructure costs low.
  • Small population size to enable regular interaction among residents.
• Environmental sustainability can be achieved through:
  • Ample protection for nature.
  • Facilities for waste minimization and recycling.
  • Energy and water-efficient design approaches.

Content Concepts

• Standard of living: Measure of goods and services consumption by an individual or group.
• Economic sustainability: Ensuring all humans can enjoy prosperous lives in harmony with nature.
• Social sustainability: Ensuring societies are inclusive and resilient, where residents have a voice.
• (Urban) Neighbourhood: A sub-division of an urban area with shared characteristics or qualities.
• Environmental sustainability: Managing natural resources and taking action on climate change for present and future generations.

Development

• Development is the economic, social, and political process that improves the standard of living for a population.
• Countries are classified by their level of development based on economic and social indicators.
  • Economic indicator: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.
  • Social indicators: Life Expectancy and Adult Literacy Rate.

Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development can be maintained and supported continuously.
• It meets the needs of the present population while ensuring future generations can meet their own needs.
• Three key aims are economy, environment, and society, which cannot always be balanced.
• Overfocus on one dimension may lead to others being overlooked.
  • Prioritizing economic growth may harm the environment.
• The approach to sustainable development varies from place to place and across time.
• Greater emphasis might need to be placed on one dimension over others at different places.
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Pillars of Sustainable Development

• Social
• Economic
• Environment

Economic and Social Sustainability in Urban Neighbourhoods

1. Economic sustainability:
   • Achieved by ensuring high enough population density to support local businesses and keep transport and infrastructure costs low.
   • Local businesses can sustain themselves with sufficient demand.
   • Residents can take up employment at local shops and increase their standard of living.
   • Buildings and objects are usually located close to one another – residents need not travel far, keeping their transportation costs low.
   • When schools are located near an integrated transport hub, students may opt to walk over a short distance to get to school, minimising their transportation costs.
   • When a bus interchange is located next to a train station there is no need to build additional infrastructures (e.g. roads, bridges) to connect them, lowering the cost of development.
2. Social sustainability:
   • Achieved by ensuring residents feel included and have a sense of shared identity.
   • This can be fostered by having shared community spaces to promote regular social interactions.
   • Small population sizes facilitate regular interactions amongst residents.
   • Residents may come together to discuss issues affecting the neighbourhood and find solutions to various challenges.
   • This builds resilience and positive relationships between residents, maintaining a culture of open communication and mutual respect which reduces misunderstandings and conflicts.
   • Most problems faced by local residents are day-to-day issues which can mostly be resolved locally with an adequate neighbourhood structure.
   • In Singapore, Residents' Networks (RN) promote neighborliness and community cohesiveness.
   • Each neighborhood is divided into smaller designated zones and residents are encouraged to join the network.

Environmental Sustainability in Urban Neighbourhoods

• Environmental sustainability can be achieved through:

  1. Ample protection for nature.
  2. Facilities that support waste minimization and recycling.
  3. Energy and water-efficient design approaches for buildings and landscapes.

1. Ample protection for nature:
   • Wildlife can thrive in urban spaces, and human-wildlife coexistence can be fostered.
   • Efforts should protect existing native species, habitats, and ecosystems and re-establish species that once existed.
   • The National Parks Board has strategies to safeguard Singapore's habitats and ecosystems for long-term sustainability, including species conservation and recovery programs.
   • Biodiversity can be maximized by having a wide variety of habitats, including street trees, pocket parks, and roof gardens.
   • The types of plants and trees planted in an area should also be of different varieties and species.
   • The existing 44 Nature Ways in Singapore connects areas of high biodiversity across Singapore.
2. Facilities that support waste minimization and recycling:
   • Conveniently located recycling facilities and infrastructures such as blue recycling bins around the estates can encourage residents to recycle.
   • High population density ensures adequate waste can be collected and recycled economically.
   • Waste recycling can be encouraged through neighborhood-scale recycling activities organized by either the residents or the town council.
   • The town council may put up posters or banners to educate and encourage their residents to recycle properly.
3. Energy and water-efficient design approaches for buildings and landscapes:
   • Buildings and landscaping may be designed to be energy- and water-efficient to minimize resource use.
   • Smart technology and eco-friendly features can be installed.
   • Under the large-scale Housing Development Board (HDB) Green Towns Programme, cool paint is going to be used in neighbourhoods to lower temperatures by up to two degrees Celsius, reducing energy consumption.
   • Water harvested from rain is used for block washing of void decks and corridors to reduce overall water consumption.

Ecosystem Services in Urban Neighbourhoods

Learning Overview

• This sub-topic covers what ecosystem services are found in urban neighborhoods.

Key Points

• Urban neighborhoods are ecosystems.
• Ecosystems consist of living communities and the non-living environment interacting with one another.
• Neighborhoods can have aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
• Ecosystems provide benefits in the form of ecosystem services, which consist of:
  • Provisioning services.
  • Regulating services.
  • Cultural services.
  • Supporting services.

Content Concepts

• Ecosystems: A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.
• Living communities: Communities of living (biotic) things, including living organisms like humans, animals, plants, insects, and bacteria.
• Non-living environment: The environment which consists of non-living (abiotic) components like rocks, soil, water, sunlight, and the built environment.
• Aquatic: Related to water bodies such as rivers and lakes.
• Ecosystem services: The benefits people obtain from ecosystems to make human life possible, categorized into provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
• Provisioning services: Tangible resources that people can get from ecosystems such as food, water, and wood.
• Regulating services: Benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes including microclimate regulation, flood mitigation, and air and water quality control.
• Cultural services: Non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems and include aesthetic experiences, education, and recreation.
• Supporting services: Services necessary for the functioning of all other ecosystem services, including soil formation, pollination, and photosynthesis.

Urban Neighbourhoods as Ecosystems

• An ecosystem is a geographic area where living communities and non-living environments interact with each other to form a bubble of life.
• Ecosystems vary in size.
• Every aspect in ecosystems depends on one another, directly or indirectly.
• People are integral parts of ecosystems, and dynamic interactions exist between people and other parts of the ecosystem.
• Activities carried out by people may directly and/or indirectly change the ecosystems in both positive and negative ways.
  • A man-made concrete canal in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park was transformed into a naturalized river allowing more organisms to thrive in this aquatic ecosystem.
  • This brought wildlife back into the park, enhancing the neighborhood's biodiversity.

Ecosystem Services

• Ecosystem services refer to the benefits brought about by nature to people.
• These services are produced by the living communities and non-living environment of ecosystems.
• These services are critical to our survival, and their benefits are optimized when we have a healthy and thriving natural environment.
• These ecosystem services consist of:
  • Provisioning services.
  • Regulating services.
  • Cultural services.
  • Supporting services.

Provisioning Ecosystem Services

• Provisioning ecosystem services refer to the tangible resources that people can get from ecosystems, such as food, water, and wood.
• Food is one of the most important provisioning services provided by nature to people and it can be obtained through means such as agricultural activities and fisheries.
• They can also be found in an urban neighborhood ecosystem
  • Food is grown in urban community gardens focused on planting edibles on rooftops at Tampines' HDB blocks.

Regulating Ecosystem Services

• Regulating ecosystem services refer to the benefits obtained from the regulation or maintenance of various ecosystem processes.
• Include services such as climate regulation, disease outbreak regulation, and flood regulation.
• These ecosystem processes work together to ensure that the ecosystems are functional, clean, sustainable, and resilient to changes.
• In an urban neighborhood, these include microclimate regulation, flood mitigation, as well as air and water quality control.
  • Some of the regulating services in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park include:
    • Regulating the local climate
    • Regulating water flows
    • Regulating local air quality
    • Trees in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park can lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade to residents.
    • Forests can help to cool areas by generating rainfall.
    • The vegetation cover in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park reduces surface runoff by retaining water in the soil.
    • The trees or other plants in the park play an important role in regulating air quality by removing pollutants from the atmosphere.

Cultural Ecosystem Services

• Cultural ecosystem services refer to the intangible benefits people obtain from ecosystems, including aesthetic experiences, educational opportunities, and recreational activities.
• In an urban neighborhood, the presence of green spaces can provide many cultural ecosystem services such as aesthetic appreciation and opportunities for stress-relieving activities.
• These activities may improve people's physical and mental health and foster social belonging and group identity, thus strengthening their sense of place.
  • The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is a site for residents to engage in recreational activities such as hiking, as well as a space which provides educational opportunities, such as when geography students engage in fieldwork.
  • Residents may also gain aesthetic experiences from natural objects in urban neighborhoods such as heritage trees, skyrise greenery, and community gardens.

Supporting Ecosystem Services

• Supporting ecosystem services refer to services that are necessary for the functioning of all other ecosystem services, including soil formation, pollination, and photosynthesis.
• Soil is formed when micro-organisms and physical processes decompose organic matter and break them down into smaller particles.
• Soil is essential for the health of all terrestrial ecosystems as it provides a habitat for billions of organisms, contributes to biodiversity, and acts as a water filter.
• Soil formation, as a supporting ecosystem service, ensures that human activities such as agriculture can take place.
• In urban neighborhoods, animals like wild bees play a significant role in crop pollination which is vital as it ensures that crops are able to reproduce to provide food for animals and humans.
• During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and this maintains the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere. This ensures that all other ecosystem services can function.

Common Hazards in Urban Neighbourhoods

Learning Overview

• The sub-topic explores common hazards found in urban neighborhoods.

Key Points

• Urban neighborhoods may have potential hazards that result in negative consequences for residents.
• Common hazards include:
  • Fire hazards.
  • Air pollution hazards.
  • Traffic hazards.

Content Concepts

• Hazards: Processes, phenomena, or human activities that may cause loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmental degradation.
• Air pollution: The presence of contaminant or pollutant substances in the air that do not disperse properly and hence interfere with human health or welfare or produce other harmful environmental effects.

Hazards

• A hazard refers to a process, phenomenon, or human activity that may cause loss of life, other health impacts, property damage, as well as social and economic consequences.
• Hazards can be classified as natural or man-made.
  • Examples of natural hazards include earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
  • Examples of man-made hazards include traffic hazards.

Fire Hazards and Their Impacts

• In urban neighborhoods, fire hazards may occur in both residential and non-residential areas.
• Common causes include unattended cooking and faulty electrical appliances and wiring, which can ignite nearby flammable materials, resulting in a fire.
  • In 2021, there were a total of 358 cases of fires due to unattended cooking reported in Singapore.
• There has also been an increase in fire cases involving Personal Mobility Devices (PMDS) which typically occur in residential areas.
• The impacts of fire hazards include:
  1. Health impacts.
  2. Property damage.

Health Impacts of Fire Hazards

• During a fire, people may suffer from burn injuries if they cannot evacuate in time, and severe burn injuries may lead to disabilities or deaths.
  • There were a total of three fire fatalities and close to 200 fire injuries in Singapore in 2021.
• High levels of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide may be released during a fire, and may cause carbon monoxide poisoning, which may cause headache, dizziness, weakness, and confusion, and even leading to loss of consciousness and death. They can make it more difficult for people to escape a fire.
• Other irritants from a fire, such as acid gases, can permanently damage a person's respiratory system.
• Smoke inhalation can cause breathing difficulties and suffocation, which may lead to death.

Property Damage from Fire Hazards

• Fires can destroy commercial or residential properties, which leads to economic losses as goods, furniture, and important documents may be destroyed.
• Further costs may also be incurred after the fire is over as money is required to repair and rebuild the properties that were damaged in the fire.

Air Pollution Hazards and Their Impacts

• Air pollution occurs due to the presence of contaminating or polluting substances in the air that do not disperse properly and hence interfere with human health, welfare, or produce other harmful environmental effects.
• Some common causes include:
  • Burning vegetation releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere, causing air pollution.
    • In the first half of 2019, Singapore saw approximately 555 vegetation fires, a 56% increase in vegetation fires from 2018 due to drier and hotter weather. This resulted in a slight deterioration in air quality.
  • Vehicles produce significant amounts of exhaust emissions such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants.

Health Impacts of Air Pollution

• Some of the negative health impacts of air pollution include respiratory infections, heart diseases, and lung cancer.
• Nitrogen dioxide is emitted in areas of high vehicle traffic.
• PM2.5, also known as particulate matter such as soot, smoke, dust, and liquid droplets measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, may be produced in urban neighborhoods.
• These pollutants may lead to poor health.
• High levels of exposure to nitrogen dioxide may lead to higher risks of asthma in children.
• It may also cause lung function decline in older adults as PM2.5 co enter the bloodstream and lodge deep in human lungs.

Traffic Hazards and Their Impacts

• Common causes include:
  • Speeding
  • Red-light running
  • Drink-driving
• These accidents are often caused by irresponsible motorists who put other road users and themselves at risk.
  • In 2021, there were a total of 969 speeding-related traffic accidents and 153 accidents that were caused by drink-driving.

Health Impacts of Traffic Hazards

• People may suffer serious injuries when involved in a traffic accident, which may lead to disabilities or loss of life.
  • In 2021, there were a total of 100 traffic accidents in Singapore that resulted in fatalities. 8 were caused by drink-driving.
• Elderly pedestrians and motorcyclists typically account for a high percentage of traffic accident victims resulting in injuries or death.

Building Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods

Learning Overview

• Sustainable urban neighborhoods can be built through environmental stewardship, disaster risk management, and community resilience.

Key Points

• Environmental stewardship is achieved by:
  • Promoting volunteerism among neighborhood residents to share knowledge with others about the importance of healthy ecosystems.
  • Forming partnerships between public and private stakeholders in environmental stewardship efforts.
• Disaster risk management involves:
  • Reducing neighborhoods' exposure to hazards and the vulnerability of people and properties to hazards.
  • Improving residents' preparedness in responding to hazards and implementing monitoring and warning systems.
• Community resilience involves:
  • Strengthening relationships among residents and raising their awareness of potential hazards.
  • Developing residents' ability to organize themselves and equip themselves with resources to resist, adapt, and recover from a disaster.

Content Concepts

• Environmental Stewardship: Actions taken by individuals or groups to protect, care for, or responsibly use the environment to pursue environmental and/or social outcomes.
• Volunteerism: The practice of providing time and skills for the benefit of other people and causes rather than for financial benefit.
• Disaster Risk: The likelihood of damage to properties, injuries, and loss of lives from a disaster in a given period of time. It is the product of the interaction between hazard, exposure, and vulnerability.
• Exposure: The situation of people and their belongings located in hazard-prone areas.
• Disaster Risk Management: Applying plans and actions to prevent new risks, reduce existing risks, and manage disaster risks, thus contributing to the strengthening of resilience.
• Community Resilience: The ability of a community to resist, adapt, and recover from the impacts of disasters in a timely and efficient manner.
• Vulnerability: The conditions determined by physical, social, economic, and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibility of people and their belongings to the impacts of hazards.
• Adaptation: The process of making adjustments to actual or expected hazards to moderate harm or take advantage of beneficial opportunities.

Environmental Stewardship

• Environmental stewardship refers to the actions taken by individuals or groups to protect, care for, or responsibly use the environment to pursue environmental and/or social outcomes.
• It can be practiced by individuals, organizations, and/or government.
• Actions should:
  • Seek to conserve natural resources.
  • Preserve the existing natural environment.
  • Repair the damages and reverse the negative impacts caused by humans to ensure its sustainability.
• Environmental stewardship can be broadly achieved through two ways:
  • Promoting volunteerism among neighborhood residents to share knowledge with others about the importance of healthy ecosystems.
    • This helps residents become more aware of what they can and should do to responsibly use and protect the natural environment.
    • The National Parks Board (NParks) promotes volunteerism in communities through ground-led initiatives such as Friends of the Parks. Participants may gain greater community ownership and stewardship of parks in their neighborhoods.
  • Partnership involving public and private sectors contributes to environmental stewardship efforts.
    • Different stakeholders may have different perspectives, resources, and expertise to enhance the environmental stewardship efforts hence it is crucial for them to come together to steward the environment.
    • Urban neighborhoods produce large amounts of waste, so it is important that waste materials are recycled.
    • Residents and public and private stakeholders must all play their part in ensuring an efficient and sustainable waste recycling process.
    • A portion of waste disposed of in recycling bins cannot be recycled. Hence, to ensure that recycling is optimized, public agencies like the National Environment Agency (NEA) should continue to engage residents on the importance of waste recycling as well as how and what they should recycle.
    • Residents play a vital role in the proper recycling of their waste; public agencies enhance awareness and education, while private stakeholders provide recycling facilities. Through this partnership, environmental stewardship efforts can be enhanced and sustained.

Disaster Risk

• Disaster risks refer to the likelihood of damage to properties, injuries, and loss of lives from a disaster in a given period of time.
• Disaster risks are the product of the interaction between three main factors:
  • Nature of hazard: The characteristics of the hazard.
  • Vulnerability: The conditions determined by physical social economic and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibility of people and their belongings to the impacts of hazards.
  • Exposure: The situation of people and their belongings located in hazard-prone areas.

Disaster Risk Management

• Disaster risk management refers to plans and actions that are implemented to prevent new risks from happening, reduce existing risks, and manage disaster risks.
• This strengthens community resilience.
• Disaster risk management strategies aim to reduce:
  • A neighborhood's exposure to hazards, and
  • The vulnerability of people and properties to hazards.
• Singapore has a comprehensive disaster risk management plan. The main agency responding to disasters is the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). Town Councils also have the responsibility to cooperate with other government agencies in securing public safety and preventing disease or injury.
• Singapore's disaster risk management strategies primarily focus on:
  • Improving residents' emergency preparedness to respond to natural and technological hazards.
    • The SCDF conducts a Community Emergency Preparedness Programme (CEPP), which focuses on key lifesaving skills and important emergency procedures.
  • Implementation of monitoring and warning systems.
    • SCDF has a Public Warning System (PWS), which is a network of sirens placed at strategic points throughout the city. It warns the public of imminent threats that may endanger lives and property, such as natural and man-made disasters.

Community Resilience

• Community resilience refers to the ability of a community to resist, adapt to, and recover from impacts of disasters in a timely and efficient manner.
• It can be developed by:
  • Strengthening relationships among residents and raising their awareness of potential hazards.
  • Developing residents' ability to organize themselves and equip themselves with resources to resist, adapt, and recover from a disaster.
• Strengthening of relationships among residents and raising their awareness of potential hazards.
  • Disaster risk management plans in neighborhoods may only be effective and sustainable if there is widespread support and long participation from the residents.
  • Residents are encouraged to get to know their neighbours so that they can depend on one another during an emergency.
    • The People's Association (PA) organizes a wide range of community activities aimed at fostering positive relationships amongst residents living in the neighborhood.
    • Some of the programmes include active ageing, emergency preparedness, and community sports - bringing people of different ages and backgrounds together.
    • The community's resilience was evident throughout the COVID-I pandemic as residents came together to provide assistance to children in need (e.g. mask and food distribution).
• It is important to note that neighbor relations are highly diverse, varying from one group to another and may also occasionally be problematic.
• Developing residents' ability to organize themselves and equip themselves with resources to resist, adapt, and recover from a disaster.
  • Residents in the neighborhood can be involved in an inclusive planning process that involves community leaders, civil society organizations, and the government.
  • When residents actively participate in projects to minimize potential hazards in the neighborhood, they can better understand the risks and adaptation options to communicate to the planners and government.
    • In Singapore, Community First Responders (CFRS) volunteers are important in supporting the government in search and rescue operations, relief work as well as educating the public on simple first-aid and basic firefighting.
    • The Community First Responders (Fire) are alerted to minor rubbish chutes and bin fires within their immediate vicinity and help put out the fires. This helps SCDF optimize its emergency resources to attend to life-threatening and other higher-priority cases.
    • The total defense framework is an all-round response to threats and challenges involving everyone in Singapore. It emphasizes that everyone has a part to play, individually and collectively, to build a strong, secure, and cohesive nation.