14 September 2009

NUS Campus as Living Lab for Smart Sustainable Cities Solutions

The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced its Kent Ridge campus as a living laboratory for smart sustainable solutions to address challenges faced by large cities due to climate change and rapid urbanisation, especially in Asia. The NUS campus offers an excellent environment to testbed innovative infrastructure solutions. Given its diverse population of students and staff, multi-functional built infrastructure and its location in a natural setting, the NUS campus is a microcosm of a compact urban environment.

NUS has been collaborating with the industry, government agencies and research institutions such as Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). This initiative presents an excellent platform for NUS to continue to develop synergistic partnerships with these organisations to advance Singapore as a living lab for urban solutions for future cities.

Elaborating on this initiative, NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said, "Cities will require a range of solutions to become "smarter", more ecologically sound and resource efficient. These solutions should be applicable at different scales in the built environment, from products to buildings and whole cities. NUS has strengths in many relevant research fields. By using our campus as a test-bed, we can study how the work from different research disciplines can be brought together to produce integrated solutions and platforms that can help reshape our urban environments and raise the quality of life in Singapore and other Asian cities."

Ongoing research which has contributed to the understanding of sustainability and climate change will be integrated and studied in totality towards the objectives of the new initiative. The Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment, with their expertise on "Smart Cities" and "Sustainable Cities", will collaborate in establishing standards and best practices for design and development, and in studying how the different components of the built infrastructure or system will interact with each other.

The School of Design and Environment (SDE) is currently engaged in research to develop planning and design solutions that are climatically responsive, innovative ideas on energy-efficient architecture for the tropical environment, as well as creative urban spaces that integrate environmental factors and intensive greenery.

Professor Heng Chye Kiang, Dean, NUS School of Design and Environment, said, "According to the United Nations, two billion more people will be living in the world's cities in 2030. This scale of rapid urbanisation will put a huge strain on the quality, efficiency and resilience of urban infrastructure, especially those related to energy, water, transportation, security and the environment (both built and natural). Coupled with the impact of climate changes, the problem is even more challenging. Hence, we would need a concerted effort to address such issues."

Currently, the School serves as the demonstration site for testing practical applications of multi-functional photovoltaic panels, which can be creatively integrated into the architecture to achieve aesthetic facade treatment, while creating usable space and saving energy costs. The School is also testing the suitability of various plants in relation to the building substrate on roofs and walls for their insulating properties against heat gain within built structures. See Annex 1 for photos of these experimental green roofs and walls in the School.

Researchers from the School have also conducted a micro-climatic study of the Kent Ridge Campus. The study has developed an urban climatic map for the Prince Georges' Park residential area, which identified the hot and cool spots. With this map, solutions such as introducing more greenery to mitigate the problem of heat islands can be implemented. This climatic map will help NUS planners better understand the environmental implications of future developments, and ensure that such developments will be carried out in a sustainable way to minimise energy consumption, promote good airflow and ventilation, and enhance the comfort of the campus' residents. Please refer to Annex 2 for the climate maps that have been developed under the study

Other joint efforts between the School and the Faculty of Engineering are also underway to develop solutions that would couple innovative planning, creative design and the extensive use of technologies to embed intelligence so that buildings and other physical infrastructure and lifeline systems become a seamless entity that is self-learning and able to respond intelligently to its environment. Areas currently being looked into include transportation, energy, water and the built environment. Some examples of research projects are provided in Annex 3.

Annex 1
Annex 2
Annex 3