As with the rest of the world, Singapore, too, will face more extreme conditions as the world warms, experts told The Sunday Times as recent weather events continue to wreak havoc in the northern hemisphere.
The devastating Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, has hurtled its way through the Caribbean and the Florida coastline. Tropical cyclones have also ripped across other parts of the world, such as Texas in the United States, Hong Kong and Macau.
Singapore remains relatively insulated from such storms due to its location on the equator. But the island will not be spared from extended dry spells, warm periods and flash floods.
“The concerns for Singapore would be increased frequency of droughts and flash flooding, due to increased rainfall over the years,” said Assistant Professor Winston Chow, a weather researcher at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Geography Department.
2016 was also Singapore’s hottest year, with the annual mean temperature rising to 28.4 degree Celsius.
“The urban heat island effect and, increasingly, anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change, both contribute to higher temperatures in Singapore,” said Dr Benjamin Grandey, a research scientist from the Centre for Environmental Sensing and Modeling at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.
The urban heat island effect refers to how city temperatures are higher than in rural areas, because of more heat released from buildings, roads and vehicles.
NUS’ Prof Chow noted Singapore has taken steps to reduce the impact of flash floods, droughts and heat waves by improving drainage to reduce flood-prone areas, developing weather-proof technologies like desalination and NEWater, and cooling the island by growing urban green spaces such as rooftop gardens.
Research is also being carried out to protect food supplies from the effects of extreme weather events. Associate Professor Adam Switzer, academic associate chair at the Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment, said the impact of typhoons on rice yields is being studied to “better prepare the region for potential rice losses from typhoons, sea level rise and floods“.
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Source: The Straits Times, 10 September 2017