Singapore Green Plan 2012

Local tours & thoughts:

The Singapore Green Plan is a ten year plan, launched in 2002 - a blueprint for environmental sustainability, wast management, clean air, water supply and ecology. 2007 is the halfway point. Fall 2008 - could be a time to see and review what was done in the first seven years and discuss what still needs to be done in the final three years.

A $20 billion transportation system is being development. The MRT network will more than double in size. It's an important investment since few people own cars.

Sustainable Cities - meeting description

Sustainable Cities - applying science and technology to achieve economic and environmental sustainablity.

For thousands of years, cities have prospered or declined. Populations ebb and flow based on quality of life and many other factors in the cities and in the surroundings. This international conference will explore how innovatoins in science and technology are being used to enhance city living, urban economies and environmental qualities.

* Sustainable infrasturcture (private buildings, public transit, roads, airports). Also, balancing a historical sense of place with new construction (what makes a particular city unique, and how to maintain that uniqueness?)

* Healthy populations (hospitals, health care, public health planning, disaster response, assisting the poor)

* The urban / nature interface (parks, green buildings, regional planning, public/private partnerships, cities and extreme weather events)

These are some of our ideas from this week.

Eric Howard

More details on conference topics

• Transportation infrastructure (roads, rail, bus service, airports, bike lanes, pedestrian zones)
• Internet/communications infrastructure
• Running a City – Science & business practices applied to city management
• Clean drinking water, Water treatment, Recycling, Solid waste disposal
• Cities and storms/weather (winter storms, drought, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena)
• Urban disaster planning (big topic in USA – terrorism response, hurricane response, earthquake response)
• Building infrastructure & energy efficiency
• Demographic change and Health care – hospitals, elderly issues, neo-natal care, etc
• Absorbing migrants (low-income people from countryside or foreigners)
• Tracking people (ID cards, facial recognition software)
• Crime & Policing (video surveillance, computers in police cars, forensics)
• Applications of geographic Information (satellite images, GPS tracking of things)
• Cities as hubs for private sector R&D

The Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology (FAST) is anticipating an opportunity to co-host an international conference on Science & Technology for Sustainable Cities. As part of the conference, there will be discussion groups and a poster session.

Your input is needed – what topics would you and your colleagues like to see discussed/presented at such as conference?

Interesting topics include

• Building infrastructure & energy efficiency
• Transportation infrastructure
• Internet/communications infrastructure
• Waste disposal
• Cities and Sea Level Rise
• Cities and Health care – hospitals, elderly issues, neo-natal care, etc
• Crime, Forensics, Policing
• Cities as hubs for private sector R&D
• Jobs for the bottom 25% of the income pyramid

Please click on the comments button and share some of your ideas.

The meeting is currently scheduled for October 19-21, 2008. There will be more details in January, but in the meantime, we would welcome you input on the themes for discussion.

If you would like to see a video about FAST and our mission, please click here to visit our webpage.