For Plan Plus Revised Faysal

Focus from Economic Development to Environmental Sustainability: experiences from the Concept Plan of Singapore

Planner Faysal Kabir Shuvo1

BURP(BUET), M.Sc Env. Mgt. (NUS)Ph.D Scholar, National University of Singapore

Abstract

Asia is one of the poor continents and within it the South Asian countries are poorer than other Asian countries. However, these countries are facing the highest rate of urbanization with little or no plan, haphazard and spontaneous developments along with poor infrastructures and settlement qualities. Many of Asian cities, though started with these deficits, have successfully grown out of those through rational urban planning and effective implementation, for example Singapore. In this paper Singapore is presented as an example for how a city can achieve a global recognition through proper planning practices. A main reason behind why Singapore is brought here because of its size that can be compared with any major cities of Bangladesh. At the same time while presenting the planning success stories of Singapore, the author hopes that the concerned authority in cooperation with the Government can take any of major cities or metropolitan cities as pilot project to follow Singapore.

1 Corresponding author’s email address: [email protected]

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Though in planning education at our universities, sometimes Singapore is highlighted as the example for the successful management of public housing demand, exploring Singapore reveals more than the only success in mitigating public housing demands. From personal viewpoint, this is really a live example of justified urban planning to live comfortably for the multi-cultured communities. The country got its independence only six years earlier to Bangladesh. However, the expedition towards how an island city cum country with an area not more than 700 sq. km has achieved a tremendous economical progress over the last two decades while maintaining a quality living environment is really astonishing. Just a simple example can be quoted here is the unemployment rate in 2008 as per the Yearbook of Statistics Singapore 2009 was only 2.2% amid a global economic crisis and job cut, which reveals the indication of a dynamic and proactive national strategic planning and their effective implementation. The national strategic plan that drives Singapore’s economical and physical development is called concept plan, a broad-brush planning approach to achieve long term planning objectives with a provision of every 10 years review. When Singapore became an independent state, the city was facing similar problems like our major cities, i.e. polluted rivers and riverside activities, slums and squatter settlements, street vendors etc. However, a dramatic change could be made possible to eliminate these informalities due to progressive leadership of the contemporary Government bodies and their visionary decisions especially by long term strategic plans. Singapore is successful in providing the basic needs like shelters for each person by state itself. Singapore formulated their first concept plan in 1991 and the latest one was in 2001, and the next Concept Plan is to come in next 2011. All these two concept plans have included broad strategies for achieving a unique business hub with an urban quality of living as well as a distinct city in terms of enhancing cultural diversity. There is no doubt about the Singapore government’s vigorous commitment to implement its strategic planning policies with the reasonable approaches, however, there are still some issues are left behind just like the darkness at the bottom point of a lamp. The concept plans of Singapore did not entirely focus on the environmental sustainability issues; however, they have recently stepped forward to include the major sustainability initiatives within the national strategies by preparing Singapore Green Plan 2012 and subsequent follow up to reach the targets. This report has highlighted the changing focus of Singapore government while preparing the national strategic plan and implements them through local spatial planning and redevelopment.

The following section has revealed the planning process and the main focuses of Singapore Concept Plan 2001 and the status quo

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AN OVERVIEW OF CONCEPT PLAN 2001 AND STATUS QUO

Singapore is a fully urbanized country and the spatial planning system is largely based on British development plan, therefore its development plan is also two tiered like England (Yuen et. al 2005). Accordingly in Singapore, the concept plan is a long term strategic plan which is translated in the local plans (master plan and development guide plan). To date so far two concept plans i.e. Concept Plan 1991 and 2001; consequent Master plan 2003 and 2008 have been operating to modernize Singapore. The spatial planning approach is mostly a ‘top-down’ approach where the planning decision is taken at the top level of Government through various levels of consultations and public consents (figure 1).

Figure 1: the Top-Down planning approach of Singapore Development Plans

Faced with the constraints of land and natural resources, the main aim of the first concept plan (1991) was to carefully select land uses and optimal land use (Ker, 2002). Subsequently, the

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Priority fixing for development (Govt level)

Strategic Review (top level)

Consultation

Focus groups Public feedbackPublic Forum

Draft Final Plan

Final Concept Plan

Local Plan

Master Plan DGP

Unit of Singapore Land

latest concept plan (2001) has carried on the same focuses of the planning strategies, which are housing, recreation, business and identity. These have duly focused on two pillars of sustainable development, i.e. economic development and social progress; however, noticeably Singapore has not responded well to the third pillar of the sustainability if we look at the key proposals of Concept Plan 2001 at table 1. Therefore, at the conceptual level the strategies for environmental sustainability are not substantially included in the focuses.

Table 1: The Key Proposals as in the Singapore Concept Plan 2001

Key Proposals in Singapore Concept Plan 2001Housingi. New homes in familiar placesii. High-rise city living - a room with a view

RecreationMore choices for recreation

Businessi. Greater flexibility of businessesii. A global business centeriii. An extensive rail network

IdentityFocus on identity

Corresponding with the concerned departments and agencies, the progress towards accomplishment of the key proposals are investigated in the study. Table 2 (next page) is showing the status quo of the concept plan2 implementations.

Table 2: The Status Quo of the current Concept Plan of Singapore

Status Quo2 The graphical representation of Singapore Concept Plan can be seen at http://www.ura.gov.sg/gallery/images/2001YearXConceptPlanA3.pdf

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Population Scenario

Housing Scenario Recreational

Scenario

Business Scenario Identity

Concept Plan 2001 was prepared for projected population of 5.5 million upto 2011. The department of Statistics in Singapore showed in the 2009 population trend report that the population at the end of June 2009 is 4.99 million of which 1.25 million is non-resident.

There is an increased number of housing units in Bukit Merah, Bedok, Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio in response to the concept plan provision

High density is gradually introduced (30 stories or higher) to allow more people live in higher floors

New central area is under construction along with integrated resort development to cater more inhabitants in the central area.

There are 3300 ha of green areas as of today compared to the 900 ha in the pre Concept Plan 2001

The National Parks Board is entitled to plan and implement island-wide green way planning by connecting various parks. This way is to be comprised of jogging and cycling track as well as a strip of trees. Already there is implemented ‘Eastern Coastal Loop’ connecting eight parks (Siglap, Tampines, Pasir Ris, Loyang, Simei, Bedok, Coastal and Changi)Public Utility Board has undertaken ABC plan (see appendix) to introduce more low impact water sports facilities in various reservoirs and waterbodies, those are used for water conservations.

Someshort distanced are conserved as per the provision of keeping rustic areas; they are also planned to integrate with nearest parks to increase the overall green coverage.

Both the number and output of high-value added industries, as per definition in the CP, have been increasing since pre-CP2001 period.

A separate island (Jurong Island) is reclaimed for locating pollutive petrochemical industries complying with the strategies of new industrial and business zoning system.

Popular shopping malls and supermarkets are established around the MRT to use land optimally in the sense of conveniently locating business activities and industries close to the transport nodes.

There are already three circles of MRT lines (Green, Red and Purple) with 113.2 km in length; three more circle lines are to come in near future as well the MRT coverage is also under expansion to make it like door service, e.g. very recently Pioneer and Joo Koon MRT stations are added in green line.

Identity Plan 2002

identified Balestier,

Tanjong Katong,

Jalan Besar, Joo

Chiat/East Coast

Road as to conserve

built environment as

part of the strategy

to introduce

Singapore’s identity.

As Singapore is the

multi-cultured state,

it has planned to

conserve historical

buildings from each

ethnicity to exhibit

uniqueness.

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CONCEPT PLAN

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The concept plan was entitled to physically develop Singapore in order to meet the local demands as well as to ensure the global outlook considering its land constraints (Keung, 1998). In the ‘State of the Report on Environmental Sustainability 2005’, Singapore is claimed to be densely populated, intensely urbanized, highly industrialized and economically successful. Analysis of various socio-economic time series indicators also indicate a thriving position of Singapore in the world in terms of per capita GDP, the third highest living cost in the world, its iconic green city structure, one of the busiest sea ports, Asia’s third best airport, recently as the Formula 1 venue and so on. Therefore, undoubtedly it can be said that Singapore is now one of the important business hubs in Asia mainly for its strategic geographical location and remarkably the successful implementation of sound policies with its political consistencies. These global outlooks of Singapore have been achieved only within the last 30-40 years; however, during the same time it had to meet the internal demands of housing and accessibility, jobs and business opportunities, social and cultural harmony, education and training, environment and conservation.

The status quo of the previous section reveals the strong implementation rate of the concept plan strategies. This is really an extraordinary achievement of Singapore on its way forward which are made possible because of, as Ker (2002) identified four success factors- strong political commitment, sound policies, assessment of achievements and competent professional bodies; however, among all these factors ‘political commitment’ seems to be the most important especially for a small country like Singapore. In addition, the highly educated government bodies and a rational nation have been playing a strong role to facilitate implementation of the development plans. In the most of the developing countries, like Bangladesh, development plans can not be fully implemented mainly due to political instabilities; hence democratic practice is not playing a good role. Singapore political system is neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic but it can be said a smart dictatorship; however, an argue can be placed here that if people’s major and basic demands are fulfilled, they will not be bothered by government’s role much and Singapore governments is highly successful meeting those demands- diverse planning strategies of concept plan 2001 is an appropriate example of the above proponent.

In contrast to the above success sides, the CP2001 strategies have not focus on several important local and global issues which are briefly discussed below-

i. The concept plan 2001 did not duly recognized the ‘sustainable development’ or ‘global warming issues’ in their strategies, though these issues were prevailing as hot topics of the time.

ii. In terms of environmental concerns, concept plan has much focused on the enhancement of green areas for healthy living of its citizen, but the issue of ‘Urban

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Heat Island’ emanating from household energy uses or GHG emissions from vehicles etc are not duly spelled out in the concept plan strategies. Both of these issues have local and global implications respectively.

iii. This is not to mention that Singapore Government’s prime aim was to foster economy in the concept plan. Therefore, the CP 2001 has encouraged the business and industrial development but not made the provisions to make them environmentally accountable.

iv. The concept plan 2001 is development incentive but Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is not advocated for the development works. Therefore, big projects like Sentosa IR and Marina bay IR is under development without EIA.

v. The provision of regional centers is an effective strategy to limit journey towards downtown. However, at the same time intensification of businesses and services in central area will pull more car journeys towards downtown.

vi. Again, the CP 2001 has emphasized on high density residential developments but efficient uses of resources were not emphasized in the concept plan strategies. Therefore, it can be said that Singapore Government was reluctant from considering environmental sustainability both in the CP 1991 and CP 2001.

vii. Apart from environmental sustainability, CP2001 has not addressed the water demand management properly, though water is another scare resource of Singapore and per capita water consumption is also high.

viii. In spite of the success of public housing program, it has lack-of-fit to some extent especially for elderly and poor people because of debts and irregular earning of household main wage-earner and when she is a female. The CP 2001 has not focused on this crucial socio-economic issue.

ix. In the CP 2001 high-value added industries have included electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biomedical sciences and engineering; however, IT-based industries like outsourcing can add significant value especially with very good IT infrastructure in Singapore.

x. Though the CP2001 has given immense emphasize on the identity of being a Singaporean but it is very difficult to define a unique identity of Singaporean because of diverse social structures and cultures. Practically, there are very little interactions across races in Singapore. Moreover, Singapore is now not only confined in three major races (Chinese, Malay and Indian); a good number of European, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Burmese, Nepalese are living now especially as high or low-paid worker, ignoring whose influences may give another lack-of-fit. Therefore, it seems to be a valid question whether the current strategies to conserve identity is sufficient to give a unique identity of Singapore particularly when land is scarce and valuable (near city center), inclusion of artificial decorations in natural settings (Sentosa beach,

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Singapore river), lack of yardstick for new towns to be unique and so on. However, still Singapore’s ‘city in garden’ image can be believed to be a unique identity.

MOVE TOWARDS ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY

The first initiative towards inclusion of environmental sustainability issues in national development processes of Singapore is the preparation of Singapore Green Plan 2012 which is a 10 years termed environmental planning undertaken by Singapore Ministry of Environment and Water Resources in 2002. This is the first ever environmental sustainability plan prepared by Singapore Government and literally all the deficits discussed in the previous section are accommodated in this plan. This has been brought into light in line with Singapore’s preparation for World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 (WSSD) (MEWR). The preparation process of Singapore Green Plan 2012 is shown in figure 2, which reveals also the ‘top-down’ approach for a national environmental planning. The principles that have governed in preparing this plan are i) sustainable development, ii) Natural resources management, iii)Polluter pays, iv)Product stewardship, v) Comprehensive plan, vi)Green growth; and during its preparation the challenges found are particulate matter in air, population growth, biodiversity loss, energy and water efficiency.

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Figure 2: The Top-Down Approach of Singapore Green Plan 2012 (the First Environmental Sustainability Plan in Singapore)

Air and Climate Change

Water Int. Environmental Relations

Public Health

NatureWaste Management

Unit of Singapore Land

Policies and Key Targets

World Summit for Sustainable Development, 2002

Singapore Govt Initiatives (NPC formation)

Focus Group 1Economic Development

Focus Group 2Regional and International

Focus Group 3Environment and Public Health

The outcome of the planning process is target setting for the six indicators identified for Singapore‘s environmental sustainability, e.g. air, water, solid waste, nature, public health and international co-operation. As the target year 2012 is very near and some of the targets already have been met as well as responding to the global challenge of climate change, new targets have been set for 2030 by Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development (IMCSD) in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint which is launched in 2009. The key targets for both Singapore Green Plan 2012 and IMCSD Sustainable Singapore Blueprint are given at table 3.

Table 3: The Target values of Environmental Variables for Singapore Green Plan 2012 and IMCSD 2030

Singapore Green Plan 2012 Targets IMCSD Sustainable Singapore TargetsAir and Climate ChangeTo reduce the ambient PM 2.5 level to within an annual average ofv15μg/m3 by 2014.

To reduce ambient PM2.5 level to 12μg/m3 by 2020 and maintain at this level till 2030.

To improve carbon intensity by 25% from 1990 levels by 2012.

To reduce energy intensity (energy consumed per dollar GDP) by 20% from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 35% from 2005 levels by 2030.

WaterIncrease supply of water from non-conventional sources, such as desalination and water reclamation, to at least 25% of Singapore’s water demand.

Expand NEWater and desalination infrastructure to support future industry needs.

Ensure that water quality continues to meet international standards.

Improve overall water quality and the water quality at all popular beaches.

Reduce domestic water consumption to 155L per person per day by 2012.

Reduce domestic water consumption to 147L per person per day by 2020, and to 140L by 2030.

Waste ManagementIncrease the overall waste recycling rate from 40% in 2000 to 60% by 2012.

Achieve 65% and 70% overall waste recycling rate by 2020 and 2030 respectively.

NatureVerify and update information on indigenous flora and Implement a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action

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fauna through biodiversity surveys. Plan to research, document and conserve biodiversityin Singapore. Develop a City Biodiversity Index withinternational partners to promote biodiversity conservation efforts among cities globally.

Establish more parks and green linkages. Provide 0.8 ha of park land per 1000 persons by 2030. In the shorter term, increase the amount of green park space by 900 ha by 2020 Increase the length of park connectors from 100 to 360 km by 2020 and developing new leisure options around green spaces. Add some 30 ha and 50 ha of skyrise greenery by 2020 and 2030 respectively, including 9 ha of green roofs on multi-storey carparks in public housing estates

Public HealthIncrease community ownership to sustain a high standard of public health.

Sustain public education, cleaning and enforcement.

To accomplish the associated activities to meet the targets, various statutory organizations entitled for looking after different development activities of Singapore have undertaken various rewarding skims. For example, Building Construction Authority (BCA) has started to reward ‘Green Mark’3 for resource efficient buildings, offices etc. Green Plot Ratio4 is highly emphasized for new developments to enhance urban greenery by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). For the pollutive industrial complexes Jurong Town Council (JTC)has planned for on the basis of industrial symbiosis; that means the industries are in a symbiotic relationship, i.e. one industry’s wastes can be used as resources for another industry or sharing the resources transportation and individual uses of which may have worse impact on the environment.

CONCLUSION

Singapore has already spent more than four decades after its independence and has reached in an economically vibrant city of the world. The economic transformation of Singapore is occurred in

3 Green Mark is a green building assessment system to evaluate a building for its environmental impact and performance initiated by BCA. The assessment criteria cover the following key areas:

Energy Efficiency Water Efficiency Environmental Protection Indoor Environmental Quality Other Green Features and Innovation

4 Green Plot Ratio or GPR is a greenery indicator to use in urban planning, which is developed by Dr. Ong Boon lay who is also a faculty of National University of Singapore. The basic principle of GPR is like building plot ratio so the GPR value can be prefixed depending on the proposed green area on the buildings and green type (shrub, grass or trees). Dr. Ong used this green type as LAI or Leaf Area Index; the value of LAI for grass, bushes and matured trees of dense canopy are respectively 1, 3 and 6 to 10. We can easily estimate how much LAI we are losing and how we can compensate by planning plantation in the form of vertical gardening, roof gardening and re-plantation. For example, for the proposed development on an area of 500 SqM , a piece of area 30 SqM of grass land, 50 SqM of shrub land and 20 SqM of matured tree are need to destroy so the total LAI we are losing (30*1+50*3+20*6)/500=0.6 so during planning phase we can compensate this loss by intellectual design.

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line with the Government’s strategies to foster sustain economic growth that are spelled out in the concept plans. So far the CP 1991 and CP 2001 both have focused on the sustainable economic development and urban quality of living. While ensuring these objectives, they have been less caring for environmental sustainability or responsive to the global environmental issues like ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change’. So, this is now a great opportunity for Singapore to be a model country for the outer world in addressing the environmental issues in their strategic plan, therefore, should change the regime of concept plan in 2011. Critical to the planning scenario of Bangladesh, if we look at the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) for example, there are no follow through of the planning strategies made at the concept level. Neither critical assessment of DMDP is the core of this paper nor should we fully expect that our cities be planned like Singapore. However, our government and urban managers can take the legible extraction to be applied in a growing up city of Bangladesh as a test case. It is accepted that, in the democratic practices many micro scale planning initiatives may not successful but through effective consultations and negotiations many uncertainties can be hopefully overcome.

Abbreviations

CP Concept PlanURA Urban Redevelopment AuthorityBCA Building Construction AuthorityGHG Green House GasMRT Mass Rapid Transit

NParks National Parks BoardPUB Public Utility BoardABC Active Beautiful and CleanIR Integrated Resort

References

B.L, Ong (2003) “Green Plot Ratio: an ecological measure for architecture and urban planning” Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol 63 (2003), Pp 197

Blake, Myrna (1997) “Lack-of Fit: Effects of the Public Housing Program on the Poor and Elderly” in City & the state: Singapore's built environment revisited, eds Ooi, G.L. and Kwok, K. Time Academic Press, Singapore Pp 149

Ker, Liu Thai (2002) “Urbanizing Singapore: Optimizing Resources” Megacities Lectures (2002), Megacity foundation, Netherlands; Pp 13

Keung, John (1998) “Planning for Sustainable Urban Development: the Singapore Approach” in Planning Singapore: From Plan to Implementation, eds Singapore Institute of Planners; published by Singapore Institute of Planners; Pp 11

Statistical Year Book of Singapore, 2009

Yuen, B. and Soh, E. Y. (2005) “Government-aided participation in planning Singapore” Cities, 23(1), Pp 30

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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20090928/tap-789-singapore-population-4-99m-older-231650b.html accessed on 28th September, 2009

Singapore Concept Plan 2001; http://www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2001/ accessed on 15 July, 2009

Singapore Green Plan 2012 http://www.mewr.gov.sg/sgp2012/about.htm accessed on 15 July, 2009

Singapore Green Plan 2012 http://www.mewr.gov.sg/sgp2012/index_2006.htm accessed on 15 July, 2009

Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) Program/initiativeshttp://app.mewr.gov.sg/web/Contents/Contents.aspx?ContId=1342 accessed on 18 July, 2009

Towards Environmental Sustainability: State of the Environment 2005 Report, Singaporehttp://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan026873.pdf accessed on 18 July, 2009

BCA Green Mark http://www.bca.gov.sg/GreenMark/green_mark_buildings.html accessed on 7 August, 2009

PUB ABC Plan http://www.pub.gov.sg/abcwaters/ABCWaterMasterPlan/Pages/default.aspx accessed on 18 July, 2009

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Appendix

The Strategies of ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) Water Master Plan (Source: PUB, Singapore)

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The ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) Water Master Plan (Source: PUB, Singapore)

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