The Big Read: Without fanfare, a 40-strong team is laying the groundwork to save Singapore from sea level rise
SINGAPORE: Many people sat up and took notice when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at the 2019 National Day Rally about spending S$100 billion over the next 50 to 100 years to protect Singapore from rising sea levels.
It was after all, a matter of "life and death", as Mr Lee put it.
Since then, the buzz has somewhat dwindled as more pressing issues occupied Singaporeans' minds. And there was also the not insignificant matter of a pandemic which seized Singapore and the rest of the world, and very much put everything else on hold.
Quietly in the background though, efforts to lay the groundwork to protect Singapore's coastal areas have continued unabated: For now, the gigantic task of preventing parts of the island from becoming partially submerged beneath the waves — possibly by the end of the century if nothing is done — falls onto a group of public servants comprising senior assistant director Sarah Hiong, 36, senior engineer Eugene Lim, 33, and their colleagues from national water agency PUB’s coastal protection department.
Not that any of them are fazed by the size of the undertaking — the urgency and significance of which, in fact, seem to be lost on some members of the public such as the team members' own friends and family.
“During Chinese New Year, or even at gatherings, when I tell them (friends and family) about my job, they will be like, ‘Oh, what is sea level rise and what do you do?’” said Mr Lim.
But instead of getting disheartened by the lack of awareness, Mr Lim said their curiosity often presents him with an opportunity to educate them on the need to get Singapore ready for rising sea levels caused by global warming and melting ice sheets.
Mr Lim has been with PUB for eight years. He previously held an operations-related role in another PUB department, and was assigned to the coastal protection department in 2020 when it was first formed.
The coastal protection department currently has more than 40 members.
“Transiting from an operations role to a planning role was something very, very new to me … but I thought it would be very exciting to be part of a pioneer team of engineers embarking on a journey to protect Singapore from sea level rise.”
Today, his team manages Singapore’s first site-specific study for the City-East Coast coastline which covers 57.8km of coastline across areas including Changi, East Coast, Marina East, Marina South as well as part of the Greater Southern Waterfront. The study was announced a year ago and is slated to complete by 2025.
Part of the job, said Mr Lim, entails understanding the characteristics unique to the area, which will then allow PUB to design suitable coastal protection measures.
Although the department was formed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Lim said it has been making “steady progress in charting coastal protection strategies to combat rising sea levels”.
According to data from the National Climate Change Secretariat, about 30 per cent of Singapore is less than 5m above sea level.
The sea levels are projected to rise by 1m by 2100. However, they could go up to 4m or 5m above today's mean sea level if factors such as daily tidal activity, storm surges and land subsidence — the sinking of land caused by tectonic movement — are taken into account, said PUB on its website.
Referencing these facts, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said in March that this is “high enough to potentially flood one-third of Singapore”.
PUB was appointed in April 2020 to lead and coordinate the Government’s efforts to protect Singapore’s coastlines.
In any case, Ms Fu described coastal protection in her speech in March as a “long-term endeavour”.
Among those in the coastal protection department helping with this endeavour is Ms Hiong and her masterplanning and regulatory team.
Ms Hiong, who has been with PUB for 13 years, said her division is responsible for reviewing Singapore’s long term-coastal protection strategies, policies and regulations that need to be put in place.
“As climate science and projections are continuously evolving, we have to think about the implications of different scenarios of sea level rise on Singapore. This complicates the planning of coastal protection strategies,” said Ms Hiong, adding that coastal protection against rising sea level is a relatively new field here.
Unlike Mr Lim, Ms Hiong was previously from a department dealing with climate change adaptation plans for water supply and drainage infrastructure and was already “plugged” into the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Coastal Adaptation Study.
“As much as (the topic of) coastal protection is familiar to me, it is also exciting to be part of a brand new function for PUB.
“I think of it like a blank canvas. Today there is no coastal protection policy or master plan in place, so it is up to this team to … set the rules, so to speak,” she said.
Still, Ms Hiong was quick to stress that this does not mean that the coastal protection department is working in the dark.
Aside from using BCA’s study as a starting point, she said Singapore is also learning from other nations which have already begun their journey such as the United Kingdom and the world leader in coastal protection technologies, the Netherlands.
She added that PUB has also set up a coastal protection panel, comprising experts here and abroad, to strengthen its knowledge and expertise in coastal engineering.
“So that really mitigates the problem of us working in the dark,” she said.
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Possible solutions being studied
Among the suggestions given by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to tackle rising sea levels during his 2019 National Day Rally was one that involved reclaiming a series of islands offshore from Marina East to Changi, connecting them up with barrages and creating a reservoir, similar to Marina Reservoir.
Singapore has also already put in place some measures, including the use of polders, which are tracts of land that lie below sea level and are reclaimed through the building of dykes, drainage canals and pumping stations.
There is an ongoing polder project on Pulau Tekong, led by the Housing and Development Board, that is more than halfway complete and set to finish by the end of 2024.
Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said last month that the project, the first of its kind for Singapore, will help the nation to gain experience in developing polders, which “could be an option for coastal protection and resilience against sea-level rise”.
There are also plans to build infrastructure higher above the sea level. Professor Benjamin Horton, the director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University, said that Changi Airport, for example, is building Terminal 5 at 5.5m above present sea level to protect against future rising sea levels.
“We can further think about engineering advances that will enable buildings to float,” he added.
PUB's coastal protection department is also looking at other possible solutions, with senior assistant director Sarah Hiong reiterating that it is “important to study all options, even long-term ones, comprehensively”.
Here are some other alternatives being studied by Singapore:
SEA WALLS AND ROCK REVETMENTS
Both are hard structures that protect against coastal erosion. At present, PUB says they line about 70 per cent of Singapore’s coastlines.
“Building sea walls around the entire Singapore is a simple and direct but not an entirely feasible solution, because we also have to consider the interactions between the land and sea,” said senior engineer Eugene Lim from PUB's coastal protection team.
For example, this could include natural coastal habitats, recreation and industries that require waterfront access.
“It will also not be aesthetically pleasing for the public too. Try imagining having a great wall built around the entire coastline of Singapore,” he added.
NATURE-BASED HYBRID SOLUTIONS
Mr Lim said PUB intends to explore hybrid solutions, which combine engineering solutions with nature-based elements, including the planting of mangroves, seagrasses or vegetation.
A benefit of this option, said Mr Lim, is that it provides an opportunity for Singapore to create habitats to enhance biodiversity.
However, it will not be possible to rely entirely on nature-based elements.
Taking mangroves as an example, Associate Professor Koh Tieh Yong, a weather and climate scientist from the School of Science and Technology at Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), said that when sea level rises, the higher seawater will still infiltrate mangrove lands.
“During a storm, mangrove tree roots serve to break up the waves and hold down the earth, thus reducing coastal erosion. In this way, mangroves can protect areas further inland until the sea rises beyond a level where even mangroves cannot thrive.”
Thus, there will still be a need to pair it with man-made structures like sea walls as the main solution to sea level rise, he said.
Another downside is that most of Singapore’s coastal land is needed for residences, industries, maritime port, airport or recreational beaches and so cannot be replaced by mangroves.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL COASTAL DEFENCES
Due to Singapore’s land scarcity, multifunctional structures such as Marina Barrage, would be an ideal solution, said Mr Lim.
The barrage not only provides a source of water supply, it acts as flood control and even a venue for recreation — a “hot spot for families” to have picnics, fly kites and spend quality time together, he said.
One overseas example that protects against sea level rise which Ms Hiong highlighted is the Katwijk underground parking garage in the Netherlands, where much of the country is below sea level.
Designed by the Royal institute of Dutch Architects, it was the winner of the Best Dutch Building of the Year in 2016.
Situated beside a popular beach, the project is a car park that is not only able to house 650 cars, but also plays a critical role as a dyke to protect the small, eponymous town against future floods.
What is interesting about the project, said Ms Hiong, is that “you can't even tell that it's actually a coastal protection measure” because it is concealed within a sand dune so that it blends in with the beachfront.
“So this is an example that really inspired us… to build something that not only has such an important use for the nation, but also something that the public will actually come to enjoy,” she said.
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