But exactly how can Singapore protect its valuable built environment from rising seas?īy 2100, the sea level around Singapore will be about a metre higher than it is now, according to projections from Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat. Unlike less fortunate neighbours such as Jakarta, whose steady decline into the sea is to cost the metropolis its status as Indonesia’s capital, Singapore is one of the world’s cities best adapted to climate risks. “It’s our neighbours downtown who could be underwater,” he said.

Speaking to Eco-Business at International Built Environment Week in September, a Changi Airport executive who did not reveal his name said that greenfield sites like the new airport terminal would be safe. Tan Szue Hann, managing director, Miniwiz Sea level rise will be extremely gradual. New buildings are to be built four metres above mean sea level, and critical infrastructure at least another metre higher. Singapore’s plans to defend against rising seas include building sea walls, polders, and new islands made from reclaimed land. One-third of Singapore, including the central business district, is less than 5 metres above sea level-not as low as the Netherlands, one third of which lies below sea level, but low enough to worry the city-state’s famously foresighted urban planners. Rising sea levels is a problem that the heavily urbanised city-state is taking very seriously. In August, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that S$100 billion (US$72 billion) could be spent on climate change adaptation, including ways to prevent the island from disappearing beneath the waves.

So said Christiana Figueres, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, at a sustainability event in Singapore four months ago. If the world does not dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore’s flagship tourist attraction, will become “Gardens beneath the Bay.”

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