Cooling Singapore meets New York City

by Heiko Aydt and Lea Ruefenacht, 13.12.2018
Panel discussion on Urban Heat Challenges at the New School, Oct 2018. (photo credit: Swiss Consulate in New York City)

Cooling Singapore met with experts in the field of urban warming in New York City and discussed how to compare, learn and respond to the urban heat challenge our cities are facing today. The Archtober 2018, New York City’s annual Architecture and Design Month, offered a great platform to exchange ideas, share insights and discuss  heat mitigation strategies, citizen engagement and climate-responsive planning.

Coming from the tropical city of Singapore and being used to high temperatures, high humidity and low wind speeds we quickly realised that, in comparison, New York City feels rather windy and cold around this time of the year. However, despite this chilly impression, New York City is facing challenges with its Urban Heat Island (UHI) – just like Singapore. This was a great opportunity to talk about the Cooling Singapore project and learn from our fellow speakers what is done about similar issues in New York City.

Some of the main topics discussed during the event were the impact of the UHI effect and thermal discomfort, both representing a serious challenge to cities and their inhabitants. Growing populations, densification of the urban environment, reduced vegetation and increased energy consumption, all contribute to this challenge. The detrimental impact of the UHI effect on health, the economy and liveability in general is subject to intense studies and research. How can cities respond to this challenge? This and other questions were intensely debated during the 'Responsive Cities: Urban Heat Challenges' panel on 23 October 2018 at the Parsons School of Design.
Simulated Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in Singapore. (photo credit: Cooling Singapore)
The list below sums up the key takeaways from that discussion:
COMPARE
Although NYC and Singapore face a similar challenge, their way of addressing it may be quite different. This is due to the difference in climatic conditions, cultural backgrounds and urban configuration of the two cities. What works in Singapore may not work in New York City and vice versa.
LEARN
This event was a great opportunity to also learn about new initiatives NYC is currently undertaking. From Daniella Henry, Senior Policy Adviser at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resilience, we learned how to measure the risks associated with rising temperatures by mapping physical, social and health risk factors. Their findings indicate that, in particular, poor neighbourhoods are most at risk from increasing temperatures.
RESPOND
Jeffrey Raven, Director of the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Design at the New York Institute of Technology, highlighted the importance of developing a planning and performance management system (based on the “STAR Community Index”) that can help to set priorities and implement policies towards more liveable cities. This is also interesting for us to consider as part of our efforts to develop climate-responsive planning and design guidelines for Singapore.
The event was a great example of how we can learn from each other’s efforts to tackle similar challenges in different cities, in this case, the urban heat challenge. At the same time it was also a reminder that every city is unique. Any attempt to tackle the urban heat challenge needs to be tailored to the specific circumstances of a city.

About the authors

Heiko Aydt is a Senior Researcher at the Singapore-ETH Centre's Future Cities Laboratory (FCL). He coordinates the FCL Responsive Cities scenario – an interdisciplinary cluster of thematically linked research projects that aims to develop methods to support better-informed and responsive urban planning, design, governance and management processes. He is also the project leader of Cooling Singapore - a collaborative project that aims at addressing the urban heat problem in Singapore by providing actionable knowledge to policy makers.
Lea A. Ruefenacht is an Urban Designer at the Singapore-ETH Centre’s Cooling Singapore project. She is an architect with experience in interdisciplinary architectural and urban design projects in both practice and research. Her research focuses on practical approaches to evaluate the impact of urban planning and design on the urban heat island effect and outdoor thermal comfort in Singapore. Lea holds a Master of Science in Architecture degree from ETH Zurich.