January 15, 2019

Professor Matthias Roth from the NUS Department of Geography was recently featured in this CNA article on rising temperatures in Singapore. He highlights that these rising temperatures are due to global warming and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which is caused by the heat generated from human activities and trapped by urban surfaces. In fact, when tracking the temperature from rural Lim Chu Kang to Orchard Road, Prof Roth and “Killer Heat” programme host Mr Joshua Lim found that the latter was 4°C warmer.

Prof Roth emphasizes the importance of leaving untouched Singapore’s current unprotected forest areas, which could be subject to future development. He also stresses that adding roof gardens and vertical greenery to buildings would not help, especially since research has not really shown that greening initiatives benefit the local microclimate when it comes to reducing the actual UHI effect.

Read the full article here: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/singapore-hot-weather-urban-heat-effect-temperature-humidity-11115384?fbclid=IwAR1muqc-PdUxeiTnKUFePTmc1vr51JDhd1rMleWLD_6XbAgp776p1tDAUj4