Liveability Framework: Part 7 – Enablers

Introduction

Liveability in urban environments is not a static concept.  It is a continuously evolving construct that changes with each city’s development phase and is shaped by emerging individual perceptions and aspirations on urban lived experiences, as well as dynamic external forces.  Responding to current and emerging challenges, the Liveability Framework (LF) serves as a practical but non-prescriptive reference for city leaders, policymakers and planners to plan liveable and sustainable cities of the future.

The Singapore Liveability Framework 2024. Image from Centre for Liveable Cities

Leveraging on the Science of Cities as Enablers

The Science of Cities (SoC) represents a dynamic and interdisciplinary approach to view cities as complex systems.  SoC harnesses data-driven insights, advanced analytics and scientific methodologies to enable better insights to be gained, which can inform decision-making and provide evidence-based solutions for shaping liveable and sustainable cities.

In Singapore, urban planning and governance are becoming more complex in the face of a rapidly ageing society, climate change, and competing demands for land use. The cumulative impacts on the overall liveability of a city can be difficult to foresee and access.  While not a panacea for all urban issues, new science-based tools and methods have started to contribute fresh and practical insights when applied to urban planning and governance. SoC approaches can better equip cities to navigate new trends and challenges with greater confidence and strike a more informed balance in managing trade-offs. The LF explores SoC application in three key areas:

Using strategic foresight to navigate scenarios for liveability and sustainability

Strategic foresight employs various techniques, including horizon scanning, trend evaluation and scenario planning to uncover valuable insights about the future. Leveraging foresight techniques, big data and modelling tools to inform long-term planning can help city planners pre-empt possible futures and enhance a city’s readiness for systemic change.  The insights gained can be used to improve policy formulation and decision-making processes while increasing optionality, by informing policy makers of the moves they can consider taking in the present to cater for different possible futures.

In a city-state like Singapore, technological advancements have enabled policy makers to adopt plans that are more dynamic and agile. For example, as part of the Long-Term Plan Review (LTPR), the National Parks Board (NParks) embarked on an island-wide Ecological Profiling Exercise (EPE) which adopted wildlife movement modelling techniques to better understand the trade-offs between development and nature and inform planners on how natural assets can still be prioritised and safeguarded, even with urban redevelopment, to achieve our City in Nature vision.

New SoC methodologies, such as the use of digital twins and other modelling and simulation (M&S) tools, have also been deployed to better anticipate challenges and simulate possible outcomes so that planners can sharpen planning and design interventions.  For example, planning agencies in Singapore have been adopting smart tools to plan and design for new developments to optimise thermal comfort. Applications of such tools include simulating building orientations to harness wind corridors and simulating green coverage to create more comfortable living environments.

M&S Tools on ePlanner, showcased at Esri User Conference (July 2024)

Image from URA Design & Planning Lab

Applying science and technology to enhance built environment management

Cities can leverage the integration of science and technology in the built environment to bring about more efficient governance and management of urban systems.  Innovations such as smart city infrastructure, including Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), can be used to enable real-time monitoring and analysis of various urban data points, to effectively respond to and manage urban challenges with data-driven analysis.

Singapore is engineering its transformation into a Smart Nation.  The vision for a digital-first Singapore involves leveraging technology to transform various sectors such as health, transport, urban living, government services and businesses, to enhance the overall efficiency of managing and maintaining its built environment and municipal services.  For example, the Smart Hub developed by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) acts as a ‘brain’ for municipal operations and is used by planners to better understand the usage patterns of common amenities to pre-emptively schedule maintenance works.  The Open Digital Platform (ODP), developed by JTC and GovTech, is another smart city operating system that integrates various management operations onto a single platform to revolutionise urban management practices and optimise resource utilisation, and serves as a backbone for some of our future smart districts like the Punggol Digital District.

Including citizens in policy research

Cities are dynamic systems with people at their centre, and thus it is imperative that people are involved in the planning of cities.  By actively involving residents in planning and decision-making processes, cities gain insights into the various dynamics that shape the quality of life for their residents and ultimately impact liveability.  Citizen science is a collaborative approach that involves everyday people in the process of data collection, analysis and/or interpretation, which in turn empowers citizens to make meaningful contributions to policy research efforts.  

As technologies advance, cities must continue to improve their digital platforms to harness the power of citizen science and crowdsourcing as a planning resource, and to ensure its technologies benefit everyone.  To this end, Singapore, under the InfoComm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has been establishing a number of initiatives to help bridge the digital gap between individuals and businesses, including the vulnerable sectors such as elderly residents and small businesses, to equip them with skills, habits and tools to thrive in a digital future.  

Cities are also applying social and behavioural sciences to gain deeper understanding of how individuals and communities interact with their environment to build more liveable and people-centric urban spaces. In Singapore, HDB’s New Urban Kampung Research Programme is a notable project that relied on the use of socio-behavioural data to recognise dynamic residential profiles to improve initiatives implemented in our housing towns to meet future needs.

Conclusion

Cities are intricate and complex systems with interconnected components that interact with each other in dynamic and often unpredictable ways, leading to emergent behaviours and patterns. It is increasingly important to harness the power of technology and evidence-based approaches to obtain holistic insights that are supported by scientific principles to inform both the planning and governance of cities.  As technology continues to evolve and new methods emerge, urban leaders and policymakers must embrace change and be prepared to take on experiments for the future greater good.

For more information on the Liveability Systems in the Liveability Framework, please refer to Chapter 3: The Supporting Systems, here.

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