Agnes Gan (FoS), Deric Khoo Jia Wei (CEG), Ezbon Sio Jia Jun (FoE), Gan Cai Zhi Wilson (FASS), Jia Hao Jeffrey (FoE)
Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari
Industry Advisor: Ms. Henrietta Woo (NParks)
With expanding urban development, forests and agricultural land all across the globe are rapidly being replaced by buildings and skyscrapers. The density of urban development in cities with scarce land, such as Singapore, compounded by high rise buildings, leaves limited opportunity for greenery and landscape. This carries a wide range of negative environmental impacts, key among which is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect that changes the urban micro-climate with intense pockets of higher temperature and disturbs ecosystems in the immediate vicinity. The simplest method to combat this phenomenon is the reintroduction of plants and trees. Increasingly, this is being achieved in cities by the use of green walls, which are said to mitigate the UHI effect by decreasing ambient temperatures in the surroundings, while simultaneously improving biodiversity and user perception of urban spaces. Our project examines these attributed benefits of green walls as effective replacements of natural landscapes on the NUS campus, especially when considering their high installation and maintenance costs. We chose to test the efficacy of 5 different green walls at 4 locations around the NUS campus – VENTUS, FoE, SDE and Kent Vale Residences. We aim to assess the performance of these green walls with respect to their key projected benefits; reduction of ambient temperature around the walls, increased biodiversity on and around the wall, and positive human perception of the green walls as effective replacements of natural landscapes. We will be using a combination of fieldwork and surveys to collect our data for analysis.
Keywords: Built Environment and Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Design, Urban Heat ISland, Green Wall, Energy Consumption