In 2007 the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance started with eight large research projects covering a broad spectrum of topics in marine and freshwater environments. In the meantime, several more studies have been carried or are underway, and the number of studies is rapidly increasing.

To ensure that we stay focussed on what we are good at, and to leverage on the on-going projects and projects being carried out in the past four years, four research roadmaps have been developed to guide SDWA’s research direction in the next 3-5 years. The Roadmaps define the purpose, aims, context, possible research topics and links with societal questions and interactions with users of the research

1. Urban Water Management

This theme aims to understand the fundamentals of freshwater system functioning and generate knowledge to help improve water quality and quantity, ecology and appearance of urban water bodies.

Knowledge created through the linkage of experimental research in both laboratory and field situations with modelling will be used to define innovative, interdisciplinary water management practices and urban design decisions. Developing sustainable, cost-effective urban water management strategies requires:

• Understanding and mitigating anthropogenic stress on waterways and water bodies,
• Initiating and improving the sustainable practice of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD),
• Addressing and advancing the water-energy nexus

2. Climate Adaptation

This theme will investigate strategies, tools and techniques to provide safety against floods, ensure safe water supply and protect ecosystems in the face of climate change. This theme will also provide the fundamental knowledge to support integrated coastal management, based on Building with Nature to reduce vulnerability and habitat loss under climate change. Successful application requires:

• Knowledge of urban water systems
• Knowledge of ecological sustainability and creation/restoration of coastal systems under sea level rise
• Verification and accounting of adaptation options and ecosystem services

3. Operational Management Systems

This theme will serve to develop and improve the ability to deliver operational forecasts in the context of tropical urban water systems (including flooding and recreational use) and maritime operations. This requires expertise in the following areas: numerical modelling of hydraulic, hydrologic, water quality and atmospheric systems; data assimilation (DA); operational management systems (OMS) and operational forecast delivery. In essence for each area:

• The research will make use of the fundamental knowledge in hydrodynamic modelling and data assimilation to develop methods and tools that will collectively serve to generate accurate operational forecasts.
• Towards an efficient operational management system, the research aims to model the complete hydrological cycle by unifying hydrodynamic and water quality modelling with meteorological/atmospheric modelling.
  
• Towards accurate forecasting, the models would be blended with observations or measurements using suitable data assimilation techniques. The research will focus on such data assimilation methods.
  
• In order to be able to efficiently deliver the operational forecasts to end users, the research will also focus on developing a thin client.
  
• Towards better operational management, the research will also focus on advanced control strategies such as model predictive control (MPC).
  

4. Hazards, Risks and Disasters

This roadmap will contribute to improving the management of water-related hazards, risks and disasters by improving spatial and temporal awareness of decision makers. It aims to develop integrated decision making tools and develop and improve methodologies to deal with uncertainty and risks in decision making for disasters. Besides data assimilation and machine learning techniques, focus is also on social, economic and administrative impacts linked to decision support environments.