Project Pandan

In urban water management, water quantity and water quality are strongly interlinked with the demand for the water for both anthropogenic uses and natural values. New legislation such as the Water Framework Directive in Europe and policy plans such as the ABC waters program in Singapore call for integrated approaches to improve water quality and ecosystem functioning in all types of water bodies by taking appropriate and cost effective measures.

Given that Singapore collects most of the rain water and re-uses it as industrial or drinking water, the management and improvement of urban drainages and aquatic ecosystems becomes a challenging problem that require new integrated tools to define best management strategies. Aquatic plants and animals might improve the water quality, but at the same time, drainage canals must be able to discharge rain water quickly during heavy downpour situations. A similar set of objectives and constraints is valid for lake functions (both natural and artificial) in both in the Netherlands and Singapore.

To develop adequate and cost-effective water improvement measures, however, we need to fully understand the urban water system (quantity and quality) by gathering knowledge on the relevant processes and their interactions. Here, we propose the creation of Aquatic Science Centres (ASCs) in a selected canal site to understand these fundamental processes and interaction. Our approach involves the knowledge creation through a suite of modelling tools and data collection in the lab and field (see figure below), after which results are integrated to define interdisciplinary urban water management strategies. The linkage of experimental research in both laboratory and field situations with modelling will strengthen the extrapolation of individual results to this overarching objective.

CONTACT INFORMATION

A/Prof Sanjay Swarup
Email: dbsss@nus.edu.sg
Department of Biological Science
National University of Singapore

Prof. Dr. Arthur Mynett
Email: Arthur.mynett@wldelft.nl
WL | Delft Hydraulics
The Netherlands