The Beginning of Blue Green Dream Collaboration with Singapore
Category : News
A lecture by Prof. Vladan Babovic from the National University of Singapore given at Imperial College London on the “Urban Water Challenges and Opportunities in Singapore” will mark the beginning of a series preparatory activities aimed at setting up a Blue Green Dream Regional Centre in Singapore. The lecture will take place on Monday 25th February 2013 at 12:00 in the room 207 of the Skempton Building, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering located on the South Kensginton Campus. It is open to all interested participants, and an invitation can be downloaded by clicking here.
The lecture will look at the problems facing Singapore in the face of anticipated climate change in relation to water and energy. Prof. Babovic will argue that these are closely inter-related, as we use energy for water and we use water for energy. For example, we use energy to heat, treat and move water. In addition to using energy for water, we also use water for energy. We use water as a coolant for thermoelectric power plants, and as a critical input for production of biofuels. Unfortunately, the energy-water relationship introduces vulnerabilities whereby a constraint on one resource introduces constraints in the other. While the energy-water relationship is already under strain today, particularly in cities, trends imply that the strain will be exacerbated unless appropriate action is taken. This problem is further compounded by the urban heat island effects upon environmental sustainability and human comfort levels, ranging from the aggravation of health problems such as heat stress, increasing the intensity of urban air pollution, and contributing to extreme weather events – in addition to the ever-increasing use of air-conditioners, with impacts for energy supply, brownouts and greenhouse gas emissions. For a full abstract of the presentation, please click here.
Prof. Babovic is a leading researcher in field hydroinformatics where he has been spearheading research in data-driven modelling research from early 1990s. In more recent years, his work on flexibility and real options pertaining to decision-making under deep uncertainties in water and climate related domains is now starting to gain wider recognition and fits well with the work of the Blue Green Dream partners.
This lecture follows a successful visit by Prof. Cedo Maksimovic to Singapore in January 2013 to speak with local officials about the Blue Green Dream project, the possibility of setting up a regional centre in Singapore, and also monitoring/assessing the impacts of Blue Green Solutions used at the incredibly successful Gardens by the Bay project.
