GIS-based greenery evaluation on campus master plan

Abstract

In the previous study, it was found that urban heat island intensity in National University of Singapore (NUS) campus as high as 4 °C at around 13:00. It is also concluded that the presence of dense greenery in NUS environment is very important in keeping low ambient temperature. National University of Singapore has announced its new master plan in 2005, entitled NUS Master Plan 2005. Many new buildings will be built and in some areas existing greenery will be removed. Geographical Information System (GIS) was use to evaluate the greenery condition. It was found that the greenery rate of NUS Master Plan 2005 will drop by about 3% from 55.10% of NUS current condition to 52.31%. In order to have a sustainable environment, the greenery condition should be at least maintained at the same rate or even make it better. For this purpose, potential of increasing greenery area by rooftop greenery application was also done. The target is to maintain the green rate of different zones at the same rate with current condition. In total, there will be more than 56% new buildings in NUS Master Plan 2005. Therefore, there is a good opportunity to plan and introduce the rooftop greenery or vertical greenery since in the early design stage. The ENVI-met simulation predicts that the ambient temperature in NUS environment will increase about 1 °C when NUS Master Plan 2005 is completed. It is due to the reduction of greenery rate. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.