FLOOD MITIGATION SOLUTIONS FOR SINGAPORE

Abstract

The severity of flood effects is becoming prominent especially with rising trend of global warming and constant urbanization. Despite efforts by the government to mitigate floods, the recent flood occurrences have shown that these measures were inadequate. Hence, this dissertation serves to fill in the research gap by recommending an alternative perspective to flood mitigation in Singapore. An exclusive methodology was adopted for this study. It involved a combination of case study and theoretical experiment as well as a telephone interview with a professional from the industry. As the current measures proposed by the government focused mainly on widening drains and canals, two strategies were proposed on diversion of rainwater via alternative routes without the need for major reconstruction work. Moreover, one of the strategies has incorporated an overseas flood mitigation concept. With the available data, the theoretical experiment results showed that both proposed strategies were feasible and realistic to be implemented in Singapore. In addition, it would be ideal to implement both solutions as the systems could work simultaneously to counter any unexpected heavy downpours. Thus, the results have shown that without major alteration and addition to the existing infrastructures, the proposed strategies were effective in mitigating floods in Singapore. It should also be noted that the theoretical experiment was done with the latest information available to the public and the international engineering standards. Although further detailed calculations would be required by professional engineers, this dissertation has provided an insight into a missing field of research on flood mitigation.