Singapore Case Study Page

Many thanks to my Singapore correspondent for some of the material below (well, most of it at the moment...)

Over Christmas 2007, there was a period when they had 366mm of rainfall in just 2 days (that's about a whole year's worth of rainfall for King's Lynn!) and it caused minimal flooding because of the system of storm drains which got rid of all the water. Very Singapore ! There are sometimes over 1000mm in one month...

Singapore is a country which has undergone tremendous Industrial growth in recent years, which has all been carefully planned, as are most aspects of life in Singapore. Singapore was founded in the early 19th century by Sir Stamford Raffles, and became a British colony in 1867, before becoming independent in 1963 (initially as part of Malaysia)

One remarkable impact of the success of the country has been the big cash-back to the population which will take place later this year: where the worst off get more of the money back...

HERE are some resources with Singapore as a case study of an NIC - new for February 2006

Singapore is featured in Channel 4's PLACE AND PEOPLE series on the PACIFIC RIM.

One of the big changes in recent years are a series of developments to allow people to enjoy their leisure time more. New areas are being developed - 2 casinos planned to be built by MGM group. The Ministry of Sound has just opened, revamping the worn down tourist area of Clark Quay. The Tourist Island of Sentosa is being revamped - "integrated tourist resort" is a term that is used and LIfestyle concepts. The $8 billion revamp is explained here: http://www.sentosa.com.sg More parks (planned parks) are being developed or upgraded as well.

The port of Singapore. Deep water and sheltered. The second biggest in the world after Kobe in Japan.

Public transport is highly developed, to the extent where private transport is the exception rather than the rule.

Anyone wanting to open a car has to have a CoE (Certificate of Entitlement). This lasts for 10 years, and is very expensive, as are cars in general. The details on ELECTRONIC ROAD PRICING can be found by following the link.

Road tax is also expensive, and this varies depending on the size of the car's engine - similar to that introduced in the UK.

Owning a car is a sign of affluence, and there are few small cars on the roads (although the new Mini was introduced to Singapore in June 2003 and went down well)

There is also a quota on new cars each year to limit numbers, and the growth of car ownership.

Certain areas are targeted for ERP, and taxis tend to avoid the areas at those times.

A new railway line joining up new housing areas opened in June 2003: the North East line - for more go to METROPLA's website.

People travelling on public transport need to buy a SMART CARD. Try the TRANSIT LINK site for more details.

The site linked to from HERE has some useful information as it shows the build-up of convectional rainfall, and is updated every 20 minutes. You can see storms building up, and then disappearing.

Recently came across some useful materials produced by Raffles Girls School in Singapore. There are a few pages which have some useful animations on coastal erosion. There is also some information about a particular coastal feature in the area. A group of students from the school recently went on a field trip to Bali and Australia (as you do...) - one of the features that they went to see was a feature called TANAH LOT and the 12 APOSTLES. Tanah Lot is a high energy coastline which therefore has a very dramatic series of landforms. The 12 Apostles are a series of stacks (of which only 7 remain as the rest have collapsed over time), and are found in the Port Campbell National Park in Australia. The animations are good to show the erosion of a headland.

Singapore is taking steps to avert a possible population crisis in the future. It is undertaking a PRO-NATALIST policy of encouraging people to have children, particularly well-educated couples. This takes the form of financial incentives to have children.

Industrial development are zoned so as to be away from housing, and such that the prevailing wind will carry away any pollutants rather than blowing them over housing areas.

My correspondent has just returned from a trip to Manila, where she mentioned shanty towns in the capital which had railway tracks running through them, and when the trains had finished for the day, people slept on the tracks. I have seen images from this elsewhere. At least you'll never miss the train in the morning - one way or another.

Also sent me a groovy picture of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur - look out for news from a new KL correspondent soon. Chris Durbin has also posted some materials from here on the SLN Geography site.

Have to get a long way back to fit them all in the picture. Click the thumbnail to enlarge.

A video was recently (October 2006) added to Adam Lawson's GEOGRAPHY AT THE MOVIES blog It makes an excellent introduction to Singapore, and covers the recent history and changes in the city...

http://geographyatthemovies.co.uk/Places.html