Reader Response Draft 4

In the web page "Sustainability Effort" (n.d.), Gardens by the Bay website reported about the essential function of the Gardens as an ecosystem that can self-sustain in the built environment. This ecosystem works by itself without many maintenance issues to achieve environmental sustainability. This ecosystem is made up of Lake systems, Conservatories and Supertrees. The Lake systems act as a biotope that accommodates the aquatic animals and plants which later help to cleanse the surface run-off as well as the lake itself. Subsequently, the cleaned water is discharged in Marina Reservoir and used for irrigation. In the web page, it further mentioned about the Conservatories equipped with advanced technologies. These Conservatories can regulate the temperature suitable for a particular region to accommodate rare plants in it. The Supertrees also are reported on the web page that the trees are powered by solar panels that harvest electricity during the day. Hence with the solar panels installed, it reduces the amount of electricity used at night. With these examples of Gardens by Bay has given an idea of what sustainable effort can benefit to a built environment. Singapore should implement a similar sustainable project on a more local level as this implementation can bring a real impact to nature as well as the communities in Singapore. 

To initiate the sustainable effort to a more local level, Public Utilities Board (PUB) is one of the first Singapore agencies to launched Active, Beautiful and Clean Water Programme (ABC Water Programme). This programme is to promote the importance of water quality in Singapore as well as to appreciate of water resources. It is essential to maintain the high quality of water entering the canals as these canals are channelling water into the local catchment area. Therefore, the water agencies in Singapore needs to find ways to make the water quality better in the drain, canals and riverbanks before entering the reservoirs or the catchments area. It is mention in PUB webpage (2016) that ABC water programme is to enhance the water and life quality by combining the drain, canal and reservoir with the surrounding environment. With the implementation of sustainability initiatives as possible solutions to the water problems, PUB will reduce the maintenance cost to cleanse the water. Subsequently, this programme creates a whole new ecosystem in a community. Hence, an ecosystem is being transformed into a new system which enables it to be self-sustain. In European countries, such concepts are widely used. It is mentioned in Susdrain (n.d.) web page where a similar concept is being applied to UK drainage systems which transformed the drains into a sustainable drainage. This concept allows rain and surface water run-off to cleanse naturally by allowing water to soak into the ground thus filtering unwanted pollutants. Thus, it reduces the cost of water treatment as well as the cost to construct a concrete canal as mention by Graham Fairhurst (February 2011).

The second reason to implement sustainable efforts is so that this drainage can maintain the water runoff quality but also beautify the environment which is similar to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (2014, Section 10). This park an excellent example of PUB ABC water project which uses a similar concept to Gardens by the Bay. It is mentioned on PUB’s webpage (2006), that the programme is to transform all the drains, canals and reservoirs in Singapore into beautiful and clean streams hence bring the community closer to nature. This environmental sustainability effort can be made into smaller scales such as parks near HDB houses as well as condominium, hospital and schools. In this way sustainability efforts can spread widely across Singapore, improving the ecosystem as well as the aesthetic of the environment. It is stated in Water Programme guideline (2014, Section 10) that parks such Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park and public hospital like Khoo Teck Puat Hospital have benefited from environmental sustainability concept.

By implementing sustainability efforts, communities will get to enjoy the recreational spaces and be closer to natural. Also, these efforts would make Singapore a greener city. Because of this reason, Ministry of Environment and Water Resource had initiated the 1st edition of Active, Beautiful and Clean water guideline (ABC water guidelines) in 2009 which encouraged developers in Singapore to adopt ABC Waters design features in their developments. Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is an excellent example of PUB ABC water project which uses a similar concept to Gardens by the bay however on a smaller scale. According to Ramboll, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park was reconstructed from the standard concrete drainage to the bioengineered riverbank by incorporating the living plants to act as river walls. These plants are there to function as a filtration system as well as the aesthetic of the drainage. Hence, space is transformed into a recreational area where the visitor can be closer to water and nature.

Finally, a sustainable effort can be a solution to a couple of problems in developed countries such as Singapore. Maintenance issues can occur for conventional (concrete) canals or drainage as it requires occasional upgrading works like expanding drain capacity. The reason for expansion is because the amount rain rises yearly especially during monsoon season. The drainage and canals also require cleaning to prevent any clogging and so on. Thus, this will reduce the quality of water flowing to the local catchment. Therefore, it is important to establish the sustainable concept to the built environment so that it can bring more benefit to the community thus reducing the cost.

References

ABC guidelines. (June 2014). Retrieved from https://www.pub.gov.sg/abcwaters/Documents/ABC_DG_2014.pdf

Othman, L. (n.d.). 20 more ABC Waters projects to be completed in next 5 years. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/20-more-abc-waters/2619600.html

Comparative costing for Surface Water Sewers and SuDS. (2011, February). Retrieved from http://www.susdrain.org/resources/evidence.html

Ramboll Group (2015) Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Retrieved from: http://www.ramboll.com/projects/singapore/bishan-park

Sustainability Effort(n.d.) Gardens by the Bay. Retrieved from: http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/the-gardens/about-us/sustainability.html

Critical Reflection

Last two weeks, my group had to give an oral presentation on our ideas that would possibly help to solve the engineering problem. It is about reducing overcrowding in our public buses. My group decided to brainstorm the above engineering problem as we can relate it closely to us. My group mates and I are a victim of the few passengers that are unable to board the bus occasionally as we are public bus commuters. This is due to overcrowding at the entrance door leaving the rear part of the bus empty.

The presentation was held at a small tutorial class where there were about 18 students. Most of them are my classmates. Before the start of the presentation, the other groups were assigned to act as the authority attending our presentation.  Example since my group is proposing to Land Transport Authority as well as public bus companies, expected audience will be from Land Transport Authority, Singapore Bus service, SMRT and Tower transit. Our group decided to prepare the PowerPoint slide. Each one of us contributed one part of the whole presentation. I choose to present on the benefits of the solution as well as the conclusion of our possible solutions. Therefore, I was the third and last speaker for our group to present. Without knowing the second speaker had already finished explaining his final points, it was my turn. Feeling nervous, I went up in front of the audience and began my presentation. My mind suddenly went blank and started panicking. I realise that I forgot all the points that needed to be presented. I felt that my presentation was not smooth as I did stop for few seconds trying to recall my points on the slides. As I looked through the slide, I started to remember some of the points, but the ideas did not flow in sequence as what I have planned. My voice became less confident, and I realise that I came to the end of the slide. There were two questions asked by the audience related to conclusion and recommendation. Through the questions posed by the audience, I realise that my presentation was not clear and most of the audience did not understand my conclusion.

However, I felt pleased as I was able to deliver all the necessary points during my presentation even though I felt anxious. On the other hand, I was quite disappointed with my overall performance as I think I did not explain the points clearly and in detail to the audiences. Because of this, questions asked by the audience during Q&A sessions are mostly related to our group's conclusion. The reason was probably that the audience was slightly confused by the disorganise flow of points mention on the presentation slides. The sentence structure was another factor that could contribute to the uncertain speech delivery. As a result, I felt very unconfident with my presentation.

I think that I should consider making an improvement to my vocabulary space and plan out the points in sequences. Nevertheless, I will probably always be a little nervous during the presentation. Because of this, I would encourage myself to participate public speaking to strengthen my confidence. I also need to make sure that I will have enough practice with my group so that all this minor error can be rectified before the actual presentation.