Urban Heat Island Mitigation: GIS-Based Analysis for a Tropical City Singapore

To reduce the pace of climate change and achieve the goals set in Paris Agreement by 2030, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have started to prioritize sustainability as one of their top agendas. Numerous studies have demonstrated that one of the most important issues that must be addressed to halt climate change is the urban heat island (UHI). Given the different mitigation strategies available, the focus of our study here is to assess the influence of green spaces and Green Mark commercial buildings on Singapore's temperature distribution using non-exhaustive factors related to energy consumption and efficiency. Additionally, this paper examines the effectiveness of green spaces and commercial buildings in reducing the rate of temperature change. This study uses ArcGIS software to map data, perform spatial analysis through cloud-based mapping, and produce visual representations with geographic information systems (GIS) to promote greater insight on the formulation of goals and policy making for strategic management. In comparison to non-commercial districts, our findings show that commercial districts have the lowest percentage of temperature change, an estimated 1.6 percent, due to a high concentration of green spaces and Green Mark commercial buildings. Our research also helps to close the research gaps in determining the efficacy of Green Mark commercial buildings, skyrise greeneries, gardens, and national parks. It also helps to minimize the bottleneck of expensive building costs and environmental damage that would have occurred from a design flaw found too late in the urban planning and construction process.

Enhancing the MEP Coordination Process with BIM Technology and Management Strategies

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been increasingly used in coordinating the different mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) services in the construction industries. As the construction industries are slowly adapting to BIM, the use of 2D software may become obsolete in the future as MEP services are technically more complicated to coordinate, due to respective services’ codes of practice to follow and limit ceiling height. The 3D MEP designs are easy to visualize before installing the respective MEP services on the construction site to prevent delay in the construction process. The aid of current advanced technology has brought BIM to the next level to reduce manual work through automation. Combining both innovative technology and suitable management methods not only improves the workflow in design coordination, but also decreases conflict on the construction site and lowers labor costs. Therefore, this paper tries to explore possible advance technology in BIM and management strategies that could help MEP services to increase productivity, accuracy, and efficiency with a lower cost of finalizing the design of the building. This will assist the contractors to complete construction works before the targeted schedule and meet the client’s expectations.