Commentary: Is Singapore a resilient city?

Growing UNCERTAINTIES

Singapore continues to struggle to build up its industrial resilience in spite of the strength of its economy and infrastructure. &nbsp,

For example, FM Global’s Global Resilience Index ranks Singapore 56th in its endurance measures for climate shift. Singapore is very vulnerable to climate-related challenges, such as rising sea levels and rising temperatures, according to the index’s assessment. &nbsp,

Urban heating is a special challenge for Singapore. Singapore was ranked 19th out of 30 international cities in the recently released Savills Heat Resilience Index rankings for its capacity to deal with extreme industrial temperature.

Singapore’s vulnerability to weather change is hardly surprising. In the form of the president’s Green Plan 2030, methods are already being taken to improve Singapore’s general resilience to climate change.

Despite these attempts, climate change is actually a “wicked” policy issue that is difficult to predict and that also causes major disruption to world.

For example, climate scientists have recently discovered that the increase in water levels and global temperatures has been increasing much more quickly than originally thought. International conditions have increased significantly more quickly than originally anticipated, according to a research published in the Oxford Open Climate Change next year.

The potential risks from climate change are difficult to predict and calculate, giving politicians constantly shifting priorities and boundaries, in contrast to financial uncertainty or security risks.

This contrasts favorably with economic crises, in which economists generally use financial and economic data to make fairly accurate projections. Data on climate change are typically less reliable or repetitive. This is a crucial point to remember.

In his seminal work Chance, Profit and Uncertainty, American analyst Frank Knight makes an essential difference between “risk” and “uncertainty”. While risk may be measured and quantified, there are no analytical methods for measuring or projecting confusion.

The “black swan,” according to mathematician Nassim Taleb, is undoubtedly the most well-known illustration of this uncertainty. It represents a very problematic event that cannot be predicted in advance.

In other words, there are some risks or “risks” that can be predicted with some analytical clarity. In other situations, such as weather change, potential risks are greater characterised as “uncertainties” that cannot be predicted or measured.

What is policymakers do to create cities and communities that are more resistant to black birds and uncertainty in light of this information? Can we actually guard against risks that have not yet been developed, let alone understood and predicted?