Singapore Topic 2
Describe how a Volcanic eruption can disrupt Singapore’s economy.
Explain how Singapore partners with countries on Disaster Response and Recovery for Tectonic Hazards.
How may Singapore benefit from a Growing Asia? Give reference to one example in your answer.
How may trialling Sustainability Solutions help mitigate the impacts of tourism activity in Singapore? (Hint: How is Singapore pursuing sustainability via tourism)
Trialling sustainability solutions contributes to Singapore’s commitment to UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda:
Study Fig. 5, which shows some natural hazards that have occurred in Singapore.
With reference to Fig. 5, explain the economic and environmental Challenges of Tectonic Hazards in Singapore.
Economic:
-Figure 5 shows that a tectonic hazard Singapore experiences is shaking from nearby earthquakes. This could lead to damages and destruction of buildings and infrastructure, such as residential buildings and transport infrastructure as seen in the figure. Resultantly, this requires money to help rebuild, strengthen the losses in property and infrastructure, and even for recovery for people.
-Figure 5 shows that another hazard is flooding. Floods could sweep away and destroy buildings, property and people. This would require money to rebuild broken infrastructure and in disaster relief afterwards, such as search and rescue.
Environmental:
-Figure 5 shows that a hazard Singapore may face is volcanic ash. Volcanic ash could harm diverse biodiversity in Singapore, such as causing eyelids of birds to be gummed, and thick layers of ash suffocating and killing plants, preventing them from photosynthesising and thus withering.
-Figure 5 shows that a hazard Singapore may be affected by is flooding. Floods may pollute rivers, killing aquatic life. Floods may also cause tree death and wash away vegetation that may be habitat to land animals.
OEQ: ”Discerning visitors are a larger challenge affecting tourism development as compared to an Ageing Population in Singapore.” How far do you agree? [Hint: discerning means ‘picky’]
Discerning Visitors:
are a large challenge affecting tourism development because it is making it harder to sustain growth of tourism industry as more resources, manpower is required to appeal to them. Singapore needs to appeal to increasingly discerning visitors like Gen Z and millennials to remain competitive in the tourism industry. Singapore does so through providing extensive travel material through a variety of online sources, making tourists feel encouraged to share their experiences online, which can motivate tourists to have a desire to travel to Singapore, and thus attracting more tourists.
For example, the income of Asian millennials grows alongside the economic growth in Asia, and hence contributes a lot to Asian expenditure on international travel. However, they prefer and dislike different aspects of tourism, such as disliking standard tour package guides, but they prefer novel travel experiences. Thus, Singapore needs to invest a lot of time in planning elaborate itineraries, and promoting deals on multiple different online platforms.[https://tinyurl.com/visitsingaporeMTs]
Ageing Population:
Is a large challenge affecting tourism development as it causes manpower constraints. Increasing median age, and increasing restrictions on foreign workers in Singapore is slowing the growth of Singapore’s workforce. This makes it difficult for businesses in the tourism sector to recruit workers. The challenge will be disproportionately worse when foreign inflow of workers are affected as tourism largely depends on them to fill many jobs. The tourism sector also faces the challenge of redesigning jobs to meet career aspirations of millennials and attracting them to gain manpower.
For example, WorkForce Singapore has a Hotel Job Redesign Initiative. Their aim is to help counter the impacts of an ageing population, such as appealing to millennials and smaller manpower, through allowing hoteliers to become manpower lean and create heightened sense of job satisfaction among employees.
With reference to the figure above, discuss the Challenges and Opportunities Climate Change may have on Singapore.
Image: https://share.google/LtAapfveZiWySIgsC
Challenges:
-CC can threaten the biodiversity of Singapore. The fig. shows that annual average daily mean temperature can increase from 27.9 degrees in the present to 28.5 to 32.9 degrees in the future. This 0.6 to 5.0 degrees increase can cause warmer and drier environments in Singapore, which can severely harm the different habitats in Singapore, which are home to numerous species if native plants and animals.
-CC can worsen the Urban Heat Island effect. The fig. shows that very hot days can increase from 20 to a high of 350 days in the future projection. With Singapore’s built up city consisting of many surfaces that absorb and retain heat easily, such as buildings and roads, this can cause surface temperatures to increase largely. Hence, this can increase people’s vulnerability to heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
-CC can cause vector-borne diseases to become more widespread. Higher temperatures, such as in the fig. where annual average daily maximum temperature can increase by 0.5 to 5.3 degrees from 31.4 in the present to 31.9-36.7 in the future, can shorten egg incubation periods for insects, causing higher populations of such, and increased transmission of vector-borne diseases.
Opportunities:
-CC can bring about innovation in Health resilience. CC justifies the trialling of non-traditional approaches to reducing the risk of vector-borne disease transmission.