Invitation: Lunchtime Discussion Tomorrow 12PM - Singapore's Climate Change Adaptation

[Jessica Coffey]

Dear All,

I am writing to invite you to a lunchtime discussion tomorrow from 12-1:30pm with IPK Visiting Scholar, Jerome Whitington on his research regarding climate change adaptation in Singapore. Additional details can be found below. 

The discussion will take place in IPK's main conference room on the 5th floor of 20 Cooper Square.

Please RSVP  so that we can get a good idea of how many people to expect for lunch and feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested.

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Singapore's climate change adaptation: vigilance, emergency and futurity in urban water infrastructure planning

Singapore's urban planning has been consistently framed by national security exigencies, and its climate planning is no exception to its emergency rhetoric and attempt at mastery of all environmental variables. Its efforts to design and control for the public good range from the public housing program encompassing some 85% of the population, its infatuation with air-conditioning, and the intimate, obsessive control of public space. Since around 2006, Singapore has steadily rolled out an integrated urban and national climate plan, including a number of important provisions for urban adaptation planning. Here I explore three modes of spatialization in Singapore's water infrastructure, namely perpetual emergency for public water supply, population displacement for coastal protection, and prediction and control for new flooding infrastructure. Ultimately, the ruling party's climate planning plays into the government's demand for vigilance in the face of any possible security threat and, on the other hand, the visionary re-design of natural relations in the country's hi-tech, futuristic approach to infrastructure and national security alike.

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Jessica Coffey || Assistant Director

jessica...@nyu.edu || t.212.992.9562
Institute for Public Knowledge
New York University
20 Cooper Square, Room 509
New York, NY 10003
http://www.nyu.edu/ipk/