An interactive installation that explores the impact of climate change and sea-level rise 100 years from now is the highlight of a project dubbed “Adapting Waterfronts: Postcards from the future, Singapore 2122” – this lets the citizens witness how the nation’s coastline has changed in the past, now, and the future.
The exhibit displays “Postcards from the Future” that envisage sea-level rise adaptation in the twenty-first century and were produced by scientists, architects, and artists. These postcards are part of a guided tour along a proposed heritage route of Singapore’s historic waterfront, which uses Augmented Reality (AR) installations to visualise place-based changes over time at specific spots, bringing the past, present, and future to life.
Gabriel Tenaya Kaprielian, an assistant professor of architecture at Temple University, created the “Postcards from the Future” project in association with the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore).
The project was part of a U.S. Scholar Fulbright and additional assistance was provided by the National Heritage Board, National Archives, and Collection of the National Museum of Singapore.
Moreover, the physical installation of the piece is housed in a Pop-Up Gallery at the foot of Mount Palmer, which also acts as the beginning point for Singapore’s “Adapting Waterfronts” AR historical waterfront route.
To address the worldwide challenge of sea-level rise adaptation, the Adapting Waterfronts project’s distinctive breadth brings together the innovation from various groups across disciplines. This fosters transdisciplinary collaboration and international cooperation. By recasting the problems caused by sea-level rise as opportunities for design innovation, the initiative aims to foster community optimism and empower informed action.
While many nations are preparing for a predicted 1-meter increase in sea level by 2100, high-emission models predict a possible 5-meter rise by 2150. Coastal towns across the world will need to prepare for uncertainty since it is unclear how quickly the ice sheets will melt and because of the added effects of greater floods brought on by more extreme weather occurrences.
Adapting Waterfronts speculates on how Singapore can develop a long-term planning framework that supports climate change resilience and biodiversity in a win-win strategy that ups the role of nature-based solutions that embrace tidal ecologies in urban environments as part of the Green Plan and City in Nature vision. It does this by providing a platform to exchange knowledge and enable discourse about future sea-level rise.
Furthermore, Adapting Waterfronts: Postcards from the Future, Singapore 2122 is free to access for all. The content contained in “Adapting Waterfronts” is speculative fiction created by Kaprielian and other contributing artists with the purpose of inspiring the imagination of the audience by examining various sea-level rise adaptation scenarios and strategies
The images are artist renderings and do not explicitly reflect the scientific findings or stance of any of the partner organisations. Site locations of present photographs are approximations of the location in the historic images.
Meanwhile, researchers at NTU and other leaders in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have recently come up with an important standard for AI security due to cybersecurity threats like hacking that pose a big risk to AI systems -in response to calls to protect the integrity of AI programmes and build trust in AI solutions.
The standard will be used to influence worldwide standardisation plans in this field by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), marking a significant achievement that ranks Singapore among the world’s most advanced nations in AI security.