Impact of Urban Development on the River Systems

Since the founding of Singapore, there have been 3 major phases of transformation of the physical landscape. Since the 1960s, the pace of urbanization has increased rapidly, with the implementation of national physical planning. This is often accompanied by the rapid destruction of natural vegetation and construction of more impermeable and paved surfaces, which have hydrological, climatological and ecological impacts. Two aspects, the modification of catchment areas and river systems, are examined in this section.

This chapter is splitted up into the following: