2.4 Building Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods

Question 1

Environmental Stewardship

Answer 1

• Refers to the actions taken by individuals or groups, to protect, care for, or responsibly use the environment to pursue environmental and/or social outcomes.
• Practised by individuals, organisations and/or governments.
• Actions should:
  1. Seek to conserve natural resources.
  2. Preserve the existing natural environment.
  3. Repair the damages
• Can help to build sustainable urban neighbourhoods.
• Can be broadly achieved through two ways:
  1. Promoting volunteerism among neighbourhood residents
• residents share knowledge about importance of healthy ecosystems.
• helps them become more aware of what they can and should do to responsibly use and protect the natural environment
  2. Partnership of public and private sectors
• Different stakeholders may have different perspectives, resources, and expertise to enhance the environmental stewardship efforts, hence it is crucial for them to come together to steward the environment

Question 2

Disaster Risks

Answer 2

• Refer to likelihood of damage to properties, injuries and loss of lives from a disaster in a given period of time
• Product of the interaction beiween three main factors:
  1. Nature of hazard: characteristics of hazard.
  2. Vulnerability: conditions determines by physical, social, economic and environmental factors, which increase susceptibility of people and their belongings to the impacts of hazards
  3. Exposure: The situation of people and their belongings located in hazard-prone areas.
• To determine disaster risks, we cannot consider these factors in isolation.
• It is the interaction of all the factors that determines disaster risks.

Question 3

Disaster Risk Management

Answer 3

• Refers to plans and actions that are implemented to prevent new risks from happening, reduce existing risks and manage disaster risks
• strengthens community resilience
• strategies aim to reduce a neighbourhood’s exposure and the vulnerability of people and properties to hazards
  Example:
• SG has a comprehensive disaster risk management plan. The main agency responding to disasters is the SCDF. Town Councils also have the responsibility to cooperate with other government agencies in securing public safety and preventing disease or injury.
• SG’s disaster risk management strategies primarily focus on improving residents emergency preparedness to respond to natural and technological hazards.
  Example:
• The SCDF conducts a Community Emergency Preparedness Programme, which focuses on key lifesaving skills and important emergency procedures.
• Implementation of monitoring and warning systems.
  Example:
  • SCDF has a Public Warning System (PWS) which is a network of sirens placed at strategic points throughout the city. It warns the public of imminent threats that may endanger lives and property such as natural and man-made disasters.

Question 4

Community resilience

Answer 4

• refers to the ability of a community to resist, adapt to and recover from impacts of disasters in a timely and efficient manner.
• can be developed by:
  1. Strengthening relationships among residents and raising their awareness of potential hazards.
  2. Developing residents’ ability to organise themselves and equip themselves with resources to resist, adapt and recover from a disaster.

Question 5

Strengthening of relationships among residents and raising their awareness of potential hazards

Answer 5

• Disaster risk management plans will only be effective and sustainable if there is widespread support and long-term participation from residents
• residents are encouraged to know their neighbours better so that they can depend on one another during an emergency.

Example:
- PA organises a wide range of community activities aimed at fostering positive relationships amongst residents living in the neighbourhood
- Some of the programmes include active ageing, emergency preparedness and community sports, bringing people of different ages and backgrounds together.
- The community’s resilience was evident during the pandemic as residents came together to provide assistance to others in need
- neighbour relations are highly diverse, varying from one group to another and may also occasionally be problematic.

Question 6

Developing residents’ ability to organise themselves and equip themselves with resources to resist, adapt and recover from a disaster.

Answer 6

• Residents can be involved in an inclusive planning process that involves community leaders, civil society organisations and the government.
• When residents actively participate in projects to minimise potential hazards in the neighbourhood, they can better understand the risks and adaptation options to communicate to the planners and govemment.
  Example:
• In Singapore, Community First Responders (CRs) volunteers are important in supporting the government in search and rescue operations, relief work as well as educating the public on simple first-aid and basic firefighting.
• The Community First Responders (Fire) are alerted to minor rubbish chutes and bin fires within their immediate vicinity and help put out the fires. This helps SCDF optimise its emergency resources to attend to life-threatening and other higher-priority cases.