Environment

United Nations – Climate Action SDG Jury

~ Urban-Hydro-Logics

In Q2 2018, Pedro Santa was nominated and selected as a jury panelist for Climate Action SDG in a United Nations event held in Singapore. Titled – “Innovation Lab 2018 UNLEASH” – the event served as a Global Innovation Program for all United Nations SDGs. It hosted talents from across the world to collaborate on solutions incorporating UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). As part of the Jury Panel for Climate Action SDG, Pedro Santa focused on nature-based solutions, blue-green Infrastructure, climate policy, design-engineering-ecology, and interdisciplinary problem-solving.

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Ecological landscape-scale sensor network

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The journal Ecological Research has recently published an article covering the new opportunities for ecological monitoring. The article titled: “Listening to ecosystems: data-rich acoustic monitoring through landscape-scale sensor networks”, provides phenomenal insights on the use of newly-initiated acoustic monitoring networks to collect data from ecosystems and use these space-time data to better understand ecosystem dynamics. The team’s insights highlight the potential utility of remote acoustic monitoring practices that, in combination with other methods can provide a holistic picture of biodiversity.

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State of the Climate – Author-Collaborator

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In 2011-2012, Pedro Santa served as a collaborating author in “Puerto Rico’s State of the Climate 2010-2013 – Assessing Puerto Rico’s Social-Ecological Vulnerabilities in a Changing Climate”. He supported the PRCCC by providing content on water resources and climate change impacts to surface water, groundwater, and subsurface water resources, with accompanying island scale maps of PR. The text provided outlined the extent of PR’s island-wide water resources and how they would be impacted through sea-level rise, rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, the increase of heavy storms events, coastal erosion, and environmental degradation.

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Singapore’s Resilient Coastline

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Achieving a Resilient Coastline is Singapore’s peak blue-green infrastructure project. Living and working in Singapore since 2011, Pedro Santa of Urban Hydrologics has noticed that Singapore has mastered the application and implementation of blue-green infrastructure networks throughout its inland waterways, communities, and reservoirs. The coastline has yet to receive the same attention concerning using Nature-Based Solutions for coastal resilience and sea level rise adaptation. Pedro Santa states that the Coastline will be Singapore’s crowning achievement as the world’s leading blue-green resilient island. It holds massive potential as a culmination project for an island nation that strives for water resilience and ecological vibrancy. The coastline’s design and engineering can incorporate diverse natural elements. Urban Hydrologics’ has composed a menu of coastal defense ecologies most compatible with Singapore’s context, industries, and future-proofing aspirations. The hybrid coastal networks can incorporate recreational amenities, such as the Round Island Route, which Singapore plans for execution in the coming years. We are excited to be a part of Singapore’s Resilient Coastline transformation as a group focused on Holistic Water Resilience – inland and coastal.

In Conversation: Beatley, Newman, Dreiseitl

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In February 2012, Pedro Santa shared a stimulating conversation with formative influences: Timothy Beatley, Peter Newman, and Herbert Dreiseitl. The meeting took place at the newly built Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, and it was a fascinating discussion and meeting of the minds. The conversation also covered how decentralized water-sensitive urban design maximizes co-benefits for society, economy, and ecology.

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World Rivers in a State of Crisis

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By looking at a series of maps focused on 23 different stress factors facing rivers — from livestock density to potential acidification, from river fragmentation to aquaculture pressure — the research team found that 65% of the world’s river habitats are in danger of losing biodiversity because of these stress factors, not to mention the problem of human access to sources of clean water and energy. There is a lack of data for issues such mining and pharmaceutical pollution, so the situation is likely even worse than observed.

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Holistic Resilience – Inland & Coastal

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Urban Hydrologics proposes that all Tropical Islands Nations strive to achieve Holistic Resilience. This approach considers the integration of inland and coastal adaptation to achieve high-performing results that stand the test of time. Global surface temperatures will exacerbate the storms and weather impacts on small islands and coastal watersheds. The Urban Hydrologics approach states that Holistic Resilience becomes a priority for planning adaptation solutions for Inland & Coastal communities and that existing hydrological networks begin to employ green infrastructure, coastal SLR/storm surge protection, and water-sensitive urban design elements in coastlines, rivers, corridors, ecological patches, parks, streetscapes, and plot/building scales.

Design Language of Fluvial Geomorphology

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Urban Hydrologics derives its inspirations and design language from the unique characteristics of fluvial geomorphology. The movement of water in nature creates inspiring forms. Scientific research within fluid mechanics helps us understand the mathematics of water, revealing the geometries and formal expressions which give us the inspiration to generate performative designs. Diverse reactions and interactions of water, from chemical, biological, and physical, all the way to molecular structures, are well understood by scientists. We propose to use these elegant forms to generate a unique language for urban systems, landscapes, networks, and products at diverse scales.

Urban Hydrologics: Manifesto

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Urban Hydrologics proposes that water is central to the design and planning of climate-resilient cities. Climate Change is an imminent threat caused by human activities and excess greenhouse gas emissions. The increase in terrestrial and ocean surface temperatures will create a compounding effect and accelerate weather extremes. The runaway climate effect will reach a tipping point, accelerating the melting rate of ice caps, affecting the hydrologic cycle, and displacing vulnerable populations due to floods, drought, famine, forest fires, and rising coastal sea levels. Climate adaptation requires a transdisciplinary urban-hydro-logics approach, with new hybrid professionals equipped to strategize, plan, design, build, and manage nature-based solutions at diverse scales – from coastal to inland ecosystems.