United Nations – Climate Action SDG Jury

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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UHS Strategic Adaptation Framework

The Urban Hydrologics Strategic Adaptation Framework for Tropical Watersheds has been developed from extensive research and practical experience, aiming to enhance the resilience, performance, and co-benefits for communities within the pan-tropics. The framework consists of the following components: Two contexts for Strategic Integration, Three Key Strategic Scales, and Four Key Variables.

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Your Building is the River

The Urban Hydrologics approach considers all urban surfaces as an interconnected network that receives, captures, detains, and conveys rainwater from the top of roofscapes and façade surfaces down to the ground level and ultimately to downstream waterways and river corridors. This reinterpretation and redefinition of the city as not a series of objects but of a series of surfaces defines the Urban Hydrologics approach. Each surface has a role to play in managing rainwater on it’s way to rivers and streams – giving light to the phrase – “your building is the river” UHS, 2015. This idea concept was articulated by Pedro Santa during explanations of the Urban Hydrologics approach to diverse contacts in tropical cities.

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State of the Climate – Author-Collaborator

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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Managing Urban Runoff Handbook

Developed for the Singapore Public Utility Board, the “Managing Urban Runoff” handbook serves as a holistic stormwater management solutions guide for developers, designers, planners, and engineers. During employment at Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl Singapore, Pedro Santa served as the project manager, lead author, and content coordinator – providing leadership in WSUD, ABC Waters, Stormwater Management, conducting inter-agency meetings, and delivering presentations to the client-agency PUB throughout the production of the document. Project Credits: PUB, Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl.

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Lead of WSUD Proposal for Kallang Riverside

In 2012, Atelier Dreiseitl was awarded first place for Kallang Riverside Landscape and Urban Hydrology Masterplan, where Pedro Santa served as the design lead for the competition proposal and subsequent consultancy. He crafted and sketched the visionary concept argument – that developers should avoid the “old paradigm” of urban development – where buildings impose themselves onto the landscape – and embrace a “new paradigm” – where ecological landscape, & resilient infrastructure are prioritized.

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Presenter at PUB Center for Water Excellence

In 2013, Pedro Santa presented the Seminar Course on Constructed Wetlands: Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Cleansing Biotopes, as part of the Singapore ABC Waters Programme. The Certification Program of Active, Beautiful, and Clean Waters Professionals, was instituted in Singapore to increase industry knowledge, competencies, the proliferation of ABC Waters Features, and water-sensitive urban design tools. The Elective Module EU2 had two courses presented by colleagues of Atelier Dreiseit Asia, where Pedro Santa presented the constructed wetlands/cleansing biotope portion of the course at the PUB WaterHub Academy Center for Water Excellence.

Prof. Tony Wong CRC Water Sensitive Cities

In February 2013, Pedro Santa met Professor Tony Wong at Singapore’s Waterhub Academy Center for Water Excellence. Professor Tony Wong is the chief executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. Tony is internationally recognized for his research and practice in sustainable urban water management, particularly Water Sensitive Urban Design. He has also been an important intellectual and technical contributor to the formation, establishment, and roll-out of the ABC Waters Programme in Singapore. Meeting Prof Tony Wong at the PUB Waterhub has been an excellent opportunity to connect and be in contact for future collaborations.

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ABC Waters Professional Courses in SG

The ABC Waters Professionals Courses has been instituted in Singapore to increase professional competencies in water-sensitive urban design. Training courses to improve knowledge and skills of integrated water management is an essential step to integrate vital professional sectors involved in delivering climate-resilient infrastructure and urban stormwater management. The development and accreditation of professionals with formal training in the concept design, design development, and implementation of water-sensitive urban design will increase high-performance landscape infrastructure throughout the city. This climate adaptation infrastructure will increase the proliferation of co-benefits for people, water quality/quantity, ecology, and economy.

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Urban Hydrologics Thematic Lecture

In May 2012, Pedro Santa presented the first Urban Hydrologics thematic lecture at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. The presentation covered the principles, concepts, and technical strategies needed to develop Water Sensitive Urban Design Masterplans and climate-resilient urban regions, focusing on transdisciplinary designs, blue-green infrastructure configuration examples, and implementation alternatives for nature-based solutions in tropical cities. The Lecture was hosted by the INDA Design Program of Chulalongkorn University.

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Leveraging Technology for Blue-Green

Urban Hydrologics has been launched while Pedro Santa studies at Harvard University. He aspires to create a software-technology company equipped to provide data-driven climate adaptation consultancy services. After graduation from Harvard, Pedro Santa looks to gain in-depth professional practice experience in stormwater management, best management practices, blue-green infrastructure, and water-sensitive urban design concepts worldwide — with a particular interest in Singapore as the key nation that’s prioritizing stormwater management in urban design. His objective is to gain unique implementation expertise and to understand how software can play a role in advanced climate adaptation. Gaining industry experience is the first step to developing an Urban Hydrologic Software applicable worldwide. With unique knowledge gained in Singapore, Urban Hydrologics will be ahead of the curve in creating digital tools to meet the emerging needs of governments, industries, communities, and consultants. Experience is critical to successfully creating a software platform that provides recommendations for mitigating weather extremes and climate adaptation in future cities.

The Urban Hydrologics manifesto was written in November 2008, and the organization was officially launched on January 15th, 2009. Since interdisciplinary climate adaptation technology companies are rare and water-sensitive urban design is still an emerging discipline, the objective is to acquire advanced practice and implementation competencies to ensure Urban Hydrologics develops novel software technology to foster climate adaptation mitigation efforts and planning with more precision. We see a rise in data-driven design practices emerging, and we are committed to developing tools that mirror the world in a digital platform to predict climate impacts before they occur.

After graduation from Harvard, Pedro Santa will embark on a ten-year professional experience journey to gain unique experience in water management, interdisciplinary design, climate adaptation, nature-based solutions, environmental planning, and hydrology-engineering companies. This objective requires Pedro to work abroad and interact with engineering teams around the world, to gain the most advanced blue-green infrastructure implementation knowledge. Pedro firmly believes these experiences will qualify and empower him to lead software engineers and a panel of interdisciplinary professionals in the future. Urban Hydrologics aims to pioneer a new business model in an era of climate adaptation – becoming the world’s first tropical climate-based company to combine software, consultancy services, and blue-green monitoring sensor products to improve the financing, planning, design, engineering, operation, and management of nature-based solutions in the cities of tomorrow.