Singapore Space & Technology Limited (SSTL) is partnering the World Bank to create a technology challenge to measure and analyse the phenomen of extreme urban heat. The challenge aims to improve understanding of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect and its impact on urban communities in East Asia.

The UHI effect, which is caused mainly by the modification of land surfaces due to urbanisation, is exacerbating the trend towards global warming. The removal of trees and other green spaces to make way for buildings and roads, the addition of heat-absorbing materials, and waste heat from energy use in buildings and transportation are adding to the already rising ambient temperature. This is a growing problem in the region as it results in reduced productivity, worse education and health outcomes, and greater energy requirements for cooling, leading to more carbon emissions. Heat waves in cities also correlate with increased crime, conflict, domestic violence, and poorer mental health. Extreme heat disproportionately impacts poor or otherwise marginalised communities and is a particular problem for the region’s developing countries.

To address these challenges, the World Bank has embarked on the EAP Regional Extreme Urban Heat Study to better assess the impacts of extreme heat exposure in the region and to inform city-level strategies to mitigate and adapt to such negative impacts. To support this study, Singapore Space & Technology and the World Bank are launching an Innovation Challenge to source satellite and other technologies to better measure temperatures in cities and analyse the strength of the UHI effect in the region.

“At Singapore Space & Technology, our mission, as an NGO, is to harness and advance space technologies to benefit communities and humanity. Global climate change in cities is worsened by the urban heat island effect and in particular, our communities are being disproportionately impacted, leading to even higher rates of air pollution, poorer water quality and associated risks to human health. I’m grateful to the participation of organisations joining hands with us in this meaningful work that can benefit generations to come.” said Lynette Tan, Chief Executive of SSTL.

“At the World Bank, we are increasingly concerned about the impact of extreme urban heat resulting from climate change. The trend is exacerbated in cities around Asia due to the Urban Heat Island effect and creates a growing threat to our twin goals of ending extreme poverty and creating shared prosperity. By providing more accurate measurement and understanding of urban heat, this challenge will help inform evidence-based policies to both mitigate and adapt to this growing problem.” said Francis Ghesquiere, Practice Manager of the World Bank’s East Asia & Pacific (EAP) II Urban and Disaster Risk Management team.

Participating teams will get access to technical experts from the World Bank who specialise in studying the impact of climate change on communities through workshops and clinic sessions and will have the opportunity to explore new use cases of their technology and data processing capabilities.

Participating teams should submit a full technical proposal of their proposed technical solution, methodology and sources of data to tackle the challenge statement. The deadline for the proposals is 25 February 2022. The World Bank and Singapore Space & Technology will jointly evaluate the proposals and select the winning proposal to be implemented in collaboration with the World Bank.

The award is sponsored by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) Digital Earth Partnership. The winner of the challenge will receive the “Digital Earth Partnership Technology Award” with prize money of S$25K, and the opportunity to present their findings at the 2022 Global Understanding Risk Forum and other Fora.