The Active, Beautiful, and Clean (ABC) Waters Programme [1] is a paradigm shift in urban stormwater management. In response to the fast-evolving demands of resource planning and urban development, it offers nature-based solutions that build system resilience. The key is the shift from a centralised stormwater management approach to a decentralised one. Under the programme, quality and quantity of stormwater will be managed upstream right at source and become a visible, integrated part of people’s living environment. This change in approach will make water an even more pervasive element in Singapore’s teeming urban fabric and therefore, requires architectural, landscape, and engineering design to be highly integrated. Success on the ground then depends very much on how well a design team’s solution can deliver more than the sum of its parts and elicit positive public response.
This change in approach will make water an even more pervasive element in Singapore’s teeming urban fabric and therefore, requires architectural, landscape, and engineering design to be highly integrated.
Nature-based solutions can deliver significant benefits beyond direct water related outcomes, such as improved biodiversity, socio-economic benefits, and system sustainability [2]. Through close collaboration with the design team, the ABC Waters Professional can harnessing these potentials to achieve water management objectives and beyond.
In an ideal end-state scenario, each land development cleans up its own runoff before discharging slowly to the waterways. All discharge entering the waterways is clean and attenuated so that the downstream water quality is high and flood risks are minimal. In every development, ABC Waters design features function seamlessly with architecture and landscape, improving and even regenerating ecosystem services in various ways. Not only do they add aesthetic and economic value, but they also enhance usable spaces and foster ground-up sentiments for water conservation.
Nature-based solutions can deliver significant benefits beyond direct water related outcomes, such as improved biodiversity, socio-economic benefits, and system sustainability.
ABC Waters Professional Programme
The ABC Waters Professional Programme [1] was launched in 2011 as part of the ABC Waters Programme. It is a certification course that aims to build a pool of professionals who can develop and use collaborative cross-disciplinary design thinking to create effective nature-based solutions. Through 4 core and 2 elective modules covering a wide range of topics, the course introduces ABC Waters design to architects, landscape architects, and engineers, helping them to adopt the principles of the ABC Waters Programme as part of their design ethos. They will be certified as ABC Waters Professionals (ABCWPs) upon completion of the course and are expected to assume specific roles and responsibilities in a project that has ABC Waters design features.
Project Role of ABC Waters Professionals
Because ABC Waters design features affect drainage of stormwater runoff, they are subject to both Development Control (DC) and Building Plan (BP) clearances by the Public Utilities Board (PUB). In a project that has ABC Waters design features, the ABCWP prepares and endorses all documents related to ABC Waters design features for DC submission. These documents include design drawings, hydraulic calculations, and maintenance plan.
The ABCWP may prepare and apply for the ABC Waters Certification for a project if the developer requests for it. In such a case, the ABCWP collates all necessary information from the design team, including endorsed detail drawings and hydraulic calculations, before submitting the application to PUB. Unless explicitly stated as a requirement in the land sales conditions, ABC Waters Certification is currently a voluntary undertaking by the developer.