scholarly journals Re-imagining urban movement: at the intersection of a nature reserve, underground railway and eco-bridge

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-30
Author(s):  
Jamie Wang

  In 2013, the Singapore government announced a plan to build the Cross Island Line (CRL), the country’s eighth Mass Rapid Transit train line. Since its release, the proposal has caused ongoing heated debate as it involves going underneath Singapore’s largest remaining reserve: the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Following extended discussions with environmental groups, the transport authority later stated that they would now consider two route options: a direct alignment running underneath the Central Reserve, and an alternative route that skirts the reserve boundary. The authority warned that the skirting option could increase the construction cost significantly and cost commuters an extra few minutes of travel time. Intriguingly, in contrast to the underground rail project that threatens to further fragment the Central Reserve, another, more visible, repair work is taking place at the edge of the same reserve, aiming to reconnect fragmented habitat through an eco-bridge. Through these two seemingly contrasting yet intimately related case studies in a highly developed city-state, this article explores the complexity and ambivalence of urban movement and its entanglement with development, techonology and urban natures. How are the discourses of urban mobility directed by the desire for ‘velocity’, the politics of invisibility, and a fixation on certainty? What might it mean to reconfigure contemporary practices and ethics towards multispecies movements in an increasingly urbanised environment? Amid the growing expansions of infrastructure and public transportation in Singapore and around the world, often in the name of sustainability and liveability, this article unsettles some taken-for-granted, velocity-charged and human-centred approaches to urban movement and explores the serious need to craft new possibilities for a more inclusive and flourishing urban movement.

Author(s):  
Leo Tan Wee Hin ◽  
R. Subramaniam

Transportation is often the bane of urban societies. Traffic gridlocks and inadequate availability of a comprehensive and affordable public transportation system further accentuate the problem. This chapter focuses on the Singapore experience with intelligent transportation solutions to alleviate a range of problems, thus contributing to its positioning as a smart city. We focus on seven issues: public transportation using modern mass rapid transit trains; congestion control using electronic road pricing; electronic monitoring advisory systems to guide road users on adverse conditions or incidents on roads; computerized traffic signaling systems to streamline the throughput of vehicles in roadways; intelligent dispatch of taxis, which helps to minimize idle cruising time; parking guidance systems to alert motorists of the nearest car park, in the process decreasing the level of floating traffic on roads; and integrated ticketing systems to promote inter-modal transfer. A unique funding mechanism that has led to the evolution of a modern and efficient public transportation system is also elaborated. Being a city state and a living laboratory of intelligent transportation systems that have attracted international attention, it is suggested that there are some lessons to be drawn from the Singapore experience in managing transportation problems in smart cities.


Babel ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Susan Xu Yun

Translators in Singapore face the dilemma of serving the needs of a heterogeneous population in this multi-racial and multilingual city-state and have often become the “scapegoat” in the event of a controversy arising from the translation. A case in point is the heated debate triggered by a newspaper article in the Straits Times, translated from a Chinese article in Lianhe Zaobao. Drawing on two sociological notions, that is, erasure and indexing of social identity, this paper sets out to investigate whether the translator who worked in an institutional setting positioned himself in favour of an institutionally-aligned culture and ideology in order to strengthen the institutional voice. It will first review the key concepts, namely, institutional power, ideology and positioning, and their relevance to the Singapore context, and then scrutinize the source text and its two translated versions in an effort to detect any traces of cultural and ideological shifts that lead to the controversy. The paper reveals that the translator working in an institutional setting in Singapore does align himself with the authority and the erasure of translators paradoxically jeopardizes the author’s social identity and ideological positioning.


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula M. Staudinger ◽  
Ute Kunzmann

Abstract. Does personality stay stable after young adulthood or is there continued change throughout middle and later adulthood? For decades, this question has caused heated debate. Over the last couple of years, a consensus has emerged based on recent cross-cultural as well as longitudinal evidence. This consensus confirms that indeed there is personality change in middle and later adulthood. Many authors have labeled this change personality maturation or growth. In somewhat simplified terms the observed pattern is as follows: neuroticism declines, conscientiousness and agreeableness increase. At the same time it has been argued that this pattern of personality change is the result of coping with the developmental tasks of adulthood and, thus, increased adjustment. We would like to examine this practice of equating developmental adjustment with growth and ask how to define personality growth. To answer this question, we consult theories of personality development as well as lifespan theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Wiyoga Triharto ◽  
Bambang Perkasa Alam

Ratu harbor beach is one of the mainstay tourist sites for the Regional Government of Sukabumi Regency in bringing PAD, besides public transportation facilities and terminals have a major role in supporting the queen port as a tourist attraction so that tourists are comfortable and facilitated in accessing through public transportation. The condition of the Pelabuhan Ratu Terminal, Sukabumi Regency is currently very poor, poorly maintained, and many supporting facilities are damaged and inadequate. This study aims to identify problems and formulate the type B terminal arrangement in Sukabumi Regency. The method used is descriptive qualitative in order to get a picture of the problems of the situation and conditions currently taking place or occurring in the present and the study of policies. Collecting data by field surveys, literature studies and interviews. The results in this study get a terminal B type terminal design concept Sukabumi Regency according to current and future needs.


Author(s):  
Yelena I. Shtyrkova ◽  
Yelena I. Polyakova

The results of fossil diatoms investigation from the deltaic sediments are presented. Samples were obtained from the core DM-1 and two Holocene outcrops from the Damchik region of the Astrakhan Nature Reserve. In the core samples eight periods of sedimentation based on diatom analysis were identified: the sediments formed in shallow freshwater basins and deltaic channels. The samples from the outcrops were investigated in much greater detail.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Robin M. Sellers ◽  
Stephen Hewitt

Carlisle Museum's Natural History Record Bureau, Britain's first local environmental records centre, collected and collated records, mainly of birds but including also mammals and fishes, from amateur naturalists. It initially covered an area of 80 kilometres around Carlisle, and later from Cumberland, Westmorland and the detached portion of Lancashire north of Morecambe Bay: in effect the modern-day county of Cumbria. At the end of each year, those records which had been accepted were logged in a special “Record Book”, and a summary published. For the first eight years of its ten-year existence (1902–1912), these were printed in the local newspaper, The Carlisle Journal, but from 1908 they also appeared in The Zoologist. Alongside the Record Bureau, the Museum undertook a number of other activities, including a short-lived attempt to establish a bird-ringing project, an investigation into the impact of black-headed gulls ( Chroicocephalus ridibundus) on farming and fisheries interests (an early example of economic ornithology), the setting up of Kingmoor Nature Reserve and the protection of nesting peregrines ( Falco peregrinus), buzzards ( Buteo buteo) and ravens ( Corvus corax). The effectiveness of the Natural History Record Bureau and the reasons for its demise are briefly discussed.


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