Integrated Urban Coastal Management in Singapore

Singapore is a small island city-state without a hinterland, and thus has a coastline that is inseparable from its urban surroundings. As one of the world's busiest ports with a limited marine territory of approximately 600 km(2), issues pertaining to Singapore's coastal environment are closely tied to urban development. As a result of this unique context, Singapore has adapted the Partnerships in the Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia's (PEMSEA's) Integrated Coastal Management framework for application in a highly urbanized city- state. Known as Integrated Urban Coastal Management (IUCM), this framework and process facilitates Singapore's coastal management through enhancing the coordination of governmental stakeholders and coherence in governance, policies and processes. This paper describes the IUCM experience in Singapore thus far. It includes the principles and objectives of IUCM as well as outline the various instruments, such as Institutional Arrangements, through which Singapore manages its coast. It will also highlight recent and ongoing initiatives - a Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey (CMBS) that includes civil society participation and the application of soft and hard engineering solutions in mangrove restoration for the purposes of coastal protection. Through this, we hope to share the lessons learnt in implementing IUCM in Singapore with other coastal cities.