Geosphere 2022: Nexus

Nexus.

Geosp h ere

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Geosphere 2022 Nexus MCI(P) Published in June 2022 Publisher NUS Department of Geography Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences AS2-0301, 1 Arts Link, Kent Ridge Singapore 117570 Director & Editor Lim Li Xuan Ashley Executive & Editor Kay Yeo Hui Qin Executive & Designer Nur Husna Faqihah Binte Mohammad Rafiz

Geosphere is an annual publication by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Geographical Society. We love all things geographical and wish to share our passion with all with geographical interests.

For enquiries or possible partnership opportunities, drop us an email at nusgeosphere@gmail.com or message us on Instagram at @nusgeosphere.

The NUS Geographical Society is a non-profit organisation dedicated to serve the needs, welfare, and aspirations of geographers in NUS. The society maintains a strong and close relationship between the student community and falculty at the Department of Geography, whilst promoting the discipline of Geography amongst the Singaporean student community.

in this issue

In this Issue 2

Director’s Note and Meet the Team

Chapter 1: Vertices 6 8 10

Geography: A Nexus of Possibilities Geo-Social Relationships in an Interconnected World #GenerationRestoration and Sustainable Development

Chapter 2: Links 14 16 19

Emerging Geographies of Transboundary Haze Governance in Singapore Microplastics in Singapore and Around the World Money Talk & More: Coexisting with Mangroves on our Sunny Island

Chapter 3: Nodes 24 28 31

Placing ‘Art’ in Singapore’s HeARTlands Haunted Landscapes Fighting for the Right to Relief: Debt Dispossesion in the End of Covid-19

Chapter 4: Networks 34 38 40 44

Interning at Singapore Botanic Gardens with Lewis, Samuel, and Yiu Teng Alumni Feature: Mr William Yeo Alumni Feature: Ms Amanda Soh Alumni Feature: Mr Kelman Chiang

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Module Reflections

52 55

56th Geographical Society Acknowledgements and Appreciation

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Chapter 5: Convergence

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Director’s Note

‘One of the wonderful things about Geography is certainly its breadth, the way it enables us to cross boundaries which hem other disciplines in, but that breadth should not obscure the fact that Geography also has its own particular intellectual integrity.’ - Doreen Massey Many people ask me, ‘Why Geography?’. I am always unable to properly articulate my reasons.

Not because I am unsure of geography’s value but because any explanation I give cannot possibly do justice to the omnipresence of geography in our lives. The quote serves as a good starting point to answering the question and I hope Geosphere 2022: Nexus will do the same.

Nexus aims to foster a better appreciation of how geography functions within the inextricably intertwined nature of our world.

The first section, ‘Vertices’, signifies points at the beginning, featuring an opening article by the NUS Head of Department of Geography, Dr David Taylor, highlighting the value of geography in understanding the interconnectedness of today’s world. Our next section, ‘Links’, hopes to showcase this interconnectedness by featuring articles breaching topics with a transboundary nature, and their tangible and intangible impacts. ‘Nodes’ features articles discussing the intersections between various issues that shape and produce distinct spaces in areas at home and beyond. Next, ‘Networks’ presents interviews from our very own geography undergraduates and alumni, where they provide insights into fields both commonly and less commonly associated with geography.

Our final section, ‘Convergence’, brings us back home, where we explore modules offered at NUS Geography and take a look at the activities our geographers have taken part in this year.

With that, this edition seeks to reinforce the

importance of interdisciplinary understanding in helping us become better global citizens.

Most importantly, I would like to extend my appreciation to all those who have helped make Nexus possible. Firstly, to our staff advisors, Dr Carl Grundy-Warr, Dr Menusha De Silva, and Dr Luo Wei. Nexus would not have been possible without your advice, guidance, and regular check-ins. Next, to all our contributors, who have so generously agreed to collaborate with us despite your busy schedules. Thank you for bringing our ideas to life while also injecting your own flair to create a truly unique Nexus. Last but not least, to my teammates, Kay and Husna. I joined the Publications Cell not knowing what would be to come but I am thankful for the experiences I have gained—made better with wonderful teammates and even better friends. It has been an honour to work together.

To our readers, I sincerely hope Nexus will intrigue all of you with the beauty of Geography and the interconnectedness of our world.

Director for the 56th Management Committee Publications Cell

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Nur Husna Faqihah Binte Mohammad Rafiz Year 1 Undergraduate

Lim Li Xuan Ashley Year 1 Undergraduate

Kay Yeo Hui Qin Year 2 Undergraduate

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Executive of 56th Publications Cell Director of 56th Publications Cell Executive of 56th Publications Cell and Editor of Geosphere and Designer of Geosphere and Editor of Geosphere

vertices /ˈvɝtɪsiːs/ (noun) The highest point; the top or apex.

Signifying the point at the beginning by highlighting Geograhy as a nexus of possibilities in today’s interconnected world.

Photograph by Rod Sot on Unsplash

6 | Vertices

Geography: A Nexus of Possibilities

By Dr David Taylor I am pleased to have this opportunity to write an opening piece for the 2022 issue of Geosphere on the theme Nexus.

Originating from the Latin to bind, or be connected, a quick investigation using Google Ngram Viewer reveals an increase in usage of ‘nexus’ in published texts from the 1960s and particularly from the 1980s.

The trend reflects our increased awareness over the last three to four decades of the connectedness of our world and a rise in interest in the processes and structures that potentially link events, including some that are separated by distance and/or time. This rise in awareness has, to an extent, been driven by improved access to technologies that have increased our ability to observe, measure, and monitor Earth surface conditions. Additional contributing factors include the turn towards process and prediction that have driven the rise of Earth Systems Science and a renewed interest in studying interactions between humans and their environment across a range of scales.

I was reminded of just how interconnected our world can be in 2005 while preparing to lead a group of undergraduate Geography students on an expedition to Iceland. The students and I were based at a university in Ireland at the time. While preparing for the Iceland expedition I came across a detailed account of a field trip made by students from the same Department in July 1963, or more than 40 years ago. Those students had travelled first by boat from Ireland to Iceland (no cheap flights in the early 1960s) and then overland to the northern coastal settlement of Siglufjordur, camping and visiting sites en route, where they hoped to find work unloading herring from trawlers and preparing the fish for the market.

The journey to Siglufjordur in the summer of 1963 was arduous, particularly because of the unseasonal, heavy falls of snow! Unfortunately, the students were unable to find work in Siglufjordur.

The herring boom of the mid-20th century had contributed to Iceland’s economic and political independence and to Siglufjordur’s reputation as the ‘Herring Capital of the World’. However, by the 1950s, this was rapidly drawing to an end.

Though those students did not realise it at that time, they were experiencing the knockon effects of the onset of a phenomenon that scientists now recognise as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a multi-decadal variation in atmospheric and oceanic circulations resulting in significant temperature, salinity and ice cover anomalies in the North Atlantic (known as Great Salinity Anomalies, or GSAs). The students’ expedition coincided with the development of a GSA in the Iceland Sea, first to the north of Iceland and then extending eastwards, which caused climatic cooling and greatly restricted the habitat of copepods (zooplankton), the main food source for herring. Thus, herring in the North Atlantic were deprived of food while under severe pressure from a booming, technologically advanced and voracious fishing industry. This combination resulted in a total collapse of herring fisheries that were expected to last more than two decades, causing severe repercussions both at sea and on land.

Geography provides the tools to investigate phenomena such as the NAO while identifying and examining the processes that influence its

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If this is the case, then should we, as geographers, feel threatened by the current wave of interdisciplinarity that is breaking over universities, overwhelming traditional disciplinary barriers in the process?

Such reflective navel-gazing is common in Geography and accompanies a readiness

to show scepticism towards generally accepted concepts and widely-held beliefs, or narratives, including nexus narratives.

Yet, these remain great times to be a geographer.

The training afforded by geography, honed—I believe—through frequent interactions with other disciplines, rather than in isolation, is fully in keeping with broader shifts towards greater interdisciplinarity. This provides the means of identifying, understanding, and ultimately addressing the major challenges faced by humanity. Rather than feeling threatened, perhaps we should view a greater awareness of our interconnected world and the rising prominence of interdisciplinarity as compelling evidence of everyone becoming a geographer!

Dr David Taylor is a Professor of Tropical Environmental Change at the NUS Department of Geography. He is also Head of the Department of Geography. Previously, he was a Professor of Geography at Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. David really would have liked to have been a professional footballer, however. In fact, he would have played for Burnley, his hometown team, for free!

Photograph by Hert Niks on Pexel

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myriad of environmental and societal impacts.

Geography can justifiably claim a special—perhaps unique—place as a focus of interdisciplinarity.

Perhaps geographers have acquired this rich toolkit as a result of operating independently of, rather than at the nexus between, other disciplines—much like the adaptive radiation displayed by Darwin’s finches during two million years of isolation on the Galapagos Islands.

8 | Vertices

Geo-Social Relationships in an Interconnected World

By Dr Luo Wei We live in an interconnected world with complex, multi-scalar social networks embedded in our geographical landscape, such as the internet and transportation. The intricate interactions within and among these networks always have geographical constraints. They are also capable of changing or reshaping the traditional notion of geographical effects such as distance.

For example, advances in communication and transportation technologies over the past decade have led to a shift from networks that are both geographically and socially close (e.g. physical communities) to networks that are socially near but geographically dispersed (e.g. online communities).

To effectively understand the complex interactions between space and technosocial networks, it is necessary to encourage interdisciplinary understanding through fields of studies such as geography and network Photograph by Getty Images

science. This can be achieved by integrating and developing both new and existing theories and methods. An example would be to espouse spatial thinking and social network theory.

The traditional Geographical Information System (GIS) focuses on geographical locations, relationships, and their dynamics. However, it rarely considers social networks and relationships.

For example, research in geography encourages the integration of spatial thinking into traditional social science through the concepts of space, place, and time, but often treats networks in a simplistic way. Space and social networks should be considered simultaneously when framing research on human activity.

Within the social sciences, spatial analysis is used to identify how geographical patterns are a result of social processes, and understand how space affects

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Social network analysis is used to understand how relationships among different actors within a network affect or are affected by social processes.

Social network analysis has an assumption, complementary to the First Law cited above, that actors with similar relations may have similar attributes or behaviours. Spatial analysis and social network analysis consider social phenomena in their own specific contexts, either geographical space or network space. However, considering both contexts simultaneously has the potential to provide new insights into human processes. For example, it could help us model how humans interact, communicate, and form groups within a specific geographic context.

Geo-social space suggests a possible extension of the First Law of Geography: ‘Everything/ everyone is related to everything/everyone else, but near things/ones are more related than distant things/ones; nearness and relationship can be considered a matter of geographical and social network distance, relationship, and interaction.’

Geo-social relationships cover a wide range of topics—migration flows on various scales, the Internet of Things, pandemic outbreaks, international trade, social media networks, and so on.

For example, the Covid-19 pandemic has been transmitted across the world at an unprecedented speed via international travel. It has caused unprecedented disruption to the global economy

and trade, bringing economic activity to a nearstandstill as countries impose social distancing and travel restrictions to halt the virus spread.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences drastically impact the geo-social relationships from one individual to another and from one location to another across political, economic, cultural, and environmental domains. The biggest challenge in geo-social relationship research would be the requirement of highquality spatiotemporal datasets with network information. A combination of traditional data collection approach (e.g. household surveys) with an increasingly social-technological approach (e.g. location-based social media) to collect information on individual travel, social interactions, and semantic background information (e.g. tweet content) could potentially be effective in tackling such challenges.

The observed social phenomena in a spatiotemporal framework motivate the development of social, political, and ethical research questions that develop the general geosocial theory to understand the world. Thus, at the methodological level, novel geo-social methods such as the incorporation of social network analysis into GIS should facilitate the integration of computational methods with human reasoning abilities. This can help answer research and application questions in the context of data exploration, decision-making, and predictive analysis. The resulting methods will then enable researchers to understand the geo-social mechanisms and processes that underlie human behaviour from an integrative perspective of spatial thinking and social science.

Dr Luo Wei is an Assistant Professor at the NUS Department of Geography. He is a GIScientist, epidemiologist, data visualizer, and network scientist. His teaching areas focus on geospatial data science, health geography, data visualization, and social network analysis. He enjoys reading, exercising, and travelling.

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such processes. Most spatial analysis is based on the assumption of Tobler’s First Law of Geography: ‘Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.’

10 | Vertices

JC ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION Winning entry by Bay Rui-Heng Benjamin (Anglo-Chinese School Independent) To launch the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for everyone to join the #GenerationRestoration movement to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide (UNEP, 2021).

Evaluate how this movement will impact the different dimensions of sustainable development.

Over recent decades, rapid economic growth has resulted in large increases in income and a reduction in poverty globally. However, this has been at the expense of the world’s ecosystems.

As our standard of living increases, the world’s ecosystems—both natural and man-made— have been degrading at an increasing rate for human use, much greater than the rate of recovery. This has not only negatively affected wildlife but also people, especially marginalised groups such as those living in poverty, women, and indigenous communities. Thus, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for everyone to join the #GenerationRestoration movement to promote the restoration of ecosystems worldwide. This essay will discuss how this movement will impact the different dimensions of sustainable development, in terms of environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability.

Firstly, UNEP’s #GenerationRestoration movement has positively impacted environmental sustainability. The movement’s initiatives have targeted the promotion of ecosystem restoration in hopes of helping to reverse the impact of human activity on ecosystems. This can reduce habitat and biodiversity losses caused by anthropogenic activities such as deforestation, thereby preventing the extinction of precious animal species and further degradation of

ecosystems. The interconnectedness of our world allows for trickle-down benefits into other areas of society. Thriving biodiversity ensures stability of food supplies worldwide and maintains food chains. In India, human activities had severely degraded Lake Chilika.

However, in 2000, restoration efforts helped reverse the degradation process. This led to an increase in the population of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins from 89 in 2003 to 158 in 2015. It also led to the re-appearance of several shrimp, fish and aquatic plant species, helping to re-establish food chains for the biodiversity in the area, which then attracted migratory birds back to the lake. This highlights how ecological restoration efforts will bring about significant environmental benefits in the long run.

UNEP’s #GenerationRestoration movement has also positively impacted cultural sustainability.

As indigenous communities often have greater knowledge on the environment and sustainability, it is common to involve indigenous communities in ecological restoration projects. In Western Australia, ecological restoration efforts organised by the Gondwana Link initiative combines the input from both the indigenous Noongar community and non-indigenous individuals. For instance, cultural sharings were held for Noongar people to share their traditional knowledge regarding land-management practices, while non-

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However, one could put forth that UNEP’s #GenerationRestoration movement has negatively impacted economic sustainability.

The restoration of ecosystems, be it on an individual, corporate, or governmental level, can be time consuming and expensive. Large amounts of money are often required in the planning and implementation of restoration efforts, such as reforestation and eradicating invasive species. For example, Brazil’s National Plan for Native Vegetation Recovery, which aims to restore 12 million hectares of native vegetation, will cost the country between US$8.9 billion and US$15.6 billion. Such high costs can hamper economic growth on both a national and regional scale. Global income inequalities between developed and less developed regions will also undermine the effectiveness of this movement since governments of lower-income countries might not be able to allocate sufficient funds for ecosystem restoration projects without compromising national development.

Lower-income countries might be unable to reap the benefits of ecosystem restoration unlike higher-income countries due to

their lower ecosystem

financial capacity for restoration projects.

However, the economic benefits of ecosystem restoration gained in the long-term largely outweighs the high initial costs. In the longrun, the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded ecosystems could generate US$9 trillion in ecosystem services, while inaction could lead to three times the cost of ecosystem restoration projects. Due to the supranational nature of ecosystem degradation impacts, it is crucial for higher-income countries to offer assistance to lower-income countries to mitigate worldwide environmental degradation. On a smaller scale, individuals and businesses can also make donations or even volunteer at organisations spearheading ecosystem restoration projects. Any action, big or small, can help in mitigating the potential negative impacts of the #GenerationRestoration movement on economic sustainability.

In conclusion, the #GenerationRestoration movement can be a catalyst to promote ecosystem restoration across various scales.

This will significantly impact the different dimensions of sustainable development, particularly in terms of environmental, cultural and economic sustainability. Although this movement will undoubtedly have its trade-offs, I believe the long-term benefits will largely outweigh the short-term costs faced. Global ecosystem restoration and the prevention of further degradation requires a global concerted effort from individuals, businesses, and the government in order to effectively achieve sustainable development.

About the JC Essay Writing Competition: The competition is held annually for all students in Junior Colleges with the aim of encouraging students to critically consider how geographical perspectives can contribute to the analysis of real-world issues. This year, the winning entry is submitted by Benjamin Bay from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), who produced a clearly structured essay with excellent use of geographical concepts.

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Noongar people shared their scientific ideologies.

Fostering communication between both indigenous and non-indigenous communities in ecological restoration projects allows both parties to come to a common ground and respect each other’s values and practices. This ensures no cultural practice is favoured over the other, and cultures from both parties can work together in promoting ecological restoration.

This thus helps to preserve cultural practices and prevent them from dying out in the long-run.

links /lɪŋks/ (noun) A connection between two people, things, or ideas.

Links hopes to showcase the interconnectedness of today’s world by featuring articles breaching topics with a transboundary nature, and their tangible and intangible impacts.

Photograph by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

14 | Links Photograph by Donny Sophandi on Shutterstock

Emerging Geographies of Tranboundary Haze Governance in Singapore

By Dr Helena Varkkey Southeast Asian nations have been experiencing land and forest fires during the dry season on an almost annual basis at least since 1982.

Under certain climatic and weather conditions, the smoke from these fires transcends state boundaries, becoming a regional air pollution event known as transboundary haze. The biomass origins of these fires mean that they are extremely hazardous to health. The tiny particles, as small as 2.5μm (PM or ‘particulate matter’ 2.5), can be easily inhaled to enter one’s bloodstream, causing serious respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. The haze also wreaks havoc on regional economies, livelihoods and social lives. The most recent transboundary haze episode occurred in the fourth quarter of 2019, originating mostly from fires in Indonesia and extending to Singapore, Malaysia, and beyond.

The World Bank estimated Indonesia’s losses linked to fires and haze in that year amounting to US$5.2 billion. This episode coincided with other major fire events around the world, with 2019 being known as ‘the year the world was on fire’.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began to acknowledge haze as a serious regional environmental problem as early as 1985. Key documents within the growing ASEAN haze governance

framework include the 1997 Regional Haze Action Plan, the 2002 ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) and the 2016 Roadmap on ASEAN Cooperation Towards Transboundary Haze Pollution Control with Means of Implementation.

Most notably, the legally binding AATHP gained universal ratification, acting as a tool to encourage regional cooperation. Despite all this, transboundary haze remains a chronic regional environmental problem today. The ‘ASEAN Way’ norms of non-interference and good neighbourliness have often been identified as major stumbling blocks to more decisive action for the mitigation of haze at the regional level.

While biomass fires do not occur in Singapore, the effects of transboundary haze are often acutely felt here. Singapore experienced its worst-ever haze day in 2013, when its Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) reached 401, mirroring PSIs in nearby Indonesia at the time. The 2015 haze episode in Singapore incurred an estimated cost of up to S$1.83 billion. Ironically, Singapore is notably the headquarters of several prominent agribusiness companies such as Wilmar International and Golden Agr Resources operating in the neighbouring regions, which are involved in sectors that have been linked to fires and haze, like palm oil and pulpwood.

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The state has also served as the pioneering base for novel transboundary approaches to monitor businesses as part of haze governance.

Firstly, its 2014 Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) extends extra-territorial jurisdiction to the business sector by imposing fines on any company whose operations in neighbouring countries were found to contribute to haze within Singapore’s borders.

Unfortunately, the THPA has not been fully operationalised due to a lack of cooperation from Indonesia over information sharing.

Additionally, various Singapore-based nonstate actors have been working across various organisational scales and sectors of expertise to complement, support, and influence national and regional actions and outcomes. The Singapore Environment Council (SEC), an NGO, suspended the Singapore Green Label certification for Asia Pulp and Paper, a prominent pulp and paper company headquartered in Singapore, after the government’s efforts to initiate legal action against the company using the THPA reached a dead end. The company invested hundreds of millions in its Indonesian operations to requalify for

the Green Label. The Singapore Institute for International Affairs, a think tank, was instrumental in fostering constructive engagement between corporations and the government, and between governments in the region through flagship events like the Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources. PM Haze, an NGO, engages with local Singaporean consumers and small businesses to support haze-free products. PM Haze also works with regional peatland communities to promote sustainable fire-free livelihoods on peatlands.

Importantly, the assemblage of non-state actors around environmental solidarities like PM Haze’s sustainable livelihoods approach and mutual interests such as ‘pro-corporate’ support for sustainable palm oil have manifested in opportunities to improve social capital and expand markets. This supports the ASEAN developmentalist worldview within an environmental stewardship framework.

These examples are some ways in which state and non-state actors can act in collaborative and complementary ways to address complex environmental issues.

Such emerging, interconnected geographies of governance can address the weaknesses of any particular social agent and build upon the strengths of another.

Similar to ASEAN’s geopolitical culture that constrains collective regional responses and governmental initiatives, Singapore’s THPA faces similar geopolitical constraints.

However, Singapore’s experience reveals how non-state actors can transcend administrative boundaries towards bridging policy gaps within the national and supranational transboundary haze governance regimes.

Dr Helena Varkkey is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya. Her research focuses on the governance of transboundary haze pollution and the political economy of palm oil in Southeast Asia.

More broadly, she seeks to understand how economic development can be reconciled with environmental sustainability in this resource rich region.

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Singapore has been actively involved in transnational haze governance at the ASEAN level. As the second member state to ratify the AATHP in 2003, Singapore hosts the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (which holds the mandate for monitoring and assessment of haze in the region). It was the main proponent for a stronger ASEAN Sub-Regional Haze Monitoring System (HMS) based on open sharing of land and concession maps for improved monitoring.

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Microplastics in Singapore and around the world

By Alexander Finnegan

Plastic is a rapidly growing component of the modern world, with approximately 5.5 billion metric tons of plastic waste now present on Earth. Plastic is in everything and it is all around us. Obvious plastic items are larger-sized objects such as toothbrushes, bottles, bags, bank cards, and pens, but plastic can also be found in smaller forms as microplastics. Microplastics can be manufactured for various uses such as in personal cleaning products or cosmetics, or may form from the break-down of larger plastics, like bottles and bags in the environment. As microplastics are so small—less than 5 mm—we unintentionally find them in processed drinks, food, and throughout

the world in seawater, soils, animals, and even in the roots and stems of plants that we eat!

Over the past few years, scientists have found microplastics in the air around us. These atmospheric microplastics, as they are called, have been found in cities across Europe and Asia, and in remote places such as mountainous regions and even in the middle of the ocean.

At the NUS Department of Geography between June and July 2020, we did our own research to understand atmospheric microplastics in Singapore. During the experiment, we found on average 200 to 250 fibres being deposited

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Consequently, these factors may amplify the amount of atmospheric microplastics found here in Singapore. Other known sources of atmospheric microplastics

include vehicles and roads which come from car tyres, brakes, and general wear of road surfaces, as well as ‘city dust’. City dust refers to microplastics from objects like furniture, footwear, cooking utensils in homes, as well as paints and protective coatings. Our study in Singapore has not yet found any evidence of these types of microplastics associated with vehicles and roads or city dust. However, there have been other studies done in other cities, such as Da Nang (Vietnam), Kusatsu (Japan), and Kathmandu (Nepal) that have obtained substantial evidence of such microplastics in the air.

Why should we care about atmospheric microplastics? Microplastics travel thousands of kilometres in mere days, entering rivers, oceans, farmland, and forests around the world.

It is estimated that adults inhale up to 60,000 microplastics per year, or around 164 per day.

This is in addition to microplastics which people consume through food and drinks.

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from the atmosphere per day per m2. The microplastics found were mostly fibres, indicating that most plastics came from textiles. Advanced chemical analysis of the fibres found that they were made of natural, regenerated (dissolved plant materials shaped into fibres), and plastic materials.

The plastic fibres were almost exclusively polyester, which is common in clothing.

Previous research has indicated that clothing can be a large source of microplastics in the atmosphere. In Singapore, this case may be even more extreme. Singapore has one of the highest population densities in the world, with most of the population living in highrise buildings and air-drying of clothes being commonplace. Typically, fibres are easily shed from clothing during normal wearing, which is exacerbated by strong sunlight experienced in Singapore due to its proximity to the equator.

18 | Links These atmospheric microplastics may pose a health risk to humans. Limited research shows that atmospheric microplastics may increase respiratory irritation, lung disease, and asthma. Furthermore, microplastics may be able to transport pollutants from the environment into people’s bodies. Concerningly, microplastics which enter deeper parts of the lungs may be difficult to remove by the body.

More research is needed to fully understand atmospheric microplastics in Singapore, with plans to extend sampling across the island and

over a much-longer duration in future years.

There is no need to worry about atmospheric microplastics just yet, as much more research is required before we fully understand their health implications. In the meantime, simple precautions can be taken to avoid atmospheric microplastics such as keeping your home clean and reducing dust, using a cover or bottle for your drinks, and avoiding too many synthetic textiles in the home, including carpets, curtains, and clothes. Most importantly, aim to use natural products like cotton as much as possible.

Alexander Finnegan is a fourth-year PhD student interested in the study of microplastic pollution. His work has taken him to the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia but he has more recently been studying atmospheric microplastics in Singapore. Aside from writing, he enjoys great coffee, carrying out fieldwork, and eating in hawker centres around Singapore.

Photograph by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

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Money Talk and More: Coexisting with Mangroves on our Sunny Island

By Laetitia Sherry Purnama and Yin Chuan

In Singapore, we are lucky to have some of the most biodiverse mangroves in the world, containing about 35 out of 70 mangrove plant species found around the world.

These arboreal gems are also home to a dazzling variety of animals, including insects, crabs, otters, and crocodiles. Since the 1980s, at least 67 new species have been discovered here in Singapore’s mangroves. Yet, over the course of Singapore’s urban development, we have lost more than 95 per cent of our natural mangrove cover.

This is ironic considering how important mangroves are to low-lying islands like Singapore. Their impressive tangle of specialised roots confers coastal protection by reducing storm wave heights by more than 75 per cent!

Moreover, National University of Singapore (NUS) mangrove expert Daniel Friess reports that they may even have the ability to adapt to rising sea levels by expanding surface elevations, given enough sediments in the water.

Figure 1. Mangrove distribution in pre-industrial Singapore (Corlett, 1991)

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As students of the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) programme, one of the first things we learn is the value and significance of the different ecosystems around the world.

While the importance of conserving lush green forests and fragile coral reefs has been wellexplored by the media, the discourse surrounding mangroves often only covers its environmental and biological benefits. Through this article, we hope to shed more light on the economic and socio-cultural significance of mangroves.

20 | Links On top of that, mangroves can potentially generate much economic revenue and provide new sources of income! A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) research revealed that mangrove ecosystems underpin global and local economies by supporting fisheries, providing other food sources, and protecting coastlines. In fact, every hectare of mangrove forest represents an estimated value of US$33,000 to US$57,000 per year. Furthermore, mangroves provide nursery habitats for many commercial fish and shellfish. They thus contribute to the local abundance of the seafood industry, which is critical for Singapore’s food security.

Mangroves also act as fantastic carbon sinks amidst our nation’s effort to fight climate change.

Although mangrove forests cover just 0.1 per cent of our planet’s land surface, they store more carbon than any other type of forest. Our remaining small patches of mangroves already store more than 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and continue to sequester more carbon every year. Singapore aims to peak greenhouse gas emissions at 65 million tonnes by 2030, and then halve peak emissions to 33 million tonnes by 2050.

These nature-based solutions such as mangroves, alongside investments in new technological developments, would make great contributions to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.

It is not just all money talk! Mangroves also play a vital role in shaping Singapore’s identity and heritage, considering that they were a source of life to one of Singapore’s indigenous communities, the Orang Laut, which means the ‘People of the Seas’. Before Singapore’s rapid development, these inhabitants relied on both the seas and the mangroves for food, shelter, and medicine. Since much of their lives depended on the provisions of nature, they learnt to live sustainably with the materials around them and intimately understood the workings of the natural world.

They possessed naturalistic knowledge that many

of us urbanites would never fully comprehend.

Unfortunately, to make way for development, the Orang Laut were eventually evacuated from their homes and scattered across Singapore and Malaysia.

As we can see, mangroves hold intrinsic value as they cultivate and preserve a sense of place and cultural heritage, allowing us to better appreciate our history and how cultural values change over time. Singapore’s state of perpetual development has caused our values to transition from intrapersonal ones (e.g. spiritual, cultural) to instrumental, interpersonal ones (e.g. recreation, education). By comprehending this shift, only then can we better interest people in local mangrove conservation issues and inspire more to recognise the importance of this unique ecosystem.

So what can we do to help at an individual level? For starters, mangrove clean-ups are a great way to intimately immerse ourselves in the tangles of our local mangroves and witness the immediate consequences of human actions.

Attending educational tours is a great way to learn about our mangroves and foster a greater understanding of the various ecosystem services mangroves provide. Doing so allows us to develop a greater appreciation for our natural heritage, which can be a starting point for generating solutions to protect our precious ecosystems.

Lastly, join discussions with conservation organisations and participate in grassroot initiatives to strengthen conservation efforts.

As individuals, and especially youths, you may sometimes feel like what you are doing is insignificant. However, always remember that you are a part of a bigger movement and that every action you make will determine the outcome of our future!

Find out more about Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate

21 Yin Chuan is a Year 2 Environmental Studies major with a minor in Cultural Studies. Inspired by community and nature-based solutions, he looks for creative and inclusive ways to tackle the issues we face today. With the recent COP26, he has also taken interest in learning more about ethics, education, and empowerment. In his free time, you can spot him hiking and exploring nature, reading in his room, or watching documentaries with a giant bowl of pasta.

Laetitia Sherry Purnama is a Year 2 Environmental Studies major with a minor in Geographical Information System (GIS). She is passionate about urban planning and sustainability and takes interest in the topics of carbon sequestration and carbon crediting. She enjoys spending her time singing, reading, or exploring streets and hidden alleyways of Singapore and Jakarta.

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Photograph by Anton Lecock on Unsplash

Photography by Qystina Darwyshea

Photograph by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash

nodes /nəʊd/ (noun) A place where things such as lines or systems join.

Nodes features articles discussing the intersections between various issues that shape and produce distinct spaces in areas at home and beyond.

24 | Nodes

Placing ‘Art’ in Singapore’s HeARTlands

By Dr T.C. Chang Introduction Have you recently witnessed a trend in our Housing and Development Board (HDB) void decks, where white walls are increasingly filled with colourful artworks? In July 2011, the first HDB Void Deck Gallery (VDG) was opened in Pipit Road (MacPherson) followed by a second in 2012 (Commonwealth Avenue, Buona Vista), and a third in 2014 (Gek Poh Ville, Jurong).

What remains unknown, however, are how these galleries have come about, who were the artists, and what have been their effects on residents and residential life in the HDB precincts.

This article briefly explores these questions.

How It All Started The inaugural ‘VDG’ was the idea of Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament (MP) of MacPherson (from 2011 to 2015). Noticing how drab the void deck walls were, she suggested a project involving volunteers and resident-artists, organised by a non-profit organisation called Social Creatives. Ms Tin also suggested a Vincent Van Gogh theme to unify the artworks, believing that Singaporeans will delight in the colourful works of a world-famous artist. In an interview I had conducted with her, Ms Tin explained, ‘This is a quaint, nostalgic neighbourhood but I felt there was space for artistic expression. I was looking at the void decks and thought we could have a gallery, like a trail with a story that unfolds.’

25 The inaugural project attracted some 300 volunteers, all of whom were trained by Social Creatives. The final works span a few residential blocks in Pipit Road and include sunflowers, irises, and Van Gogh’s starry night. Many local subjects such as Singapore’s skyline, local flora and fauna were also rendered in the artists’ trademark Impressionistic style. Members of the public were solicited through SGCares, a government portal devoted to volunteerism (today called Giving. sg). Social Creatives also solicited Nippon Paint to sponsor all the paint needed for the project.

Participatory Planning and Creative Placemaking ‘Participatory planning’ refers to any form of planning that involves members of the public.

The VDGs are an example of this form of planning; although it was the government (in this case, an MP) who initiated the art project, it was members of the public who actually painted on the walls and a non-profit group that managed the programme. Participatory planning is popular today because increasingly, the public wants to be consulted on and involved in development projects that affect their daily lives.

The term ‘placemaking’ refers to a process in which spaces and environments are developed into places with distinct identities and aesthetics. The goal in placemaking is to bond people, especially residents, to their environment. One way to ‘make places’ is through arts and cultural activities.

‘Creative placemaking’ refers to the process in which placemaking occurs with the aid of the arts.

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Following the success of the first VDG, two more galleries were developed featuring the works of American pop-artists like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring (Buona Vista), and Pablo Picasso (Gek Poh Ville). What were once empty void deck spaces are now colourful environments filled with all manners of art. As part of its educational mission, the galleries also feature walls informing the public about the lives of the artists as well as the different art movements (e.g. Impressionism, Pop-art, Cubism).

26 | Nodes The concept of ‘creative placemaking’ was coined by the US National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). As a planning practice, creative placemaking unites the public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors to shape the character of a neighbourhood, town, or city making use of arts and cultural activities. By end-2017, NEA’s ‘Our Town’ program had supported 466 placemaking projects in all 50 US states to the tune of more than US$36.4 million.

Social and Spatial Effects in Singapore What are some of the outcomes of the VDGs? As part of an NUS-funded research project, I interviewed artists as well as residents living around the VDGs and learnt that many artists expressed pride in their work. As one artistresident noted, each time he passes the void deck where his work is located, he makes it a point to tell people about it. He also began spending more at the void deck socialising with friends or just sitting there admiring the works. Yet another artist-resident proclaimed, ‘Having an art gallery in the void deck gives me a feeling, an emotional value attached to the place.’

To a large extent, the goal of enhancing residents’ and artists’ sense of pride towards their environment is fulfilled. However, a more nuanced investigation reveals some challenges.

For example, it is extremely difficult to solicit public participation in creative placemaking projects. Many artists and residents revealed they would not want to be involved in future projects.

Some interviewees explained they did not benefit from the process as they were not really taught any new artistic techniques. The duration spent on the project was also limited and neighbours did not get to interact with one another.

While many of the residents expressed appreciation for the artworks, they also questioned why Western art forms were

chosen. As a MacPherson resident explained, ‘I think Singaporean art would be good since we want to promote Singaporean artists in the end, right? It’s a good chance for locals to be exposed to Singaporean art, like knowing the names of artists at the very least.’

If creative placemaking truly entails participatory planning, residents questioned why they were not involved in the decision-making process on the types of art to be featured. As we had earlier noted, the Van Gogh theme was chosen by an MP rather than by members of the public. One resident questioned, ‘I don’t mind having more artworks but they must show something about the place, like about being Asian, about the Indian, Chinese, Malay. You look at these Van Gogh works— What is this? Nothing related to where we stay.’

An Artful Future?

The VDG scheme promises more artful expressions in our HDB environments. This is certainly welcome as it adds colour and beauty to our residential spaces. However, more than just artworks, the process of creating the works is just as important. By actively involving members of the public and a non-profit organisation, the VDG exemplifies participatory planning and creative placemaking. In the Singapore context, however, the choice of the art, at least in the first three galleries, was by the local MPs working with Social Creatives. Public participation came only in the form of volunteer artists. A more inclusive process should involve members of the public proposing and painting their own works, as well as coordinating the entire process. With more Singaporeans becoming interested in arts and culture, and better exposed to artistic practices, it is hoped that a far more participatory-style of planning and placemaking will happen in the near future.

27 Dr T.C. Chang is an Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Geography and has been teaching here since 1990. He teaches tourism, maps, and introduction to human geography, and researches on Asian tourism, cities, arts, and cultures.

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Photograph by Danist Soh on Unsplash

28 | Nodes

Haunted Landscapes

By Dr Chris McMorran

The past haunts the present. Geographers know this fact well through one of their signature objects of study—landscapes. While landscapes may constantly change, they always hold reminders of the past. Whether those reminders are monumental—like memorials and place names—or mundane—like ornamental plants that are non-native species, all landscapes reveal something about the individuals, aesthetics, and connections with elsewhere in the past that have come together in what we see in the present.

I have spent my career fascinated by the many layers of meaning, and the ways the past haunts the present in the landscapes all around us.

In particular, I have been studying the landscape of Kurokawa Onsen, a Japanese hot springs resort, since the late 1990s. Since my first visit in 1996, I have witnessed continual updates— renovated and rebuilt inns, new signs, new public

toilets, and widened roads. Yet, most of these updates have involved replacing worn-out features with things that look even older, like replacing a rusty metal roof with a thatched one. Indeed, Kurokawa’s landscape is serious business for local business owners, since it has been instrumental in the resort’s growth since the 1980s.

Outdoor baths and wooden inns surrounded by autumn foliage or cherry blossoms beckon potential visitors to this remote destination, and the text on websites and in guidebooks suggests that this timeless, natural landscape will heal weary travelers. The wellknown Lonely Planet guidebook for Japan describes Kurokawa as a ‘low-key resort [that] still seems like it’s a tiny, forgotten village that you’ve been lucky to stumble upon.’ But Kurokawa has not been ‘forgotten’, nor is it ‘stumbled upon’ by nearly one million visitors each year. And while the landscape may look like a remnant of preindustrial Japan, it is largely a recent product of hard work and fortune by local business owners and their employees. In fact, since the 1980s, local residents have been actively shaping Kurokawa’s landscape to fit a nostalgic ideal that serves two intertwined—yet sometimes

29

Why does Kurokawa look the way it does today, who has taken credit for its transformation, and how does the past continue to provide resources for the future? The answers to these questions reveal not only the enduring role of the countryside as a touchstone of national identity, but also the role of this particular landscape in producing local identity in Kurokawa.

I explore these themes and more in my forthcoming book, Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan. The book is about the physical and emotional work required to produce one of Japan’s most relaxing and rejuvenating places: the ryokan. I show how ryokan create a nostalgic, comforting atmosphere that helps guests—both domestic and foreign—feel “at home” in the Japanese countryside. Ryokan use both landscapes and hospitality considered uniquely Japanese to

take advantage of powerful cultural beliefs about where national identity and women’s work belong: in the countryside and in the home, respectively.

Ryokan is based on twelve months of intensive fieldwork in Kurokawa Onsen, where I welcomed guests, cleaned rooms, washed dishes, and scrubbed baths in a handful of family-run inns.

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contradictory—needs: a nation longing for the past and a community hoping to secure its future.

30 | Nodes Beyond Japan, I have developed an interest in the rich and complicated meaning of home in Singapore. One outcome of this curiosity has been a general education module called ‘Home’.

Another more exciting outcome has been to develop some of my students’ homework projects into audio episodes for the ‘Home on the Dot’

podcast, which I co-produce with NUS students.

In this podcast, too, we often encounter the past haunting (and in some cases reinvigorating) the present in Singapore’s landscapes, whether in the form of hawker centres or clan associations, or the more literal haunting associated with HDBs built on former cemeteries.

Dr Chris McMorran is an Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Japanese Studies. He is a cultural geographer of contemporary Japan who researches the geographies of home across scale, from the body to the nation.

He has also published research on tourism, disasters, gendered labour, area studies, field-based learning, and popular culture. He is a past winner of the NUS Outstanding Educator Award and a Fellow of the NUS Teaching Academy. Dr McMorran grew up in a small town in Iowa but has lived outside the US for much of his adult life, including Japan and Singapore, which he calls home.

Photograph by Atul Vinayak on Unsplash

31

Fighting for the Right to Relief: Debt Dispossession in the Era of Covid-19

By Dr Nathan Green

Amidst the pandemic, however, a few have profited. Not just a little, but a lot. In 2020, the world’s billionaire population rose by more than 700 to a record total of more than 2,700.

In just 12 months, the total wealth of billion

aires worldwide shot up from $5 trillion to $13 trillion. The gruesome reality of Squid Game seems almost believable at a time when billionaires are popping up all around us while many people are struggling to repay their loans.

Critical economic geographers would argue that such pandemic profiteering is built into the capitalist system. A central concept in economic geography, known as accumulation by dispossession, states that economic growth is not only uneven, but actually requires some to lose out while others gain. Debt-driven dispossession is a particularly insidious form of this process. It operates out of sight, often among the most marginalised in society.

But once in a while, such as during times

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It is not surprising that a show about people fighting to the death to repay their debts has struck a chord around the world. Nearly two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, viewers of Netflix’s Squid Game can sympathise with the challenges of keeping up with the expenses of daily life.

Even as incomes dry up, people still have to repay everything from the mortgage to bad credit card debt. That a virus can disrupt our economic lives so profoundly is a reminder of just how precarious a debt-financed, interconnected world can be.

32 | Nodes of crisis, it can capture our attention.

In a recently launched campaign in Cambodia, two human rights organisations have sought to bring our attention to such dispossession.

Their Right to Relief campaign documents the abuses of Cambodia’s microfinance industry in fourteen villages across the country. In the past decade, the microfinance industry in Cambodia has grown faster than any other in the world.

By 2020, there were 2.8 million microloans held by the country’s 3.6 million households. The average loan size was $4,280, larger than 95 per cent of people’s incomes. Effective interest rates frequently exceeded 18 per cent per year. As families lose jobs to the pandemic, their debts have grown far faster than they can be repaid.

How did this happen? Afterall, the original goal of microfinance was to empower marginalised groups to lift themselves out of poverty by providing small loans to finance a business enterprise. These days, however, the industry is driven by the same profit motive as any other commercial sector. Consequently, lending has become less discriminate. In Cambodia, loans are given with little to no relation to entrepreneurial activity. Instead, microfinance borrowers, primarily women, take on loans to pay for basic needs like medical care and education. They then repay their loans by working in the country’s garment, construction, or tourism industries.

But these industries have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Cambodian workers have lost their jobs or had their hours cut.

Cambodians who have seen their incomes dry up have adopted numerous coping strategies to repay their debts. The most common strategy is to cut back on food consumption. Many others have returned to their hometowns to wait out the pandemic while working odd jobs in

the informal economy. Some have pulled their children out of school to work. Throughout the country, reports of borrowers selling off their land to repay their loans continue to grow.

In the meantime, the country’s commercial lenders have listed record profits. Just before the pandemic, most of the largest microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia sold their companies to international banks in Asia.

These international financial conglomerates have injected liquidity into the industry to intensify lending in all corners of the country during the pandemic. Simultaneously, Western development institutions like the International Finance Corporation have given subsidised loans to the country’s largest MFIs and banks. Through this private equity and development finance, some Cambodian MFIs have reported a five-fold increase in their loan portfolios in just two years.

Such pandemic profiteering has sparked heated debate and contestation in Cambodia. The Right to Relief campaign has called for an immediate release of all land-based collateral used on microloans. They argue that lenders, who hold borrowers’ land titles, are using the threat of land seizure to pressure people to repay their loans. The campaign has also called on Western institutions to stop supporting an industry that is causing child labour, malnutrition, and dispossession.

In contrast, the microfinance industry has advocated for less drastic reforms. At the behest of the Cambodian government, the country’s lenders have restructured hundreds of thousands of loans to give people more time to repay.

Alongside restructuring loans, the microfinance industry has adopted new lending guidelines to rein in multiple borrowing and loan refinancing— two of the main drivers of rising household debt.

As one industry spokesperson told me, it is in each institution’s best interest to self-regulate, because

33 if you overfish your river, then you will have nothing to eat. If the industry works together, it will ensure that there is a long-term client base able and willing to continue borrowing.

However, the Right to Relief organisers decry the industry’s limited actions to resolve the over-indebtedness crisis in Cambodia. They argue that the refinancing terms simply kick the can down the road: debts may be deferred, but not forgiven. In the meantime, interest continues to accrue. Moreover, the industry’s new lending guidelines lack teeth. The National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s most powerful regulator, has largely failed to enforce compliance of these guidelines. Indeed, with shareholder

competition between lenders, there are strong incentives to keep up with business as usual.

The situation in Cambodia may be unique in its specifics. But if the immense global popularity of Squid Game suggests anything, it is that the general pattern of debt-driven accumulation by dispossession is to be found far beyond the borders of Cambodia. And this should be cause for concern. Soon the short-term measures put in place by governments around the world during the pandemic, such as eviction moratoriums and loan deferments, will come to an end. When that happens, people’s debts will still be there. For this reason, fighting for the Right to Relief is going to be even more paramount in the years ahead.

Dr Nathan Green is an Assistant Professor at the NUS Department of Geography. His scholarship critically examines the political ecologies of agrarian finance and infrastructure in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Cambodia. He is currently researching the intersection of household debt, commodity markets, and translocal livelihoods under conditions of neoliberal financialisation. His work has been published in disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, such as Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and Antipode.

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Right to Relief Campaign: Indebted Land Communities Speak Out

Photograph by Rubén Bagüés on Unsplash

networks

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/ˈnet.wɜːk/ (noun) a group or system of interconnected people or things.

Networks presents interviews from our very own geography undergraduates and alumni, where they provide insights into fields both commonly and less commonly associated with geography.

34 | Networks

Interning at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

By Lewis Kwek, Samuel Lee and Ng Yiu Teng 1. Where did you find the internship and what attracted you to it?

Dr Gretchen Coffman introduced the internship to us when we took the modules GE2101 (Methods and Practices in Geography) and GE2220 (Terrestrial and Coastal Environments). During both modules, she encouraged us to actively head out to the field. This fostered in us a deeper connection with nature which sparked our interest in learning more about the biodiversity around us.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions during the summer break, the internship was delayed.

However, we went on with helping Dr Gretchen as her field research assistants during the summer break. When the restrictions were relaxed, the director at Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) informed Dr Gretchen of the internship slots. She then encouraged us to apply for the internship and the rest is history!

2. Explain what you did as an intern at Singapore Botanic Gardens.

We worked with officers to conduct arborist duties, inspect trees, and manage species inventories. We were occasionally assigned miscellaneous tasks such as the installation of bee boxes. Additionally, we conducted general housekeeping around the nursery.

This included sowing seeds, weeding, and repotting. There were also experiential activities like tree climbing to measure a tree’s height and girth. Furthermore, we attended botany classes to learn how to identify plant species and the various families of trees.

A group of interns engaging in seed sowing and rebagging of plants.

35 3. How has your classroom knowledge been helpful during this internship?

Wetland and rainforest concepts learnt helped put into perspective the importance of our work for nature conservation. Some concepts include the rainforest strata, and environmental and human stressors on the natural environment.

Geographical useful for could start

fieldwork skills were lawn surveys since we conducting them without

much training from SBG. As the Gardens are home to many trees, it is essential for arborists to ensure that all the trees are checked, and that data keyed in the system is up to date. During the lawn surveys, we applied skills such as measuring the trees’ diameter at breast height.

Identifying different plant species and their families by looking at their leaf arrangements and venation were observational skills practised.

4. What are some important experiences you have gained over the course of this internship?

The internship allowed us to gain valuable skills for plant identification which were helpful for future projects. For instance, we (Samuel and Lewis) took module GE3255 (Aquatic, Riparian and Coastal Systems) where we carried out a restoration project at Dover Forest. In our project, we proposed for the authorities to protect native species while removing invasive species during the redevelopment of Dover Forest. Additionally, we curated a list of plants that the authorities should consider planting to act as a form of phytoremediation along the

stream to improve water quality. Our knowledge was acquired from the botany classes, lawn surveys, as well as mentorships with senior arborists during the internship.

We also gained more information about plant ecology in various ecosystems around Southeast Asia and the different plant management strategies.

Most importantly, we have forged valuable friendships and connections with professionals and experienced co-workers on the job!

Yiu Teng: One of the most memorable experiences would be us trying to climb a tree a few stories tall.

Arborists achieve this rather easily but many of us struggled to do so. Still, it was great fun to be looking from the perspective of a tree.

Learning about various plant management strategies and the hands-on experience we had (such as marcotting) was also rather memorable to me as we could definitely see the impact of our efforts in the public spaces of the Gardens!

Lewis: The opportunity to shadow a senior arborist and follow them on a trip to inspect trees was memorable. This opened my eyes to spot the tell-tale signs of poor tree health, and play my part as #GenerationRestoration to inform the authorities when I see these signs in the trees in my immediate neighbourhood. At the same time, we also managed to contribute to shaping a portion of the landscape of the Gardens. Visiting this part of SBG certainly brings back many memories for me!

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5. Share some memorable moments that you had during the course of your internship.

36 | Networks

Samuel: Birding! As a hotspot for a wide variety of birds, SBG provided us with many opportunities to see them. However, we had to refrain from taking photographs while on the job. Because of this, I got to observe in greater detail the birds’ behaviour when not fumbling for the perfect shot. Birds around the Gardens seem

to have got used to the uniforms we wear, and it is quite an experience to have a Nightjar fly within arm’s length and roost nearby as you conduct a lawn survey. Seeing a Hill Myna feast on the fruits of a Horsfieldia tree of which seeds you have sown really makes you feel that you are setting the canvas for a greener future.

Samuel (top) and Lewis (bottom) during their tree climbing experience!

37 6. What advice would you give to other students who are keen on pursuing an internship?

While on the job, you will meet and work with people who may have controversial takes that you may or may not agree with. However, the skills and knowledge you learn and the connections you make far outweighs these points. At the end of the day, keep in mind that everyone there is working towards a common goal, one way or another.

focus on spatial analysis, having a background in Geographic Information System would be advantageous. For instance, GIS can help with mapping out the different plant species located in the various lawns of SBG. While we were not assigned any GIS-related tasks for this internship, GIS skills are still useful depending on different internship deliverables.

Photograph by Samson Thomas on Unsplash

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For students venturing into internships with a

38 | Networks

Alumni Interview with William Yeo Head of Department - Humanities

1. What motivated you to become a Geography teacher?

I have always wanted to be a teacher. But the truth of how I eventually opted for Geography as a teaching subject was more to do with practical reasons—nothing inspirational about it at all! After my A-levels, I chatted with my then-principal who told me that at that time the teaching service was short of Geography teachers.

Believing that positioning myself as a potential Geography teacher would help me get recruited

by MOE (remember I was only 18 years old then), I signed up to teach Geography (and Mathematics, my second teaching subject).

2. In your opinion, why do you think it is important to learn Geography? What do students gain out of learning the subject?

Personally, Geography matters because of three reasons. First, it sensitises learners to connections.

Their living environments can be affected by forces beyond their sight. Second, Geography raises awareness about social, environmental, economic, cultural and political differences.

The world is hardly homogeneous, and such differences are what makes the world so interesting and exciting, yet at the same time quite depressing, depending on who you ask. Third, because of the former two reasons, Geography has the potential to inspire actions that can be taken to prepare for, or even create, a future for everyone to share.

3. What do you think is the greatest misconception about Geography and its career prospects?

How can this misconception be cleared?

The biggest one I have come across, especially from parents, is that Geography has no market value. My response to that is that it depends on what type of jobs, or where you look.

Geographers are highly sought after in sectors that deal with planning, such as those concerning

space (e.g. urban planning), resource use (e.g. water), economy (e.g. international trade), and many more. In recent years, given our increasingly fragile environment due to climate change and the call for sustainable development, much attention has been cast on hazard man

39 agement and the green sector, both of which are examples of work geography graduates are well-positioned for. Transferrable competence in the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is also valued in a wide range of sectors.

More importantly, one’s qualifications do not determine one’s eventual career path.

For example, there are many engineering graduates who do not end up working in the engineering sector, and there are also law graduates who are not practising law. My request is for parents as well as students to not dismiss the value of Geography too quickly.

4. How has the teaching of Geography in schools changed from when you were a student until now?

I often get asked what I teach, be it in social settings or in a private hire car. Upon hearing my response, most adults would remember studying Geography but they would not have positive memories of it. Even today, parents still believe that it is all about memory work. These anecdotes are a reflection of how Geography was taught and learnt two to three decades ago.

These days, greater connections are made between what is taught in the classroom and the environment students live in.

Educational technology tools such as Padlet and Pear Deck have been increasingly incorporated to help enliven lessons.

There has also been a renewed emphasis on fieldwork so that students would not just become

‘armchair geographers’. We now also try to impart more explicitly the disciplinary concepts such as place, space, and the humanenvironment relationship so that students do not only remember the ‘what’ in their lessons, but also ‘how is this Geography?’.

Geography remains challenging for students, befitting its label as an A-, O-, or N-level subject; but so are all other subjects in schools. Perhaps its emphasis on the use of examples has added some mental burden to students (hence the perception of it being just ‘memory work’). But Geography is real and applied, so some of this emphasis is necessary. As teachers, we have to be careful about the extent of details of examples needed.

Hold a strong belief that Geography will impart you with world knowledge and the mental dexterity that will lay the foundations for whatever you hope to embark on after graduation. I have been very fortunate to have my career built on my foundations in Geography. I cannot say that all of you will be able to enjoy this privilege. However, I sincerely wish that you will. Books and academic work in the domain of Geography still excite me.

My ability to make sense of matters in the news—be it hazards, climate change conferences, breakdown of supply chains, negotiation of trade agreements, improved urban design for social groups, the spread of Covid-19, and many more—reminds me that Geography is increasingly relevant and that I am proud to be a geographer. And you should be too.

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5. What advice would you give to prospective and current Geography majors?

40 | Networks

Alumni Interview with Amanda Soh Instructor at Outward Bound Singapore

1. Explain your job scope as an Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) Instructor?

As an OBS Instructor, I am a full-time professional outdoor educator. I conduct a myriad of courses ranging from the Ministry of Education (MOE) programmes for 15-year-olds to uniform groups such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF). I also conduct Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) courses for youths from Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) such as polytechnics, universities, and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). There are also a myriad of corporate programmes that OBS conducts for various organisations to build teams and foster cohesion.

These courses can range from 1-day programmes to our longest programme offered which is the 21-day Classic Challenge Course. The environment in which we operate in also ranges from the more beaten tracks in Pulau Ubin to established paths on mainland Singapore that lead to destinations such as Yishun, Boys Town,

and Dakota. OBS also conducts programmes with other regional Outward Bound Centres in countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

Regardless of the type of course, what is constant is the application of outdoor education principles in creating unique learning experiences for individuals. In a typical 5-day MOE course, I take students through various activities such as land and sea expeditions where they sometimes kayak, row, or sail round the island, learn how to pitch a tent, and cook on their own.

Through these activities, I facilitate group learning and provide students with a platform to explore their group dynamics, gain selfawareness, and develop interpersonal skills.

What value adds to the whole experience is the opportunity to appreciate the environment.

The importance of environmental education is reinforced as it is regarded as one of the main branches of outdoor education.

41 2. How has having a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) degree helped in your job as an outdoor educator?

We see plenty of flora and fauna while trekking, like the long-tailed macaques and wild boars.

While kayaking, we will sometimes bypass Chek Jawa and have to kayak a certain distance away.

Participants will be curious to know why and this is an opportune moment to discuss our coexistence with nature. Chek Jawa comprises six different habitats: mangroves, rocky shores, sandy shores, sand bars, seagrass lagoons, and coral rubbles. Because of our proximity to this highly biodiverse marine environment, it is important that we keep a distance away to minimise the impact of our kayaking activity in this area. As OBS immerses participants into nature itself, these learnings need not be forced as they are something the participants can see for themselves and I am merely facilitating their discussion.

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Having prior environmental knowledge and background from my tertiary studies allows me to share that knowledge with my participants.

Through my role as an OBS instructor, I feel this is very apt. For instance, during a land expedition when we are trudging through and fighting with fatigue and the weight of our backpacks, we can choose to grumble and finish the expedition. However, we can also choose to appreciate the natural shade and cool air offered by the trees around us. That itself can be a segue to discussing the urban heat island (UHI) effect on the mainland compared to that in Pulau Ubin.

42 | Networks 3. How is environmental education incorporated into OBS’s programmes?

OBS recognises the importance of environmental education (EE) and currently incorporates it as one of MOE’s Desired Outcomes of Education— Concerned Citizens—where we commit to playing an active role in the improvement of the community and the environment.

Examples of EE on the mainland include fun maps or quizzes that seek to engage participants in an interactive manner as they explore the trails of Coney Island learning about the flora and fauna. Other activities such as sandcastle building at East Coast Park allow participants to discuss issues such as land reclamation, climate change resulting in rising sea levels, and its resultant impact on Singapore.

We have also had collaborations with Mandai Wildlife Reserve where students had the privilege of experiencing various activities such as role-playing, learning about wildlife trafficking, and night walks to learn

about lesser-known animals like the colugo.

In addition, we incorporate activities such as beach clean-ups while kayaking that even take place when participants arrive at their campsite early. It strikes them when they see the amount of trash collected in half an hour.

In line with Singapore’s 2030 Green Plan, OBS is increasingly adopting a structured approach for future programmes. By leveraging on strategic partnerships with relevant agencies such as Nature Society Singapore and the Otter Working Group, OBS aims to help participants develop critical thinking in four pillars—namely Resilient Future, City in Nature, Energy Reset, and Sustainable Living.

To effectively deliver the programmes, OBS staff are currently embarking on a curriculum that includes modules that aim to enhance knowledge and competency relating to the four pillars.

43 4. From your experience, how would you describe the level of environmental awareness among youths?

I find that youths have a substantial level of environmental awareness and are mostly intrigued to learn more and do what they can to contribute to environmental protection. Discussions often run deep, especially those pertaining to the issue of scarcity in Singapore and the what ifs.

In their own time, some would volunteer

with nature groups to participate in beach clean-ups or recycling programmes. It is indeed heart-warming to see them in action!

The advancement of technology, especially social media, has definitely made it easier for youths to be kept in the loop of environmental news in regions beyond our backyard.

Environmental awareness and appreciating nature is the first step. But what comes after is translating this knowledge into action. We live in an era of convenience where bins are so easily accessible and online shopping and food delivery services are so advanced that we all fall into a vicious cycle of consumerism. Breaking out of that cycle is no doubt challenging—even for myself. Perhaps

we can all start small by putting our devices down and going out to see for ourselves what the environment has to offer. Maybe this can be a good starting point for us to modify our lifestyles little by little. Nevertheless, do not be dismayed by your own efforts because you never know who you might influence and impact!

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5. With regards to that, what do you think youths today can change or improve?

44 | Networks

Alumni Interview with Kelman Chiang Business Operations Manager at Rippling 1. We understand that you were previously working as a geospatial analyst at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). What made you switch from the public to the private sector?

URA was my first job out of NUS. I did an internship in my final year there and liked it so much that I wanted to stay. During my 2 years there, I was in the Digital Planning Lab (DPL), which was then a very fledgling department.

We got to work on innovative and interesting projects, mostly involving the use of data and new technologies to change and improve the planning process. I liked the challenge of doing something new, venturing into uncharted territory, and figuring things out for the first time.

Towards the end of the two-year mark, I was itching for a fresh challenge. The DPL was still very exciting and opportunities were aplenty. However, I knew from the start that it would not be the only place where I would build my career and that I would

eventually move on to other roles or companies.

When electric scooters were all the rage, Neuron Mobility came along and I saw it as a window of opportunity to challenge myself. It was not an easy decision to move from a large, stable government organisation to a small seed round startup as the first hire on their data team.

Amidst the uncertainty, I eventually decided to scoot over to Neuron for the allure of a different challenge from what I was already familiar with in DPL. I reasoned within myself that, if all else fails, I was still early enough in my career to pick myself back up. There was not much to lose but everything to gain! I never saw the job change as a switch from public to private, but more of a change in the types of challenges that I would face and how I wanted to build my career going forward.

2. What do you do currently as a business operations manager at Rippling?

Rippling is a HR & IT software startup that enables businesses to seamlessly manage their employees’ payroll, benefits, devices, and more. It is based in San Francisco and serves its customers here in the US. I landed this role in Rippling by way of a referral from an earlier manager in Postmates.

I have been bullish about HR-related technology for some time and could not pass up this opportunity when it came along.

It is a complex business with many moving parts, as we have multiple product lines for our customers. As the title suggests, I help manage

operations within the company, reducing inefficiencies and optimising processes to maximise output. I do not necessarily belong to a single department—I work on strategic projects as and when they are identified. This excites me as I am exposed to many diverse aspects of the business, each presenting different types of challenges.

I dive into the wealth of data that our products and customers generate, surfacing actionable insights for key decision-makers to improve the business. My job title can be misleading; I would be closer to a Data Analyst by function. I spend my time writing SQL, using Python, and visualising data in Tableau.

45 3. What are some challenges you have faced in your current job, and how have you overcome them?

A frequent challenge that I face is prioritising At times, it is tricky to balance what is urgent, the tasks and projects that come my way. It is a versus the level of effort needed. Part of this happy problem to have, where there is more is also learning how to nicely say no, pushing work to be done than the time and energy I have. back on stakeholders to sieve out what is Prioritisation is not a straightforward process. really needed. This is a constant challenge and I am learning to become better with it.

4. How has your knowledge of Geography helped in your current job?

I have to admit that the content that I have picked up from Geography has been less applicable, especially with more jobs that I switch to. However, there are themes that have persisted throughout the jobs I held which have helped me understand the challenges I faced.

The geographical concept of scale has always helped me understand projects, challenges,

stakeholders, and issues. Identifying and being aware of the scale that I operate on enables me to ground myself, by looking above on a larger scale to visualise the impact of my work, and looking below to see what the implications are. This thought process can be applied to many different areas, such as finding the root cause of an issue, or managing different stakeholders in a project.

5. What advice would you give to Geography majors who have reservations about pursuing jobs not typically associated with their discipline?

The world is your oyster! Do not limit or pigeon hole yourself to any role, place, or space that you think you should be. Go out and expose yourself to different experiences to know what is out there, and more importantly figure out what you like (or do not like). Engage and talk to other people that are a few years ahead of you, get them to share, and learn from their experiences.

Kelman graduated with the class of 2017, completing his Geography major together with a GIS & Geosciences minor. Being an avid photographer, Kelman loved learning in the field and completed all 3 field modules that the department offered. He also took part in NUS Overseas College, spending 6 months in Bangalore, India, working for a startup.

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Except for highly technical or trained disciplines, no jobs are strictly associated with any discipline.

Some disciplines may help you get a leg up, but there is nothing really stopping you from pursuing your dream job. It may take you a few jobs to get to the end, but it is not impossible.

convergence /kənˈvɜː.dʒəns/ (noun) The fact that two or more things become similar or come together.

Convergence brings us back home, where we explore modules offered at NUS Geography and take a look at the activities our geographers have taken part in this year.

Photograph by David Lee on Unsplash

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Photography by David Lee on Unsplash

48 | Convergence

GE1101E: Geographical Journeys: Exploring World Environments GE1101E is the introductory module for NUS Geography majors with no prerequisites.

The module is split into human and physical geography, covering themes such as geographical imaginations, place identity, and ecosystem restoration. Some key takeaways from this module include applying the concept of space to analyse issues, as well as understanding the importance of nature-based climate solutions in tackling the global climate crisis. After this module, you will obtain your ‘magic eyes’ and start to observe everyday life from a geographical perspective!

Some technical tools I have picked up were Microsoft Excel to analyse raw data and Google Earth Pro to better investigate our chosen fieldwork site. I have also learnt to be more adept at reading academic papers and writing effective essays.

GE1101E has touched on many interesting facets.

For instance, the environmental slant of physical geography gave us the opportunity to learn more about sustainability and stewardship. These concepts are applicable to many of the core College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) modules, highlighting the interdisciplinarity of geography.

Sarah Chow, Year 1 GE2231: Living Space: Introducing Social and Cultural Geography Everything around us—from the shows we consume to the friends we make—are all intricately connected, underpinned by complex social and cultural factors that we often overlook. GE2231 spotlights our subtle yet significant social and cultural environments that dictate, shape, and influence our daily lives.

In learning how to read landscapes, this module has made me realise the ever-present power relations between stakeholders, as well as the dominant narratives that are largely perpetuated by those in power and the inequalities present even in the most minute of happenings. As much as geography is a unique discipline

in and of itself, it is intertwined with many other disciplines, requiring us to carry various lenses that expand our perspectives to tackle issues from different angles simultaneously.

For instance, analysing landscapes has allowed us to adopt a myriad of perspectives from the sociological, political, and cultural dimensions.

The module inculcates in us an imperative lens that crucially changes the way we understand, appreciate, and critique our world. GE2231 is more than just an introduction to human geography—it is an eye-opening experience.

Darryl Koh, Year 2

49 GE2101: Methods and Practices in Geography wonderful platform for budding artists to draw and analyse a chosen landscape geographically! This module is the ideal starter for anyone interested in embarking on research pertaining to a specific geographical topic and a perfect segue into gaining insight into the everyday lives of professional geographers.

Tan Guan Yu, Year 2

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GE2101 is a module full of adventure, discovery and insight! My key takeaway was acquiring crucial geographical investigation methods to inform my research findings. Practical skills you will pick up in this module include conducting semi-structured interviews, participant observation, field sketching, and data corroboration. GE2101 provides a

50 | Convergence GE3250: Nature and Society GE3250 lays the foundations in defining and interpreting how society understands and interacts with the biophysical environment. This was analysed through a political ecology lens, which studies the relationship between political, economic and social factors as well as their subsequent impact on the environment.

The module unpacks how we have been socialised to understand what nature is, and how our current perceptions are merely social constructions that we place on the environment. By thinking about how we perceive the environment, we rethink why and how we hold such perceptions in the first place.

This module requires rigorous critical thinking and dissecting of some challenging readings, which pushed me to write with more clarity while linking to module concepts. It has also helped in other Politics, Economies and Space (PEAS) modules that further discuss different angles of the nature-society relationship.

In understanding the differences between political and apolitical ecologies, we can pinpoint the root causes of environmental harm and advocate for targeted change.

Qystina Darwyshea, Year 3

GE3252: Cartography and Geovisualisation Maps have been an integral part of Geography by allowing the visualisation of patterns across space and GE3252 focuses on mapmaking through QGIS. This module links a wide array of disciplines—from the artistic (e.g. colour theory and typography) to scientific fields (e.g. processing data to synthesise maps).

The QGIS software taught in this module is also utilised in other GIS-related modules. If you are interested in city planning, geospatial policymaking, learning how to use GIS software such as QGIS will definitely provide a good start.

National Geographic: Why your mental map of the world is (probably) wrong

My biggest takeaway from this module would be recognising the amount of attention to detail required to create an effective map, from the macro characteristics such as the choosing the suitable type of map to be used for the given data down to the minute details like the placement of map features. Another fun fact is that you will realise that all world maps are wrong—even the Google Maps we frequently use is distorted. You will find out the exact reason why by taking this module!

Lee Boon Sin, Year 2

Vox: Why all world maps are wrong

51 GE4204: Urban Space: Critical Perspectives Urban spaces and their related theories are entrenched in Western colonial concepts, theory, and research. While these do hold a certain level of influence and verity, the question is, ‘Do we always have to accept it as the gospel truth?’. This is the crux of GE4204. In the 21st century, we have seen many complex aand atypical urbanising trends that challenge our inherited understandings.

The module focuses on the geographical politics of urban knowledge production and how they influence our interpretation of contemporary urban events. Over the course of 13 weeks, this module has challenged me

to ‘unlearn in order to relearn’. Meaning, it was not about radically disregarding decades of urban knowledge but understanding that there are diverse starting points of urban knowledge both from the Global North and the Global South. I have learnt to be more critical in my evaluation of concepts and this could be seen in my growth as a critical writer and thinker. My favourite parts were the peer lectures and seminar discussions as they provided platforms to enhance my knowledge and understanding of urban processes and theories.

Sayori Bose, Year 4

GE4207: Coastal Management

The most compelling takeaway from the module pertains to the inherently interdisciplinary nature of coastal management which emphasises human-environment interactions,

underpinned by how different stakeholders value ecosystem services and resources.

The various valuations have changed my perspective of sustainable management.

They have encouraged me to think beyond the economic and environmental benefits of conservation, alongside embracing the cultural and religious gains accruing to indigenous communities. Recognising the need to reconcile these different objectives for the implementation of inclusive strategies are vital if we were to pursue a future career in sustainable management.

Kwa Siew Yen, Year 4

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GE4207 lays the groundwork for understanding contemporary challenges in tropical coastal ecosystems such as sea level rise and coastal degradation, while encouraging us to critically analyse existing management frameworks.

Interactive learning through field trips to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve gave us a firsthand experience of the successes and difficulties in implementing sustainable coastal management plans within Singapore and across Southeast Asia.

52 | 56th Geographical Society Photograph by Rachel Sng s

56th Geographical Society Beyond the Horizon

The NUS Geographical Society is dedicated to serving the needs, welfare, and aspirations of geography majors in NUS. The Society maintains a strong and close relationship between the student community and faculty at the Department of Geography while also promoting the discipline of geography amongst students in secondary and pre-tertiary institutions. The Society enjoys a long history and tradition of close ties with the Department, extending back to the days of the former University of Singapore. Today, the Geog Soc, as it is affectionately referred to, still serves as the umbrella body under which geographers can find both academic and social support. This is achieved through the numerous activities organised throughout the year.

53

Our Year in Review Special Projects Despite the Urban Redevelopment Authority Outreach Programme (UOP) needing to be held online again this year, it has continued to garner support from various schools ranging from secondary to pre-tertiary levels. In line with URA’s theme, ‘Planning Our Future Singapore’, we made use of an interactive case study to allow students to explore pertinent issues surrounding Singapore’s land use.

Majors’ Welfare 2022 proved to be a difficult year. Navigating the tribulations of the pandemic and adapting to the new College of Humanities and Science (CHS) curriculum has led to constant readjustments to our plans. In spite of these changes, we were committed to bringing fresh activities to our undergraduates.

In February, we hosted the first online iteration of our annual Majors’ Tea. This year, we introduced our new Career Advisor, Ms Teo Leng Leng, as well as alumni, Ms Deborah Lee (Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment), Ms Gladys Ng (Workato and CareerWareer), and Ms Grace Tang (Twitter). They were a wonderful cast of

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As Safe Management Measures eased up, we conducted two physical field trips under the Majors’ Active Learning Programme (MAP) in December 2021 to the Sustainable Singapore Gallery and Hort Park. In the former, participants learnt of the imminent climate threats faced by Singapore and how Marina Barrage, a mixed-use facility, mitigates floods. In the latter, participants headed out to the field with environmental studies students and engaged in an eco-treasure hunt to learn about the rich biodiversity of the incipient forest. These wellreceived MAP activities provided opportunities for inter-faculty bonding which in turn facilitated many valuable learning experiences!

54 | 56th Geographical Society sucessful women who came down to share with us their experiences working in different industries! The event was packed with activities, with breakout rooms that served to replicate intimate physical sessions. A lucky few left the event with attractive prizes.

Be sure not to miss next year’s Majors’ Tea! This year, we have also improved the variety and quality of our merchandise sales, as well as the purchasing platforms. We held a physical merchandise sale day where geographers came down to see our newest jackets, shirts, and tumblers on offer. With all that said, this is just the beginning! Let see what else the year will bring!

Freshers’ Immersion Programme For the second year in a row, the Freshers Immersion Camp (FIC) team hosted Games Day in place of our annual Sports Day. Our fellow geographers engaged in a series of team games, such as Draw Battle, Capture the Flag and Tetris. To end the session off with a bang, we hosted a round of ‘Geopardy’ (Jeopardy with a Geography twist)! Despite the limitations of online interactions, our geographers had a good amount of fun and laughter which made our time and effort put into planning all the more worth it! Our team has also been working hard planning for FIC which will be taking place this June.

Plans are currently underway and we cannot wait to show you what we have planned out. We promise that our incoming geography freshmen will have a whale of a time! Do stay tuned to our Instagram page, @nusgeogfic for updates!

NUS Geography Challenge 2022

The NUS Geography Challenge (GC) is an annual non-profit Geography-centred competition aimed at igniting the passion of secondary school students and inspiring them to develop a keen interest in the dynamic discipline of Geography. The theme for NUS GC 2022 was ‘Eco-Utopia: Blueprints for our Green Futures’.

This focus was especially timely in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in a global reset that has radically transformed our way of life and the functioning of cities. This year’s theme drew connections to the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to educate and encourage participants to consider possible green, smart, and sustainable actions they can adopt in their daily lives to create an ‘Eco-Utopia’. GC 2022 sought to empower and inspire participants to do their part as #GenerationRestoration by encouraging them to use a geographical lens to consider various ways to safeguard Singapore’s future.

This year, GC 2022 drew key support from various stakeholder groups and strategic partners, including the Ministry of Education (MOE), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), and the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment (MSE). The GC Organising Committee hopes that GC 2022 has enabled all participants to exercise their geographical imaginations and ‘magic eyes’ to generate the blueprints for our green futures and achieve our eco-utopia.

Acknowledgment and Appreciation | 55 Geosphere Nexus would be not be possible without the help of the following people: STAFF AND STUDENT ADVISORS Dr Carl Grundy-Warr — Senior Lecturer, NUS Department of Geography Dr Menusha De Silva — Lecturer, NUS Department of Geography Dr Luo Wei — Assistant Professor, NUS Department of Geography Qystina Darwyshea Bte Herdie Budi — Undergraduate, NUS Geography CONTRIBUTORS Dr David Taylor Professor of Tropical Environmental Change, Head of the NUS Department of Geography Geography: A Nexus of Possibilities

Dr Nathan Green Assistant Professor, NUS Department of Geography Fighting for the Right to Relief: Debt Dispossession in the era of Covid-19

Dr Luo Wei Assistant Professor, NUS Department of Geography Geo-Social Relationships in an Interconnected World

Dr Chris McMorran Associate Professor, NUS Department of Japanese Studies Haunted Landscapes

Bay Rui-Heng Benjamin Student, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) JC Essay Writing Competition Winning Entry

Lewis Kwek, Samuel Lee, and Ng Yiu Teng Undergraduates, NUS Geography Interning at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Dr Helena Varkkey Senior Lecturer, University of Malaya Department of International and Strategic Studies Emerging Geographies of Tranboundary Haze Governance in Singapore

William Yeo Kok San Alumnus, NUS Geography St Andrew’s Junior College

Alexander Finnegan PhD Student, NUS Geography Microplastics in Singapore and Around the World

Kelman Chiang Alumnus, NUS Geography Rippling

Laetitia Sherry Purnama and Yin Chuan Undergraduates, NUS Environmental Studies Money Talk and More: Coexisting with Mangroves on our Sunny Island

Module Reflections Undergradautes, NUS Geography Darryl Koh, Kwa Siew Yen, Lee Boon Sin, Qystina Darwyshea, Sayori Bose, Sarah Chow and Tan Guan Yu

Dr T.C. Chang Associate Professor, NUS Department of Geography Placing ‘Art’ in Singapore’s HeARTlands

Cover Page Photo by Rachel Sng Meet the Team Photo by Brandon Koh

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Soh Pei Yee Amanda Alumna, NUS Environmental Studies Outward Bound Singapore (OBS)