Green walls, fish houses: Studies to bring wildlife back to urban Singapore

Researchers embarking on such efforts via vertical greenery, underwater structures

- Chin Hui Shan

Decades of development have turned Singapore from a lush island and fishing village into a thriving metropolis, although it lost much of its nature along the way.

But various research groups are now embarking on studies to coax wildlife back to Singapore's urbanised land and coastal areas, through vertical greenery or underwater structures known as "fish houses", which can provide a habitat for these animals.

Such work comes amid a global push for countries to halt the rapid decline of nature.

Under the Global Biodiversity Framework – an international treaty under the UN that aims to stop, even reverse, nature's decline – countries have pledged to restore, maintain and enhance nature's contributions to people by 2030.

The findings by researchers here could not only help to make urban Singapore a conducive home for both humans and animals, but also offer solutions for other areas grappling with the loss of biodiversity due to development.

Said NUS Associate Professor Peter Todd, who conceived the study on the fish houses: "As coastlines around the world are increasingly modified by urbanisation and the need to defend against sea level rise, it is vital that we find ways to mitigate some of the worst effects."

CONDOS FOR FISH

About 70 per cent of Singapore's coastline is currently guarded by hard structures, including sea walls, which help to protect land and infrastructure from erosion caused by waves and tides.

This has resulted in the loss of fish habitats such as coral reefs and mangrove forests, said the researchers from the NUS' Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory, whose study was published in April 2024 in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

To encourage the return of fish life, the researchers in October 2019 deployed artificial structures made of concrete blocks, called fish houses, at the base of sea walls at five different sites at Pulau Hantu, one of Singapore's southern islands.