Using Data for Urban Planning

As a small city-state with a land area of just 728 sq km, land planning is crucial. To help with this, smart solutions enable us to use our space wisely for sustainable economic development, quality living and recreation for our people and businesses.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), as our land-use planning and conservation authority, has harnessed digital innovations to plan and make decisions based more on data.

Bringing Jobs Closer to Homes to Reduce Commute

URA’s decentralisation strategy connects people living in the country’s western and northern regions with job opportunities closer to their homes, helping to reduce long commutes.

For instance, data shows that most people working near Tampines Regional Centre also reside in the east and northeast regions. They are thus able to travel from home to their workplace within 45 minutes via public transport.

Improving Public Healthcare Accessibility for the Elderly

Digital tools can help to identify areas with a high concentration of seniors with poorer access to healthcare facilities and services. Based on existing data, URA has found that a larger population of seniors reside in the east and northeast regions, most of whom are located within 1.5 km of their nearest polyclinic.

Knowing this helps authorities allocate more healthcare facilities in areas with seniors residing further away from existing healthcare services and where the number of seniors is expected to grow.

To address the issue of Singapore’s aging population, similar evidence-based approaches can be adopted to identify hotspots of needs for the planning of targeted health and social programmes for seniors.

COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Supporting a Robust Recovery

To prevent overcrowding at malls and recreational spaces, URA responded by working with stakeholders to develop a digital tool called Space Out, which helped the public make informed choices on when to head out without compromising safety.

This also adds to URA’s repository of useful data to inform planning, which includes demographic trends, activity and mobility patterns, accessibility and utilisation of amenities, market trends and ground concerns.

Moving forward, URA will continue to bring together data, apply spatial data analytics and build up capabilities to better understand how work and non-work activity patterns are changing due to the pandemic. Planners would be more prepared and equipped to plan for amenities and services in a post-COVID-19 world, as well as a more resilient and sustainable city.

Empower Planners with Rich Data

Developed by URA, ePlanner is a multi-platform geospatial urban planning analytics system integrating data from various sources. It enables advanced spatial visualisation and analytics for planners to easily access and analyse various land-use planning information on a single platform, such as:

• Development control
• Real estate
• Land sales and car parks

With quick access to such information, planners are better equipped to anticipate changes and coordinate better with relevant agencies to facilitate integrated planning.