Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: Greening the city in Singapore was a project established solely by the vision of for Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. His determination has brought success to the project and now Singapore is considered one of the greenest cities of the world.

     Meeting information requirements: A lot of technical information was required for greening the city. Most of the information came from Prime Minister Lee from years of observing how other countries have greened their cities and how those techniques could be applied in Singapore.

Background in summary:

     Personal interest of Prime Minister Lee in greening Singapore: Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew became personally involved in the project of transforming Singapore from just concrete and steel to concrete, steel, trees, shrubs, flowers and parks. He surveyed the world for ideas, taking advantage of his travels abroad to look out for them and became knowledgeable about soil and vegetation, trees and drainage, climate and fertilizers.

     Economic stability lead to opportunity of focusing on environment: When the time came that economic survival was no longer an issue and Singapores success was acknowledged worldwide, he began working harder to make the garden city possible.

     The nature of the problem for growing grass in Singapore: Lee was told that Singapore did not have a grassland climate in which rain fell gently from the skies. Instead, being part of an equatorial region, it experienced torrential rainfall that would wash off the topsoil and with it the vital nutrients necessary for strong plant growth. In an equatorial forest, with tall big trees forming a canopy, the rainwater drips down, but in Singapore, where the trees had been chopped down, it would come down in a big wash.

     Soil problems were managed with scientific methods: But Lee was not one to let climate get in the way. Fertilisers would replenish the soil, and so began the task of making compost from rubbish dumps, adding calcium, and lime where the ground was too acidic.

     Techniques for tree plantation in the city: When expressways and flyovers sprouted all over the island, he had officials look for plants, which could survive below the flyovers where the sun seldom shone. And instead of having to water these plants regularly, which was costly, he got them to devise a way to channel water from the roads, after filtering it to get rid of the oil and grime from the traffic above. The road was split into two so there would be a gap in the middle with enough space for sunshine and rain to seep through and greenery and vegetation to thrive below.

     The success was due to the leaders pragmatic and hardheaded approach: Making Singapore a different city. That has been Lees constant obsession. Even when the difference had to do with trees and flowers, subjects which one would not normally associate with the man who has been at Singapores helm for 38 years, 31 of which he served as prime minister, his approach to the problem has been typical hardheaded and pragmatic.

Peer Review Committee Good practice rating: (1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score)
Sustainability		Efficiency
2	Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other.	3	Cost efficient.
2	Sustainable over time (not one-off)	Process
Adaptability		3	Participation of the community
4	Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?)	-	Participation of resource owners/users
3	Socio-cultural adaptability.	-	Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private)
3	Level of development adaptability.	-	Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments.
4	Style of government adaptability.	3	Ability to attract political interest/support
3	Degree of decentralization adaptability.	-	Procedures for feedback and review.
Comments on this example:      The Garden city concept worked well for Singapore because The leader was working on the concept first hand and providing unconditional support to make the concept work. Singapore is a small island, therefore, the area that should be turned green is small as compared to other cities. The government of Singapore has sufficient budget to finance the concept. Sustainability of the project:      Awareness and visions: A good example of how a vision was turned into reality, with sheer determination. Most countries in the region tried to follow the Singaporean example not only in terms of the garden city, but its development approach. However, among the constraints which followed the worst have been the ethnic issue which has drained down the dreams of being a model Singapore. Adaptability of the project to other situations:      Socio-cultural adaptability: Other cities in Asia are trying to be more like Singapore in terms increasing the coverage of green area because they realize that green area helps improve the mental and physical conditions of city people. However, trying to find available space in cities is very difficult, and some municipal governments have come to a conclusion that it is best to construct parks in areas where exist squatting houses and slums. The problem that lies here is that the government could not find a suitable place to relocate these people or is not willing to compensate these people by finding them a substitute place to stay. Hence, people living in squatting houses and slums refuse to move and conflict between municipal government and the people occur. Process of decision making and implementation:      Meeting information requirements: Who would imagine that growing tree, plants and grass in the city would be such a sophisticated task. Although with a lot of information at hand, not every experiment turned out to be a success, like in the case of growing trees under an elevated road. Prime Minister Lee was going through trials and errors but eventually got hold of the best solution and the trees were successfully planted under roads by conducting a major change in the design of the road splitting it in half to let sunlight come through. Cost efficiency: