Surbana Jurong has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Japan-based engineering consultant Nippon Koei and DHI Water & Environment (S) Pte Ltd, a Danish water and environment consulting company to help clients build safer and more resilient cities and townships across the globe.
The three partners are looking to set up a Centre of Excellence leveraging the strengths of each to help clients set climate change targets and measure their performance as well as secure financing to fund sustainability projects.
Nippon Koei has deep expertise in disaster prevention and renewable energy having participated in major public-private partnerships in urban development programmes. DHI is consultant to 140 countries in the conservation, re-distribution, quality control and flow management of water environments spanning rivers, reservoirs, oceans, coastlines, cities and factories. DHI actively collaborates in joint projects with the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Wong Heang Fine, group CEO of Surbana Jurong, said, “The recent COP26 meeting underscored the complexities surrounding the transition to net zero. Surbana Jurong, Nippon Koei and DHI’s partnership is a timely response to these challenges, particularly in the area of R&D innovation, financing and innovative engineering to enhance the resiliency of urban infrastructure against the threat of rising sea levels and rising temperatures.”
Surbana Jurong highlighted that industry projections estimate that enhancing the resiliency of infrastructure could save US$4.2 trillion from climate change damages globally. The company further mentioned that the signing of this latest MOU has its roots in earlier collaborations that it entered respectively with Nippon Koei in 2020 and DHI for the last 13 years.
Surbana Jurong and Nippon Koei have provided technical expertise for the development of the 9,450-ha New Clark City in the Philippines, a disaster management and resiliency study for Danang City in Vietnam, and also a study on the cooperation for infrastructure project formulation between Japan and Singapore undertaken for the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).
Surbana Jurong and Nippon Koei successfully integrated vast amounts of climate and natural disaster data into traditional engineering disciplines embracing materials science, data analytics, AI and digital technology. These were used in flood visualisation, seismic, sea level rise and even landslide simulation analysis.
Hiroaki Shinya, president and CEO of Nippon Koei, said, “Through collaboration between the three companies, we will promote projects on a global scale, mainly in Asia, where the formation of sustainable development projects through public-private partnerships is expected and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development by using comprehensive technological capabilities.”
Mette Vestergaard, CEO of DHI, added, “The history, heritage, culture, and complementary skills and experience of our organisations position us well to offer exceptional and impactful solutions to our clients who require us to help them adapt and thrive in an uncertain world.”
DHI has worked with Surbana Jurong for more than 13 years to formulate Singapore’s climate change framework on coastal adaptation, inland, coastal flooding as well as flood risk engineering studies at Labrador Park, Marina South, Marina East and East Coast.
Images: Surbana Jurong
