A familiar joke is that Singapore has two seasons: hot and wet, and hotter and wetter. The past month has witnessed plenty of the latter variety. So much so that flash floods are now a worry for people starting to head back to offices. Dramatic footage of brimming canals and submerged parts of Dunearn Road went viral recently. National water agency PUB has announced interim plans to raise a 450m stretch of the road to prevent further incidents, even as drainage expansion works are ongoing. Netizens may be quick to criticise a perceived lack of infrastructure - which is not the case - but the incidents were mainly due to the unprecedented amount of rain in recent weeks. In one three-hour storm spell, western Singapore was deluged with 159.8mm of rain, more than has been recorded for the month of August.

These downpours are early portents of what Singapore could face as climate changes affect global weather patterns. It is not only rain that residents will have to worry about. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's recent report warned of punishing heatwaves and severe coastal flooding events if global emissions are not reduced to zero by 2050. The country is already warming faster than the global average because of the urban heat island effect. Policymakers are taking steps to cool down the city with measures ranging from planting more trees to painting HDB blocks with heat-reflective paint. A series of four studies of coastlines began this year, focusing on the city-east coast stretch, looking at how shores can be protected from rising sea levels. The effects of these climate changes will need to be addressed in Singapore's long-term land use plans, which are currently being reviewed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. While the challenges are great, it is reassuring to know that policymakers are acknowledging the impact and working on measures to ameliorate its effects.