First Singaporean appointed to lead UN geospatial expert committee

SINGAPORE - The United Nations has appointed the first Singaporean co-chair of one of its geospatial expert committees, which helps improve land administration and management worldwide.

Dr Victor Khoo took over the reins of the UN Expert Group on Land Administration and Management in August from Mr Kees de Zeeuw of the Netherlands, the founding co-chair, to lead the committee with Chile.

Dr Khoo, 52, who is director of Survey and Geomatics at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), will serve in the UN role for three years, the authority said on Tuesday.

The appointment is "an affirmation by the world community of Singapore's expertise and leading position in the field of geospatial information and technology", said SLA chief executive Colin Low.

Over the past few decades, new techniques and tools have enabled location data to be gathered with greater speed and accuracy for planning land use, managing land boundaries and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Since it was established in 2015, the expert group, comprising representatives from over 28 countries, has assisted various territories in applying such geospatial technology to improve their land systems.

"On top of effective land administration, Singapore plans to share its knowledge and experience in using geospatial information to help other countries tackle the challenges of climate change," said Dr Khoo, adding that the authority plans to share its work on the UN platform and connect local researchers with interested parties.

This comes as greenhouse gas concentrations, sea-level rise, ocean heat and acidification broke previous records in 2021, according to the World Meteorological Organisation's report on the state of the global climate.

A high-resolution terrain model of Singapore created under the SLA's project to build a digital twin of the island, for instance, has enabled national water agency PUB to model which coastal and inland areas are more prone to flooding when sea levels rise, said Dr Khoo, who leads the national 3D mapping programme.

The first version of Singapore's digital twin was developed in 2014 and a second was created in 2019.

Currently, SLA is also exploring the use of satellite data with Nanyang Technological University's Earth Observatory of Singapore to measure land height and sea-level changes around Singapore.

This will complement traditional methods of using sensors installed along coastlines or on ocean platforms to measure water height.

Another project that SLA hopes to share is its collaboration with the Solar Energy Research Institute to use the nation's digital twin to identify suitable rooftops for installing solar panels, he said.

Apart from building sustainability and climate resilience, SLA is exploring new applications of geospatial technology to improve the planning of future infrastructure here, said Dr Khoo.

As Singapore's subterranean spaces become more congested due to the land-scarce nation's growing needs, SLA and the Singapore-ETH Centre's Digital Underground project is developing a 3D digital representation of the utility systems below the surface.

Giving an update on the progress of the project initiated by Dr Khoo and launched in 2017, he said the team is currently developing an ecosystem to capture reliable data, which is necessary to build the future underground utility map.

The agency is also studying the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and crowd-sourcing to improve the currency and precision of maps.

Accurate maps will become critical for future autonomous vehicles to navigate Singapore's roads, said Dr Khoo.

Currently, Singapore's map can be fully updated once every three years, he noted.

"If there are more cars with cameras and laser scanners, for instance, they can act as eyes and ears to gather data and update street maps," he said, noting that this would allow maps to be updated more frequently.

Mr Low said: "SLA started investing in the development of geospatial capabilities decades ago... Dr Khoo has been instrumental to these developments."