23 Jan 2022
Surbana Jurong, Nippon Koei and DHI come together to build safer and more resilient cities and townships
Surbana Jurong, Nippon Koei and DHI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help clients build safer and more resilient cities and townships across the globe.
The three parties are looking to set up a Centre of Excellence leveraging the unique strengths of each to help clients set climate change targets and measure their performance as well as secure financing to fund sustainability projects.
Surbana Jurong is a global urban, infrastructure, and managed services consulting firm with over 70 years of track record in successful project delivery. Headquartered in Singapore, the group has a global talent pool of 16,000 across Surbana Jurong and its member companies based in more than 120 offices in over 40 countries.
Engineering consultant 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. It actively collaborates in joint projects with the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
(Top left) Wong Heang Fine, Group CEO, Surbana Jurong (Top right) Hiroaki Shinya, President and CEO, Nippon Koei (Below) Mette Vestergaard, CEO of DHI
Wong Heang Fine, Group CEO, 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.”
Industry projections estimate that enhancing the resiliency of infrastructure could save US$4.2 trillion from climate change damages globally.
The signing of the MOU has its roots in earlier collaborations that Surbana Jurong entered respectively with Nippon Koei in 2020 and DHI for the last 13 years.
Surbana Jurong and Nippon Koei have provided technical expertise on the development of the 9,450 ha New Clark City, a disaster management and resiliency study for Danang City in Vietnam as well as a study on the cooperation for infrastructure project formulation between Japan and Singapore undertaken for the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
SJ 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, 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 a national climate change framework on coastal adaptation, inland, coastal flooding as well as flood risk engineering studies at Labrador Park, Marina South, Marina East, East Coast.