At the Urban Sustainability R&D Congress 2019, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong presented the MND R&D Merit Award to A*STAR for the Integrated Environmental Modeller (IEM) tool, developed by A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) and the Housing & Development Board (HDB). 

IEM uses high-resolution 3D city models to simulate the interaction of environmental conditions with the urban landscape. It allows urban planners to visualise key environmental, thermal and aural comfort indicators on a virtual platform. In addition, it also allows iteration and continual refinement to urban plans. This reduces the risk of costly physical trial-and-error and allows development plans to be tested computationally before actual implementation. 

Dr Poh Hee Joo, senior research scientist at IHPC, said that the modelling tool helps to guide urban designers in designing buildings that better harness wind flow and reduces solar irradiance.

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