1.
Queenstown, Singapore
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Queenstown is a planning area and satellite residential town situated on the south-westernmost fringe of the Central Region of Singapore. It borders Bukit Timah to the north, Tanglin to the northeast, Bukit Merah to the east and southeast and its southern and southwesternmost limits are bounded by Selat Pandan. Developed by the Singapore Improvement Trust in the 1950s and subsequently by the Housing and Development Board in the 1960s, most apartments within the township consists of simple one, two, or three-room flats, typically in low-rise, walk-up blocks. Major development work was carried out during the first Five-Year Building Programme between 1960 and 1965, a total of 19,372 dwelling units were constructed between 1952 and 1968. Queenstown was named after Queen Elizabeth II to mark her coronation in 1952, the area was previously known by the Mandarin Chinese name Wu-wei-gang, or in Hokkien as Boh Beh Kang. The arterial road Queensway was officially named in 1954, previously, Queenstown was a large swampy valley with a channel running through in a southeastern direction. On either side of this area were hills - feng xing and feng ling. The former was a plantation and the latter, a cemetery also known as boh beh kang. The village in the area, with mainly Hokkien and Teochew-speaking dwellers was also known by this name, pre-1942, the area was inhabited by hundreds of people in attap-roofed huts, cultivating vegetables, growing fruits and rearing pigs and chickens. Buller Camp, a British military camp, was set up there until 1953 when it was cleared for the new housing estate. In 1947, the Housing Committee of Singapore highlighted the problem of housing in Singapore. The report proposed the decentralisation of the population away from the city with the building of self-contained residential areas in the suburbs and this proposal was believed to be an influence of the New Town movements in post-war Britain. Queenstown was subsequently chosen by Singapore Improvement Trust as a site for housing development due to its proximity to the successful first public housing scheme in Tiong Bahru, construction of Queenstowns first estate, Princess Margaret Estate, began in July 1952. By late 1953, a batch of 3-room flats was ready for occupation. By 1956, work on the Princess Margaret Estate had more than 1,000 flats comprising one, two and three-room units and 68 terrace houses. A ceremony was held in October that year for Forfar House, the area continued to develop as a self-contained community. Some of the facilities and amenities developed included the Town Centre, the swimming complex was completed in August 1970. In the 1970s, the success of the new led to the development of Buona Vista and Holland Village
2.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations
3.
Plantation
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
4.
Coast
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A coastline or a seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean, or a line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the Coastline paradox, the term coastal zone is a region where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs. Both the terms coast and coastal are often used to describe a location or region, for example, New Zealands West Coast. Edinburgh for example is a city on the coast of Scotland, a pelagic coast refers to a coast which fronts the open ocean, as opposed to a more sheltered coast in a gulf or bay. A shore, on the hand, can refer to parts of the land which adjoin any large body of water, including oceans. Similarly, the related term refers to the land alongside or sloping down to a river or to a body of water smaller than a lake. Bank is also used in parts of the world to refer to an artificial ridge of earth intended to retain the water of a river or pond. According to the UN atlas, 44% of people live within 150 kilometres of the sea, tides often determine the range over which sediment is deposited or eroded. Areas with high tidal ranges allow waves to reach farther up the shore, the tidal range is influenced by the size and shape of the coastline. Tides do not typically cause erosion by themselves, however, tidal bores can erode as the waves surge up river estuaries from the ocean. Waves erode coastline as they break on shore releasing their energy, the larger the wave the more energy it releases and the more sediment it moves. Coastlines with longer shores have more room for the waves to disperse their energy, while coasts with cliffs and short shore faces give little room for the wave energy to be dispersed. In these areas the wave energy breaking against the cliffs is higher, sediment deposited by waves comes from eroded cliff faces and is moved along the coastline by the waves. This forms an abrasion or cliffed coast, sediment deposited by rivers is the dominant influence on the amount of sediment located on a coastline. Today riverine deposition at the coast is often blocked by dams and other human regulatory devices, like the ocean which shapes them, coasts are a dynamic environment with constant change. The coast and its adjacent areas on and off shore are an important part of a local ecosystem, Salt marshes and beaches also support a diversity of plants, animals and insects crucial to the food chain. The high level of biodiversity creates a level of biological activity. More and more of the people live in coastal regions
5.
Surveying
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Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is called a land surveyor, Surveyors work with elements of geometry, trigonometry, regression analysis, physics, engineering, metrology, programming languages and the law. Surveying has been an element in the development of the environment since the beginning of recorded history. The planning and execution of most forms of construction require it and it is also used in transport, communications, mapping, and the definition of legal boundaries for land ownership. It is an important tool for research in other scientific disciplines. Basic surveyance has occurred since humans built the first large structures, the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge was set out by prehistoric surveyors using peg and rope geometry. In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher would use simple geometry to re-establish boundaries after the floods of the Nile River. The almost perfect squareness and north-south orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza, built c.2700 BC, the Groma instrument originated in Mesopotamia. The mathematician Liu Hui described ways of measuring distant objects in his work Haidao Suanjing or The Sea Island Mathematical Manual, the Romans recognized land surveyors as a profession. They established the basic measurements under which the Roman Empire was divided, Roman surveyors were known as Gromatici. In medieval Europe, beating the bounds maintained the boundaries of a village or parish and this was the practice of gathering a group of residents and walking around the parish or village to establish a communal memory of the boundaries. Young boys were included to ensure the memory lasted as long as possible, in England, William the Conqueror commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086. It recorded the names of all the owners, the area of land they owned, the quality of the land. It did not include maps showing exact locations, abel Foullon described a plane table in 1551, but it is thought that the instrument was in use earlier as his description is of a developed instrument. Gunters chain was introduced in 1620 by English mathematician Edmund Gunter and it enabled plots of land to be accurately surveyed and plotted for legal and commercial purposes. Leonard Digges described a Theodolite that measured horizontal angles in his book A geometric practice named Pantometria, joshua Habermel created a theodolite with a compass and tripod in 1576. Johnathon Sission was the first to incorporate a telescope on a theodolite in 1725, in the 18th century, modern techniques and instruments for surveying began to be used. Jesse Ramsden introduced the first precision theodolite in 1787 and it was an instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes
6.
Opium
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Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, the word meconium historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies. The production of opium has not changed since ancient times, through selective breeding of the Papaver somniferum plant, the content of the phenanthrene alkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. For the illegal trade, the morphine is extracted from the opium. It is then converted to heroin which is two to four times as potent, and increases the value by two to four times, the reduced weight and bulk make it easier to smuggle. Evidence from ancient Greece indicate that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories, medical poultices, Opium is mentioned in the most important medical texts of the ancient world, including the Ebers Papyrus and the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna. Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, Opium has been actively collected since prehistoric times. Though western scholars typically estimate this to be around 1500 BCE, Indian scholars maintain that the verses and the history contained in them have been orally transmitted thousands of years before. A common name for males in Afghanistan is Redey, which in Pashto means poppy and this term may be derived from the Sanskrit words rddhi and hrdya, which mean magical, a type of medicinal plant, and heart-pleasing, respectively. The upper Asian belt of Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, numerous finds of P. somniferum or P. setigerum from Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have also been reported. The first known cultivation of poppies was in Mesopotamia, approximately 3400 BCE, by Sumerians, who called the plant hul gil. Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of juice in the morning. Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians, Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death, but it was also used in medicine. The Ebers Papyrus, c. 1500 BCE, describes a way to stop a child using grains of the poppy plant strained to a pulp. Spongia somnifera, sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery, the Egyptians cultivated opium thebaicum in famous poppy fields around 1300 BCE. Opium was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Carthage, and Europe. By 1100 BCE, opium was cultivated on Cyprus, where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the 6th century BCE. From the earliest finds, opium has appeared to have ritual significance, and anthropologists have speculated ancient priests may have used the drug as a proof of healing power
7.
Bungalow
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A bungalow is a type of building, originally from Bengal region in South Asia, but now found throughout the world. Across the world, the meaning of the word bungalow varies, common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In Australia, the California bungalow was popular after the First World War, some portable classrooms are called bungalows. The term originated in India, deriving from the Gujarati બંગલો baṅgalo, meaning Bengali and this Asian architectural form and design originated in the countryside of Bengal region in South Asia. Such houses were small, only one story and detached. The term was first found in English from 1696, where it was used to describe bungales or hovells in India for English sailors of the East India Company, later developers began to use the term for smaller houses. Bungalows are very convenient for the homeowner in that all living areas are on a single-story, a bungalow is well suited to persons with impaired mobility, such as the elderly or those in wheelchairs. Neighbourhoods of only bungalows offer more privacy than similar neighbourhoods with two-story houses, with bungalows, strategically planted trees and shrubs are usually sufficient to block the view of neighbours. They are a very cost-effective way of living, on the other hand, even closely spaced bungalows make for quite low-density neighbourhoods, contributing to urban sprawl. In Australia, bungalows have broad verandas and as a result are often excessively dark inside, on a per unit area basis, bungalows are more expensive to construct than two-story houses, because a larger foundation and roof area is required for the same living area. The larger foundation will often translate into larger lot size requirements, although the footprint of a bungalow is often a simple rectangle, any foundation is theoretically possible. For bungalows with brick walls, the windows are positioned high. This architectural technique avoids the need for special arches or lintels to support the wall above the windows. The developer Richard Stanton built in Federation Bungalow style first in Haberfield, New South Wales, the first Garden Suburb, beecroft, Hornsby and Lindfield contain many examples of Federation Bungalows built between 1895 and 1920. From about 1910 until 1930, the California Bungalow style was popular in Australia. The style seems to have first been imported in Sydney and then throughout the Australian states. In South Australia, the suburb of Colonel Light Gardens contains many well-preserved bungalow developments, in the rural areas of Bangladesh, it is often called “Bangla Ghor”. The Bungalow style houses are very popular in the rural Bengal
8.
Malays (ethnic group)
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These locations today are part of the modern nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and southern Thailand. In literature, architecture, culinary traditions, traditional dress, performing arts, martial arts, throughout their history, the Malays have been known as a coastal-trading community with fluid cultural characteristics. The epic literature, the Malay Annals, associates the etymological origin of Melayu to Sungai Melayu in Sumatra, the English term Malay was adopted via the Dutch word Malayo, itself derived from Portuguese, Malaio, which originates from the original Malay word, Melayu. Prior to the 15th century, the term Melayu and its variants appear to apply as an old toponym to the Strait of Malacca region in general. Malaya Dwipa, Malaya Dvipa, is described in chapter 48, Vayu Purana as one of the provinces in the sea that was full of gold. Some scholars equate the term with Sumatra, but several Indian scholars believe the term should refer to the mountainous Malay peninsula, maleu-kolon - appeared in Ptolemys work, Geographia. Mo-lo-yu - mentioned by Yijing, a Tang dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk who visited the Southeast Asia in 688–695, according to Yijing, the Mo-Lo-Yu kingdom was located in a distance of 15 day sail from Bogha, the capital of Sribhoga. It took a 15-day sail as well to reach Ka-Cha from Mo-lo-yu, therefore, a popular theory relates Mo-Lo-Yu with the Jambi in Sumatra, however the geographical location of Jambi contradicts with Yi Jings description of a half way sail between Ka-Cha and Bogha. Among the terms used was Bok-la-yu, Mok-la-yu, Ma-li-yu-er, Oo-lai-yu - traced from the source of monk Xuanzang). Malayur - inscribed on the wall of the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Tamil Nadu. It was described as a kingdom that had a mountain for its rampart in Malay peninsula. Bhūmi Mālayu -, a transcription from Padang Roco Inscription dated 1286 CE by Slamet Muljana, the term is associated with Dharmasraya kingdom. Ma-li-yu-er - mentioned in the chronicle of Yuan Dynasty, referring to a nation of Malay peninsula that faced the southward expansion of Sukhothai Kingdom, the chronicle stated. Animosity occurred between Siam and Ma-li-yu-er with both killing each other. In response to the Sukhothais action, a Chinese envoy went to the Ram Khamhaengs court in 1295 bearing an imperial decree, Keep your promise and do no evil to Ma-li-yu-er. Malauir - mentioned in Marco Polos account as a kingdom located in the Malay peninsula, malayapura -, inscribed on the Amoghapasa inscription dated 1347 CE. The term was used by Adityawarman to refer to Dharmasraya. The word Malay refer to Mountain, other evidence that supports this theory include, stone tools found in the Malay Archipelago are analogous to Central Asian tools, the similarity of Malay customs and Assam customs. The New Guinea theory - The proto-Malays are believed to be knowledgeable in oceanography. Over the years they settled at places and adopted various cultures
9.
Kallang Airport
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Large tracts of land were reclaimed in the Kallang Basin to turn the vast swampy area into a circular-shaped airfield and to build a slipway for seaplanes. The airport was closed down in 1955 when the new Singapore International Airport at Paya Lebar was built, just a year before, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore gazetted what remained of Kallang Airport for conservation as a historic monument/landmark in the country. Kallang Airport got its name from the nearby Kallang Basin, which was named after a group of living around the area in the 1800s. This marked the beginning of civil aviation in Singapore. KLM later introduced a regular Amsterdam to Batavia flight service in late-1931 and this service was later extended to Brisbane and operated jointly with Qantas Empire Airways on 17 December 1934. Reclamation work began on the 103 hectares of swamp in Kallang Basin in 1932. Seven million cubic metres of earth were used for the filling of this tidal swamp, by 1936, all reclamation and consolidation of land were completed, forming a 915-metre diameter, dome-shaped landing ground. On 12 June 1937, the Kallang Aerodrome was officially opened by Sir Shenton Thomas, at the time it was hailed as the finest airport in the British Empire, with facilities that were considered revolutionary. The circular aerodrome allowed planes to land from any direction, when the Japanese launched their invasion of Malaya and Singapore on 8 December 1941, Kallang was the principal fighter airfield. By January 1942, it was the operational fighter airfield in Singapore. The last of the left in early February, escaping to carry on the fight just before Singapore was surrendered to the advancing Japanese. The growth in traffic was stunted during the war years. The British Overseas Airways Corporation and Qantas resumed their services to the airport. The new runway was 5,496 feet long and 165 feet wide and this necessitated the installation of traffic lights to halt vehicular traffic every time a plane took off or landed. The success of Malayan Airways and rapid growth again caused congestion at the facility and this was no longer possible because of residential areas in the way, leading to a decision to build a new facility at Paya Lebar in 1951,8 km further from the city. When the new airport was completed on 20 August 1955, Kallang Airport was closed down, the runway was converted into a road, and the airfield turned into a recreational area with the building of the National Stadium and the Singapore Indoor Stadium. On 29 June 1946, one of the Dakota aircraft belonging to the Royal Air Force Police with 20 NCOs on board crashed at the airport in a storm with no survivors. The nearby Dakota Crescent, Dakota Close and the Dakota MRT Station on the Circle Line are supposedly named in commemoration of this disaster
10.
Singapore River
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The Singapore River is a river in Singapore that flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, Singapore River planning area sits within the Central Area of the Central Region of Singapore, as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The planning area shares boundaries with the following - River Valley and Museum to the north, Tanglin and Bukit Merah to the west, Outram to the south, the Singapore River is approximately 3. The mouth of the Singapore River was the old Port of Singapore, historically, the city of Singapore initially grew around the port so the river mouth became the centre of trade, commerce and finance. To this day, area around the old Singapore River mouth, some of the temples, shrines and other places of worship still stand in the vicinity of the river. Bridges such as Anderson Bridge, Elgin Bridge and Cavenagh Bridge still remain, the Merlion, the shophouses, and the large trees such as Banyan and Madras Thorn. Some parts of this area include such as Clarke Quay, Boat Quay and Robertson Quay. Boat Quay itself was handling three quarters of the service in the 1860s. Shophouses and warehouses flourished around the quays due to their proximity to trade during the colonial era, through lack of knowledge or foresight, the bridges were constructed too low and the river was too shallow for the demands that were to be made on its use. However, with the expansion of trade came congestion and pollution, old maps of the river state that it actually originates from Bukit Larangan. Starting in the 1819, there was heavy traffic on the Singapore River due to rapid urbanization, at the same time, it brought in water pollution caused by the disposal of garbage, sewage and other by-products of industries located along the rivers banks. The sources of pollution into the Singapore River and Kallang Basin included pig wastes from pig and duck farms, unsewered premises, street hawkers. Riverine activities such as transport, boat building and repairs were found along the Singapore River. Some 750 lighters plied along the Singapore River and Kallang Basin in 1977, waste, oil spills and wastewater from these boats and lighters added to the pollution of the rivers. In 1977, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew called for a clean up of Singapores rivers, the clean up costed the government $300 million. The clean up involved a relocation of about 4,000 squatters, along with hawkers and vegetable sellers. Public housing was found for the squatters, while street hawkers were persuaded to move to hawker centres, the government then dredged foul-smelling mud from the banks and the bottom of the river, and debris and other rubbish cleared. The river is now part of the Marina Reservoir after damming the Singapore River at its outlet to the sea to create a new reservoir of freshwater, the dam is known as Marina Barrage
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