Data
Due to Singapore’s rapid urbanisation with extensive electricity access, Singapore’s population has reached a percentage of 100% for access to electricity ever since the beginning of the 21st century.
Introduction
The main two types of data visualisation in this project is a grouped bar chart and a pie chart. A grouped bar chart is a bar chart in which multiple sets of data items are compared, while a pie chart is used for a part-to-whole comparison of the total data that's divided into radial slices.
Data Visualisation
A grouped bar chart is used in this project to compare results, show trends, and patterns of the population that has access to electricity in the 21st century. Meanwhile, the pie chart is used for expressing a part-to-whole relationship in the data of Bird-building collisions in Singapore to compare the precise number of birds that were injured or died due to building collisions.
Findings
Looking at the grouped bar graph, the percentage of the population in Southeast Asia that has access to electricity in the 21st century is increasing throughout time. This is due to the consistent effort to provide electricity for domestic establishments across the years that enlarged the conventional electricity grid in most Southeast Asian countries. Not just that but technological advancement have also played
a role to provide more households access to electricity. In the main bar graph, it can be seen that Singapore and Myanmar have the highest average percentage throughout the years, but in 2016, the New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness claimed that Singapore is the brightest spot on Earth. This is due to Singapore’s rapid urbanisation which improved Singapore’s extensive electricity access, further increasing Singapore’s light pollution. Resulting in greater harm to the wildlife.
Insights
So, why is Singapore so heavily light-polluted? It is because it is a highly urbanised country with an extensive access to electricity, and it holds a large population of residence within a relatively small area of land—in other words, Singapore is densely populated.This is troubling for the region. As not only is more of the region’s population getting a greater access to electricity over the years—perhaps even worse—light pollution is not even seen as a major issue. However, bright urban lights will
misguide the newborns of turtles into walking inland instead of out towards the sea, resulting in them dying of dehydration, predation, or even getting crushed by moving traffic.A little closer to home, however, are bird to building collisions. The bright lights that are emitted from the buildings are causing confusion to the birds, especially at night, and as a result they crash into these man-made structures at high speeds, dying upon impact majority of the time. For a country that is renowned for its gorgeous skyline and luscious greens, Singapore is a death trap for many of these little guys.
Conclusion
Although being an advanced country does have its strength, it does not change the fact that the light pollution in Singapore became a threat to migratory birds, increasing the percentage of bird-building collisions that can eventually cause extinction to some of the most beautiful bird species. As the percentage of access to electricity increases, bird wildlife endangerment increases as well.
References
- OwYong, Alan, et al. “Migratory Bird Collisions in Singapore.” Singapore Bird Group, 15 May 2015, https://singaporebirdgroup.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/migratory-bird-collisions-in-singapore/.
- Roser, Max. “Light at Night.” Our World in Data, 10 Dec. 2013, https://ourworldindata.org/light.
- “A Rising Star.” Kontinentalist, https://kontinentalist.com/stories/light-pollution-effects-put-singapore-and-hong-kong-on-the-map.
- Tan, Audrey. “Skyscrapers 'Pose Fatal Risk' to Migratory Birds.” The Straits Times, 13 Aug. 2017, https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/skyscrapers-pose-fatal-risk-to-migratory-birds.
- Schulte-Römer, Nona, et al. “Lighting Professionals versus Light Pollution Experts? Investigating Views on an Emerging Environmental Concern.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 21 Mar. 2019, https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1696/htm.