Singapore is a fascinating country to study regarding its urban land development for a variety of reasons. One main reason is because of its large population relative to the small size of land. Another reason is because of the detailed plan they have established to improve the urban areas, which is almost the whole island. This plan has a detailed goal for the Island with a predicted future population. Also, Singapore urban development has had an emphasis on environmental planning to ensure a healthy future of the country.
             The island of Singapore is a highly industrialized and urbanized state with a population of 3 million people and a total area of 647 square kilometres (www.sg/flavour/profile.html). This is approximately one-fiftieth the size of Vancouver Island with six times the population (http://www.cvic.bc.ca/vancouver_island_size.htm). The small size of the Island makes the task of urban planning somewhat less difficult because investment in infrastructure is highly concentrated and therefore not very expensive. However, because of the dense population, urban development is a crucial part of the welfare and future of the Island. Only 5% of the Island remains as forest, which clearly means that the demand for urban planning is quite large (http://65.107.211.208/singapore/geography/geographyov.html). Poorly managing the Island's planning could lead to degradation of the land and inefficient allocation of resources. Singapore has, however, done an extraordinary job of ensuring that these problems do not exist in the present or the future. In order to accomplish this task the Singapore government has set up the Ministry of National Development (MND). The MND focuses on issues anywhere from affordable public housing to the management of parks and conservation of nature. The subcommittee responsible for urban development is known as the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
             The URA is Singapore's national planning and conservati...