Park Connector Network Planning in Singapore: Integrating the Green in the Garden City

Singapore successfully achieved the Global City in a Garden, because of good political will, careful planning and strict development control initiated by the former PM Lee Kuan Yew in 1960 - 1970s. The Garden City Vision was originally proposed by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and it was later materialised by Parks and Recreation Department (or later named The National Parks Board/ NParks).
The NParks vision was to join the national effort creating the best environment for Singaporean and residents to live work and play in, meanwhile its pillars of progress were to grow Singapore�’s Garden infrastructure, to cultivate Singapore as premier horticulture hub and to ignite the community passion for greenery.
Park Connector Network (PCN) in Singapore was an integrated approach of Greening and Recreational Strategy. It generated the social and recreational activities in the neighbourhood as well as increased biodiversity within. For example, UluPandan Park Connector was found popularly used. Meanwhile, it also served as habitat for native species of birds. This showed that PCN also contributed to successful
conservation and environmental sustainability of the City (Briffet, 2004).
Further improvement of PCN was conducted with benchmarking research, infrastructure improvement. And this effort proved excellent initiatives from Singapore Government for sustainable recreational activities. It also could be transformed to other countries as one integrated sustainable greening and recreational strategy.