56 Proceedings 4 th International Urban Wildlife Symposium. Shaw et al., Eds. 2004 Green corridors and the quality of urban life in Singapore Clive Briffett, Navjot Sodhi, Belinda Yuen, Lily Kong Authors’ address: National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260 Urban green corridor systems are readily accepted worldwide as a desirable recreational, wildlife and landscape resource and can bring many benefits to urban dwellers .The planning, design, use and management processes are critical factors in determining successes in meeting quality of life indicators. In Singapore, an island-wide network of park connectors is currently being implemented. This paper outlines the results of a two year research project to assess whether such provisions do meet people’s needs and aspirations. Results indicate that such resources are popular and regularly used for many activities that range from the active to the passive. Critical factors are close proximity to habitation, good facilities for different users, convenient variety of access points, continuity of off-road trails, and attractive habitat and wildlife. Understanding people’s deeper feelings including fears and delights, pleasures and worries in relation to urban corridors cannot be achieved through on site observations and questionnaires .The use of focus discussion groups is invaluable. The presence of birds in such corridors is not only dependent on habitat provision but also, on the nature of adjoining land uses, types of recreational activities, and numbers of users. It is concluded that designing such resources must include a combination of ecological and social research methodology in order to successfully capture the various needs, aspirations, and emotional reactions of users. INTRODUCTION Singapore is a highly urbanized island city-state that was once covered with dense tropical forest. Clearing of natural areas began in the late 19 th century, and gathered momentum particularly in the post-1960’s period after independence from the British Colonial authorities. With the advent of internal self-govern- ment in 1959, the Singapore government was con- fronted with a plethora of problems including rapid population growth, housing shortages, high unem- ployment and inadequate infrastructure. The eco- nomic and social programs that were initiated to address these problems included land use planning and land/building development. This often entailed the clearing of natural areas such as forests, ridges, swamps, coral-fringed coasts, and the damming of rivers for reservoirs. As a result, between 1960 and the mid 1990’s, the portion of Singapore covered by forests decreased from 6.5% to 4.4%, and mangroves dropped from 7.9% to 2.4% (Hilton 1995). At the same time, the proportion of developed areas almost doubled from 27.9% in 1960 to 49.3% in 1996 (Wong 1989, Ministry of Information and the Arts 1996). As Singapore’s natural areas were cleared, they were replaced with other forms of nature “constructed” to satisfy a range of human needs: specially designed parks, roadside trees and shrubs, road dividers, open spaces such as car parks, walls and pedestrian bridges covered with creepers. Singapore’s landscape was transformed from dense tropical forest to an equally dense built-up environment, entailing a sort of paradox. On the one hand, natural areas continue to be destroyed. However, on the other hand, policies and actions have been introduced to “green” the city. As a result, the form of nature most familiar to Singaporeans is managed messicol vegetation 1 planted deliberately to provide some balance in an increasingly urban environment. The average Singaporean has little contact with naturally occurring unmanaged vegetation and wildlife on the island. In the Revised Concept Plan for Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) included a Green and Abstract