Boardwalks and Trails: A Comparative Study of Impacts of Forest Inroads on Surface Hydrology at the Central Water Catchment, Singapore (Completed)

Kalyani Chatterjea
Email: kchatt@nie.edu.sg 

Collaborators: Tommy Wong Sai Wai (CEE)

Increasingly forested areas are becoming recreation grounds for the urban population of Singapore. In response to these changing recreational demands, and also to develop more environmental awareness among the population, the forested areas of Singapore are being opened up to human traffic. Several trails have been laid out within the forest to help the visitors venture into the otherwise inaccessible areas. This increased human traffic into the forested areas is expected to have many adverse effects, one of them being the heavy trampling of the surface and the associated soil erosion along the walking paths. In order to alleviate and manage such adverse effects the forest management has introduced boardwalks in some of the areas while others are still served by bare walking trails.

This project plans to study the conventional unsealed walking trails and the erected boardwalks in a part of the Central Water Catchment of Singapore to examine their comparative effectiveness in reducing visitor impact and the resultant erosion potential on the protected forest slopes.

Data, collected from field sites, will provide location specific relevant database, which can be useful for further considerations for sustainable management of forest inroads.

The study will compare the design parameters of the walking trails and the boardwalks and evaluate the relative efficiencies of the two types of inroads in securing a sustainable management strategy for the forest trails, whereby the forest environment is protected while providing the much sought-after access to the public.

Based on the findings the study will also provide some guidelines regarding the suitability, construction and site layouts for the boardwalks and the walking trails.

Source of funding: AcRF