Physical Environment
Singapore is located at the tip of the Malay penninsula, causing it to have a tropical environment. It is typically very hot and humid. On average the annual temperature is about 80 degrees F, however the island does have the benefit of sea breezes so the temperature rarely rises above 94 degrees F.
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Before the urbanization of the island it was covered with tropical rain forests and mangrove swamps, but by 1988 the island was 49% built up, leaving only 2.5% of the land covered by forest.
Land is a very scarce resource of the island. The resource is so precious that there have been extensive land reclamation efforts throughout history. This reclamation includes: leveling hills and draining swamps to make use of the land already part of the island, as well as enlarging and joining small islets and reefs to larger islands to make additional space for industrial uses. For example, between 1965 ad 1987 the land area increased by 50 square kilometers. Today the island is 650 square kilometers in area with a population of about 3 million people. For this reason land use management is extremely important.