2024 was a year of climate extremes, geohazards and the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) at Nanyang Technological University responded to these events with a year full of groundbreaking research, innovation and collaborations to push boundaries in our understanding of climate change and geohazards in Southeast Asia and beyond. 

We published nearly 100 papers in the very best journals. Highlights include unraveling what happened during the Noto earthquake that struck Honshu in Japan in January 2024, which made the cover of Science. Other studies attracted significant media attention. A case in point is the global study that revealed a staggering 135 million premature deaths could be linked to fine particulate matter pollution in the last 40 years. Another study showed that climate change intensifies and prolongs tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia, which attracted significant media attention because of the numerous disasters from tropical cyclones and hurricanes that struck the Philippines and the U.S. in 2024. 

 

The EOS Remote Sensing (EOS-RS) lab responded to more than 28 disasters in 2024 and continued to release maps in a timely manner to help humanitarian efforts. This included the production of a flood proxy map following the Spanish floods in November, and a damage proxy map following the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Taiwan in April.  

Maintaining and building new partnerships has always been key to our work and is critical to make a positive difference in the region. For example, we collaborated with the Centre for Climate Research Singapore to improve sea-level projections as part of the Third National Climate Change Study (V3). In addition, we wrote a report with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre about the projected impacts of future cyclones and droughts in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, and we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Resorts World Sentosa to further climate research in the marine environment. 



The team from the Centre for Geohazard Observations (CGO) continued ensuring that the more than 170 stations installed around the region could record the data needed for the geohazards and climate research of the Observatory and its collaborators. This included a maintenance trip to Gede volcano in May 2024 with colleagues from the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. 

The team also installed the first of a series of low-cost sensors to monitor the movements of Siberut, an island of the Mentawai Islands that borders a region that has not had a great earthquake in a long time. This installation, which was completed with collaborators from the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), was featured in a documentary produced by ChannelNews Asia for the 20th commemoration of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.



EOS also released its latest documentary Antarctica The Giant Awakens through a series of events with panel discussions to convey the complexity of sea-level rise and the urgency of addressing climate change. The documentary features the EOS expedition to Antarctica in 2023, which aimed to better understand how the melting of the ice sheets there will impact Singapore and the region. The documentary was shown at climate weeks in Sydney and New York to critical acclaim.

Throughout the years, EOS, through its Community Engagement Office, has made education of Singapore school children an integral part of its activities. This year saw the first full scale version of the Earth Alive Inter School Challenge, where 32 teams of students from 13 secondary schools competed to win the geography-themed competition which included missions at the Earth Alive exhibition and games at Science Centre Singapore. We thank the U.S. Embassy Singapore for its support, and we were pleased that the event contributed to the GoGreenSG initiative of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.  

Thank you to all the scientists and staff who make EOS such an amazing place to lead. I am very aware that none of this would be possible without our administrative staff, who contributed to the success of EOS by facilitating events and ensuring the smooth operations of the Observatory. And thank you to our many collaborators for working with us to promote the resilience of our region.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year 2025 and I am looking forward to continuing working with you all to make the Southeast Asian region a safer and more sustainable place for us all.



Best wishes

Ben