Drainage Services Department Research & Development Forum 2015 - PDF document

Drainage Services Department Research & Development Forum 2015 (R&D Forum 2015) (18 November 2015) Keynote Speech “Living beside Water” by Ir. Eric MA, Under Secretary for Development (9:20 – 9:35) 1. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to join this forum. 2. The theme today is “Revitalising Water Bodies” and I picked “Living beside “Water”” as the topic for my keynote. Water supports mankind's development and activities, but if not properly managed, it can lead to fierce disaster. Then how should we handle water when we plan our city? 3. First, I would like to share some background information about land use planning in Hong Kong. In recent years, there are grave concerns over the high property price and their affordability. The root of the issue is the shortage of developable land. Steady and adequate land supply is the solution to alleviate the issue. In CE’s Policy Address this year, the Government has set the total housing supply target for the coming decade at 480,000 units alongside with other measures for land supply for economic activities. 4. Hong Kong is a densely populated city. The livable area per capita is small. For people living in small flats, do you think that just providing a flat to address residential demand can satisfy our need? No, they want a better environment. This is our aim as well. We need to think about how to create a better living environment. 5. “Fung Shui” is a Chinese heritage to determine whether a place is good or not. Put aside its spiritual significance like the lions in front of a bank, Fung Shui is also a collection of ancient wisdom in land use planning, micro climate and building design. “ Fung Shui” literally means “Fung” and “Shui”. Then what are “Fung” and “Shui”? And how they integrate with our land use planning? Based on my limited research, “ Fung”- means wind. “Fung” can also be 6. interpreted as air quality, ventilation as well as mirco-climate environment. In modern urban planning, we also adopted similar approach. Emphasis has been put on good spatial planning and greening to provide good living environment. Here are some examples. Good spatial planning can provide corridors for air 1

ventilation to improve the mirco-climate and lessen the effects of urban heat island paths. Greening can provide sun-shading effects, and plants can absorb carbon emission and improve local air quality. 7. Then what about “Shui”, water? In fact, water exists in many different ways from small fountains to large rivers and reservoirs. In terms of micro-climate, “Shui” can also help to reduce heat absorption through evaporation and alleviate local urban heat island effect and combat the challenge of global climate change. 8. However, existence of water doesn’t mean that they are high quality “Good Shui”. Some essential criteria have to be met:- “ Shui” must be clean and not c - ontaminated “ Shui” should allow people to interact without causing any human harm. - “ Shui” should support the living of natural habitat. - 9. But not all water bodies met the above criteria of “Good Shui”. So, “Revitalising Water Bodies” is important to change these water bodies to “Good Shui”. 10. Revitalising water bodies is a concept aims at giving a new design to water bodies so that they can enhance flood resilience, and, at the same time, preserve natural habitat, improve micro-climate, promote water friendly culture and enable water reuse. Several major elements to be considered in planning and design for revitalising water bodies are: - Effective Drainage; - Greening; - Beautification; - Biodiversity; and - Water friendliness. 11. I believe you would have a good understanding of these elements later in this forum so I will not go into details. But on the other hand, I would like to point out the potential challenges we may encounter during implementation of this concept. 12. The first challenge – availability of water bodies. 13. Developable land is scarce in Hong Kong. It is a challenge to spare lands for new water bodies and innovative ideas have to be explored for co-uses. In fact, many 2

successful revitalised water bodies materialize a concept of co-uses of drainage area with other functions. This concept allows the public to use the drainage area such as the flood plains for recreation purpose during dry condition without affecting its drainage function during storms. 14. However, in congested cities like HK, do we have a chance to implement revitalising water bodies? We may think about making use of the existing water bodies. 15. The most commonly seen existing water bodies in urban area in Hong Kong are drainage channels. To revitalise these water bodies, modifications to the channels or rivers are required. Here are some examples of commonly adopted measures. 16. One common drawback of these measures is impact to the drainage capacity. To compensate for the loss in drainage capacity, upgrading the existing channels such as making them wider and deeper, or reducing the time of concentration would be possible solutions. The designer should take into account of these upgrading works at early planning stage of the projects. 17. To support enhancing biodiversity and promoting water friendliness, provision of good quality water is crucial. However, ensuring good quality of water is another challenge for revitalising existing drainage channels. The main function of channel is to collect surface run-off and convey water to discharge point efficiently. However, quite often, debris or rubbish will be discharged to the channel together with the surface run-off. 18. At the same time, some pollutants may also discharge into the channel. Such impacts to water quality can be minimized by thorough removal of effluent discharge and frequent cleansing arrangement. But it is an undeniable truth that it is challenging to put these mitigation measures into practice. To overcome all these challenges is not easy, but it is not impossible. 19. Here are some successful water revitalization projects. 20. Bishan Park in Singapore is one of the highlighted projects in their “ABC Waters Program”. ABC stands for Active, Beautiful and Clean. You can see that the park has plenty of greening. The flood plain area, which is the grassland in the photo, is open to public during dry weather. This is a good demonstration of co-use of drainage areas with the public. 3

21. Another example is “ 清溪川” in Seoul. It provides a valuable place in the urban city for people to take a break. 22. In fact, there are also successful cases of revitalising water bodies in Hong Kong. The Revitalization of Lam Tsuen River is a good example. The project has incorporated various revitalisation measures such as preservation of natural river, provision of greening, natural river bed and provision of fish ladder. The design of Lam Tsuen River emphasizes harmony to nature. The efforts on preservation of natural habitats have significantly enhanced biodiversity in the river. 23. To materialize the concept of revitalising water bodies, we have to seize the opportunities. In CE’s Policy Address this year, it states that “We will adopt the concept of revitalising water bodies in large-scale drainage improvement works and planning drainage for New Development Areas so as to build a better environment for the public” 24. In fact, several iconic water revitalization projects in these NDA are currently under planning and construction, such as Kai Tak River, Anderson Road Quarry Flood Pool and Tsui Ping River in Kowloon East and River Park in Tung Chung New Town Extension. And I believe that there would be more opportunities in these New Development Areas awaiting our exploration in the near future. 25. Here are some illustrations of the future Kai Tak River. This project is currently under construction. Many elements of revitalising water bodies are fully integrated in the design. I believe that Kai Tak River will become a landmark and scenery spot in the Kai Tak area in the near future. 26. To revitalise water bodies, vision and strategy should be firstly formulated to form the corner stone. In fact, in the “Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy”, one of the directions is to provide a quality living environment. Cherishing natural resources and environmental protection are specially highlighted amongst the suggested measures. Currently, the Government is conducting “Hong Kong 2030+” study to examine the strategies beyond 2030 in the light of our latest needs. We may suggest a clearer direction on revitalising water bodies in this forthcoming strategy. 27. Then what should we do to materialize this direction? In light of this, I have prepared some way forward: Firstly, we will incorporate the concept of 4

revitalising water bodies in guidelines for Hong Kong development. Secondly, we will adopt the concept of revitalising water bodies in various New Development Areas and drainage projects. Thirdly, we will keep on promoting the concept of revitalising water bodies to the public. 28. Finally, I would like to say that supports from the general public, the Government as well as every one of you is the key to the successful implementation of this new concept. With our continuous efforts, we will be able to build a better Hong Kong for the future generations. 29. Thank you. 5