Centre of Urban Planning    and Environmental Management

• Coordination and Project Team
• Project Overview
• Publications Background Paper
• Final Report - Executive Summary to DOWNLOAD
• Seminars and Presentations
• Useful Links
• CUPEM's COLLECTED DISSERTATIONS (1992-1997)

Coordination:

 Prof. Peter Hills and Dr. Bill Barron

 Project Team:
 

Dawn Yan Yan Ng:	Marine water quality, projections and measures
Margaret Burnett:	Noise, nature conservation, biodiversity, solid waste and report editing
Yvonne Lee:	Pedestrianisation, energy data base
Keith Gilges:	Open space
Jamie Allen:	Socio-economic indicators
Nils Steinbrecher:	Final report coordination and editing, measures to reduce air pollution

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• Project Overview


The 'Sustainability Indicators Project' (SIP)  is a two-year project prepared by the University of Hong Kong's Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management. The SIP was launched in May 1996 and funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund, to develop indicators for measuring environmentally sustainable development in Hong Kong.
The key objectives are:
 

• to identify a framework for achieving sustainability in Hong Kong,
• to develop a methodology that will identify practical indicators for measuring and predicting whether Hong Kong is on the path towards aching sustainability,
• and to apply this methodology to identify trends, project future conditions, and evaluate specific policies as well as mitigative measures which may direct Hong Kong towards a more sustainable path as it continues to grow and mature.


Until June 1998 indicators for the areas air pollution, marine water quality, and solid wastes were defined and projected and other possible indicators for noise, drinking water, biodiversity, and natural conservation were prepared.
The final report for the SIP is planned to be completed in 1998.
 

For the chosen indicators the following criteria where used:
 

• it deals with an important sustainability concern

 
• it is amenable to policy initiatives

• data to measure it are available

• it is understandable to the non-specialist

 
• it generally represents a chronic and relatively widespread problem (rather than  one which tends to be acute or highly localized)

 
• it is founded on valid scientific measurements

 
• it can be assigned meaningful reference or threshold values.


The first two criteria served as a 'screen' since only candidate indicators which reflected serious sustainability concerns and could be significantly influenced by policy steps are relevant to assessments of environmental sustainability, regardless of their other merits. In terms of the study, we found it necessary to employ a second screen, the data availability.
Since the project lacks funding for major new data collection and analysis, the measures actually evaluated during the course of this project must be ones for which the data already are available.
 

The selected indicators are:
 

For Air Quality

Average Annual Concentration of Respirable Suspended Particulates (RSP) for Urban Areas as a Ratio to the Air Quality Objective of RSP

Average Annual Concentration of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂)  for Urban Areas as a Ratio to the Air Quality Objective of NO₂

Average of the Four Highest 1 Hour Maximum Concentrations of Ozone (O₃) per Year for Urban Areas as a Ratio to the Air Quality Objective of O₃

Total Annual Emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)  as a Ratio to 1990's Total CO₂ Emissions
 

For Marine Water Quality

Average Annual Concentration¹ of 'E coli' at all Bathing Beaches as a Ratio to the Water Quality Objective

Average Annual Concentration of Total Inorganic Nitrogen in the Marine Water as a Ratio to the Minimal Level for Eutrophication²
 

For Solid Waste

Annual Non-hazardous Municipal, Construction and Demolition Waste Arisings as a Ratio to the Total Remaining Capacity of Available Disposal Facilities
 
 

Footnotes:
¹ The calculation for the Average Annual Concentration is based on the 'Geometric Mean' of E.coli counts used by the EPD. Geometric Mean is a term, which is the result of a statistical method used to manipulate data with large fluctuation.
² Eutrophication is a term used to describe the nutrient enrichment process within a water body that has an originally poor nutrient level. Serious eutrophication can cause water quality deterioration.
 
 


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• Publications and Background Papers


Publications

Liu, J.H., Atkinson N., Van Toen Carlene, Developing Practical Indicators of Environmental Sustainability for Hong Kong,
in Asian Journal of Environmental Management - Special Issue: Hong Kong's Environment  in Transition, Vol. 5, No. 1
May 1997

Steinbrecher Nils, Sustainable Transport: The Key to Cleaning Up the Air in the Business Capital of Hong Kong,
in GBAktuell, The Business Magazine of German Industry and Commerce Hong Kong, South China, Vietnam, German Business Association of Hong Kong,
July/August 1998
 

Background Papers

Keith Gilges, An Assessment of Compliance with the Hong Kong Standard for Open Space by Planning Area,
January 1998

Nils Steinbrecher, Sustainable Transport for Hong Kong, Analysis, Projections and selected Measures,
July 1997

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• Final Report


Barron, W., Steinbrecher, N. (eds.) (1999), Heading Towards Sustainability? - Practical Indicators of Environmental Sustainability for Hong Kong, CUPEM, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The Executive Summary can now be downloaded as a zipped MS word document (word 7.x) and will soon be available in Adobe format. A Chinese project overview will follow soon.

DOWNLOAD HERE! (423 KB)
 
 


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• Seminars and Presentations

 See also other  CUPEM Seminars