Coastal East Asia is particularly prone to typhoons, but Hong Kong has proved better prepared than most of its neighbours to withstand the risks these pose.
Its government’s far-sighted investments in infrastructure resilience over five decades look likely to pay off as climate change threatens to bring ever more extreme weather to this region.
The 14th Brunel International Lecture Series was produced by the ICE and the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI).
The series shone a spotlight on equitable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure challenges around the world and how the engineering community could help to address them.
The final session of this nine-leg series focused on East Asia.
Ricky Lau, the Hong Kong government’s permanent secretary for development, gave the keynote address. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Christine Loh, chief development strategist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The panellists were:
- Wing Law, chief executive of AtkinsRéalis in Asia
- Professor Wei Pan, head of the department of civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong
- Ronald Young, head of sustainable finance, Asia, at Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking (now head of sustainable banking development at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority)
The closing Brunel lecture took place in Hong Kong as a hybrid online and in-person event focusing on East Asia – defined as China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan.
Sustainable Development Goals:
Linking our work back to the UN SDGs is a core part of the ICE’s plan and mission. This article ties in with the following SDGs:
What are the challenges?
Ricky Lau started his keynote address by discussing the impact of climate change on Hong Kong in recent years.
In September 2023, for example, super-typhoon Saola struck Hong Kong, Macau and other urban centres along the coast of Guangdong, China’s most inhabited province.
This “one-in-500-years mega-event” brought wind speeds exceeding 200km/h and torrential rain, downing trees and causing floods and landslides that paralysed infrastructure across the region.
Although it injured more than 80 people, Saola caused no fatalities in Hong Kong, thanks partly to the rigorous slope safety management systems its government had implemented.
Its Geotechnical Engineering Office has spent more than HK$28bn (£2.8bn) since 1977 on strengthening critical infrastructure to improve its resilience to extreme weather.
Such investment has ensured that the risk of landslides in this special administrative region (SAR) of China remains comparable to that of other developed countries, according to Lau.
There have been no fatal landslides in Hong Kong since 2008. The last one took place 30 years ago, he said.
Nonetheless, Lau considered the disruption caused by Saola to be “a wake-up call to our society”.
Stressing the need for continued investment in developing resilient infrastructure systems, he added: “Climate change impacts are not just around the corner – they’re already on our doorstep.”
Extreme rainstorms during September 2023 brought flooding to Hong Kong’s streets (credit: iStock/Derek Yung)
Hong Kong in numbers
£2.8bn
Total spent by Hong Kong on landslip prevention and mitigation work since 1977
£10.6bn
Estimated total government expenditure on Hong Kong infrastructure in 2024-25
2035
The year by which Hong Kong needs to cut its annual CO2 emissions to half of 2005’s total
Sources: Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Office; budget speech by the financial secretary of Hong Kong, February 2024: Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050
What is happening now?
Building capacity
Lau reported that 90-plus flood resilience projects costing a combined HK£30bn (£3bn) have revitalised Hong Kong’s urban river systems. They have helped to build the drainage capacity needed to withstand the effects of climate change.
The government has adopted a three-point plan to prevent flooding from rivers.
This uses stormwater interception along rivers’ upstream sections, followed by tank storage and then better local drainage further downstream.
It has applied this approach to enhance the adaptive capacity of urban waterways including the Kai Tak River and Jordan Valley Channel, transforming these “old nullahs into green and ecological rivers”, Lau said.
He added that regenerating these rivers has not only improved Hong Kong’s resilience to the effects of climate change. It has also promoted biodiversity and made the SAR a greener and healthier place for people to live.
Influencing policy
The Hong Kong government has set the SAR the target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
To stand a realistic chance of achieving that, by 2035 it will need to cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions to half the total recorded in 2005.
Lau observed that contractual policies relating to construction agreements have helped to ensure that sustainable development is a key part of Hong Kong’s resilience planning.
“We were pleased to launch the Hong Kong edition of NEC Contracts, a collaborative form of construction contracting for public works,” he said.
“I’m confident that this will help us to address the challenges ahead when it comes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”
During the ensuing panel discussion, Société Générale’s Ronald Young noted that government policy is a key factor. It can unlock financial backing for the retrofitting of infrastructure assets and buildings.
He stressed the importance of modernising buildings and improving overall energy efficiency in the effort to slash Hong Kong’s greenhouse gas emissions.
What changes are needed?
Financing resilient and sustainable infrastructure
Despite the government’s sustained investments in maintaining and developing resilient infrastructure in Hong Kong, Lau accepted that alternative funding methods will also be needed to ensure the SAR’s continued capacity to withstand the impacts of climate change.
“We’re exploring new approaches to finance our sustainability transition,” he said.
These include introducing “more flexibility in the government green bond programme to the value of HK$100bn per year, which will be used to develop the Northern Metropolis and other infrastructure projects”.
Arguing that Hong Kong should focus more on greening its finance system, Young stressed the importance of aligning with the Equator Principles.
These serve as a framework for financial institutions to identify, assess and manage environmental risks when funding infrastructure projects.
Highlighting the need for better cross-industry collaboration, he added: “We need engineers to work hand in hand with different stakeholders – including us financiers – to meet both the technical specifications and the cost schedules associated with infrastructure projects.”
Influencing early-stage decision-making
Professor Wei Pan outlined the need for “asset assessment tools” that can help engineers and project managers to make strategic decisions, especially at the start of an infrastructure scheme.
These provide a structured way “to help both practitioners and their stakeholders accumulate asset information, making it easier to communicate”, he said.
If integrated within the plan from day one, such tools can provide a wealth of data to help the project team show how long-term resilience is being built into the asset.
Related links
- ICE infrastructure blog: Connection and modernisation: Hong Kong outlines policy response to infrastructure challenges
- ICE infrastructure blog: The power of dialogue: three ways Hong Kong is enabling better infrastructure
- ICE: Landslip mitigation, Hong Kong
- ICE: Trio storm water storage, Hong Kong