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Urban morphology and spatial forms shape a city's character and user behavior, often embracing a particular type of people and unwelcoming other kinds of gender. City design policies and legislation have favored men since its beginning, affecting overall urban planning and design. While the world is delving into new techniques and methods to empower women, constraints in public space activities remain prevalent. This paper explores the scope of urban design strategies to catalyze women's social and physical inclusion in these spaces. It presents a systematic approach to identifying women's social roles during the use of public spaces and introduces the 'GenUrban: Shaping Cities for All Genders' framework to guide researchers and designers alike promote inclusive urban design and planning. The investigation, in the central area of Hong Kong, focuses on the cultural landscape created by the women-centric 'Foreign Domestic Helpers' community. A desktop literature review, direct observation of public spaces, and in-depth interviews with a focus group of women in the city's heart established and mapped the marginalized users' collective viewpoint and their appropriation of space. The framework can be used by professionals to transform urban spaces through a gender lens to improve the overall quality of public spaces and make them more inclusive and accessible. The paper generates gender-sensitive urban design principles that can be translated for planners to use for various user groups and contexts. When women become key drivers in activating public space, they are given back their right to the city. • Women's traveling patterns are frequent due to their caregiving responsibilities. • The unique cultural landscape of a city creates gender-centered activities. • Integrating gender-specific features ensures urban spaces cater to women's needs. • Reliable public transport is vital for women's mobility and engagement in city life. • A city catering to women tends to accommodate those they care for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity and inclusion continue to pose significant challenges for many cities. Disparities in access to resources and facilities among the residents of these areas are often influenced by factors such as geographical location and income level, among others. Therefore, creating a quantitative basis to detect spatial and socio-economic inequities in residents' access to vital infrastructures is crucial for advancing smart cities. This paper introduces a novel measure of Spatial Inequity that is based on 1) computing building-level scores for each building in terms of access to facilities, and 2) comparing the distribution of the scores of these facilities using the Gini coefficient. The proposed building-level scores will enable the identification of GIS hotspots at a high resolution. Then, the Gini-based measure will facilitate a comparison of the distribution of the scores, and determine if they are evenly distributed and equitably accessible. The Gini coefficient was highest (0.89) for waste management and elderly care, and lowest (0.56) for hospitals, reflecting varying levels of inequality. This study applies this Spatial Ineqity methodological framework to Hong Kong, a representative of Highly Dense Cities. The framework benchmarks urban infrastructure, identifies hotspots, and selects interventions for equitable urban development. • Novel approach identifies spatial inequities via building-level scores & Gini coefficient. • Precise hotspot identification enhances targeted interventions in dense urban areas. • Applied methodology in Hong Kong offers insights into urban development complexities. • Gini coefficient unveils varying degrees of inequality across essential services. • Geospatial analysis & quantitative measures support equitable urban resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An integrated model to jointly determine line configuration, line frequency and passenger assignment on a urban rail transit (URT) network is proposed by taking interplay between operator-oriented cost and passenger-oriented cost into account. It specifically considers (i) transfer waiting time, (ii) the use of the same tracks for trains belonging to different lines, and (iii) capacity restriction of trains. • The line planning problem in an URT network with passenger path assignment is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model with linear constraints. • An outer approximation method is developed to convert the original MINLP to mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). The experiment shows that approximation is actually very tight with a gap under 5.6 × 10–6. • A real case study based on the Hong Kong MTR network is conducted to test the performance of our approach. We also propose a method to determine the appropriate coefficients for the model and test the impacts of different candidate line pool size and the number of paths considered on the model. This paper considers a line planning problem in an urban rail transit (URT) network with passenger path assignment. The line planning problem involves both line configuration and frequency setting for the optimization of a combination of operator-oriented objective (minimization of operating costs or maximization of profits) and passenger-oriented objective (minimization of total travel times). The interplay between the line planning and the passenger assignment is explicitly taken into account and the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model with linear constraints. In order to take advantage of existing commercial mix-integer linear programming (MILP) solvers, we propose an outer approximation method to linearize the objective. Finally, the model and solution algorithm are illustrated with a simplified version of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities are faced with the conundrum of what to do with obsolete industrial buildings. Revitalization through adaptive reuse is seen as one option, with many buildings being converted to hotels. This paper analyses the policy by the Hong Kong government to encourage adaptive reuse of under-utilized high rise industrial buildings. It was launched over 20 years ago, with hotel conversion permitted since 2000. To date, though, few successful hotel redevelopments have occurred. Through in-depth interviews with key informants, secondary data analysis, and multiple site visits, the paper analyses why the policy has failed. Informants identified four broad themes, including core weaknesses of the policy itself, pragmatic development complications, building-specific reasons and various contextual issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on organizational knowledge theory, this paper investigates collaborative knowledge creation for social change in the urban planning context through an in-depth case study of Hong Kong's recent participatory planning exercise for transitional social housing. Using the concept of 'ba', the enabling context of knowledge creation, this paper explores how 'ba' contributes to or limits participatory planning for social innovation. The study found that while the conversion between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge in participatory planning takes place in a manner similar to that in organizational knowledge creation, collaborative knowledge creation in planning is largely influenced by the 'ba' that has been in place on the city and neighborhood scale for a long time and the availability of capable institutions as knowledge activists. Understanding collaborative knowledge creation in participatory planning from the organizational perspective advances the theoretical discourses to understand the dynamics of the new modes of participatory planning, but also expands the empirical application of organizational theory to the urban context. • Co-creation in planning can be understood as collaborative knowledge creation. • 'Ba', the enabling context of knowledge creation, is important. • The locationality of 'ba' affects the outcomes of participatory planning. • The state could be in a critical position as a knowledge activist in planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since the last two decades, public participation has become a worldwide issue as the bottom-up approach has spread across the field of heritage conservation and city planning. This paper aims to examine the problematic issues in public participation in built-heritage conservation. The paper begins by highlighting the importance of public participation in built-heritage conservation and provides an understanding of the role of public participation in decision-makings in other countries; then, it examines a theoretical framework by which to understand the extent of public participation. Two controversial cases in Hong Kong illustrate the major problem issues in public participation in built-heritage conservation. This study found that the issues include different preferences regarding what is worthy of conservation; the lack of an effective public participation mechanism and integrated heritage conservation approach in the decision-making process; the different and conflicting interests of various stakeholders; power disparity; propaganda and mobilisation of interest groups; and the lack of knowledge on heritage conservation. According to the issues identified in the case studies, corresponding policy implications and recommendations to enhance public participation are made. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With increasing passenger flows and rapid urbanization, the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) systems in Hong Kong have entered into an era of complex networking operation, which enables people to travel across 18 local districts and enhance sustainable transport accessibility. The urban mobility flow patterns typically encoded as origin–destination (OD) matrices inspire the constitution of the temporal urban mobility networks (TUMNs), which are represented as the directed weighted networks. The dynamics of the TUMNs have significant implications for transportation systems, urban traffic planning, and mobility pattern exploration. This paper provides a thorough analysis of the rich-club phenomenon of TUMNs in Hong Kong during different time periods. Additionally, the space–time characteristics of passenger flow are analyzed and based on which we build the directed weighted TUMNs where the nodes are the stations, and the weighted links represent the number of trips between nodes. By using the outgoing-strength and incoming-strength global rich-club coefficient, local rich-club coefficient, community detection, and assortativity coefficient, we quantitatively identify the rich-club phenomenon in the TUMNs during both the peak hours (8:00–9:00 and 18:00–19:00) and non-peak hours (10:00–11:00, 15:00–16:00, and 20:00–21:00). The findings uncover the rich-club phenomenon in the TUMNs, and the distribution of the rich-club members evolving over time. The findings of this research pave the way towards a richer spectrum of complex real-world networks and are useful for transport infrastructure planning. • This paper examined the rich-club phenomenon in the temporal mobility networks. • The analysis was based on the spatiotemporal characteristics of passenger flow at different times. • The distributions of rich-club members changed over time indicating the change of mobility pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel generative design approach is proposed for affordable urban cool spots. • Random Forest is deployed to accelerate simulating outdoor thermal environment. • Principal Component Analysis merges cost indicators into one objective function. • Genetic algorithm generates mass-based design layouts based on the Pareto front. • Average temperature decreases by 0.17 °C and costs by 82.57% in the case study. Whilst designing cool small neighborhoods (called 'cool spots' in this paper) remains an enormous technical challenge, clients and their designers are also confronting with the perpetual burden of the financial sphere. This research aims to develop a novel methodological approach for designers to search for affordable cool spots in dense urban areas. It does so by conducting genetic combinatorial optimizations augmented by Random Forest (RF) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithms. What is particularly innovative is to develop a mass-based generative design approach to produce neighborhood options for the subsequent combinatorial optimization. The methodology is tested in a real-world urban renewal project in Hong Kong, which is epitomized by high density and hot and humid weather in the summer. The results show that the design approach can automatically identify high-performance schemes of cool spot design, reducing the daily average thermophysiological equivalent temperature from averagely 29.76 °C to at lowest 29.59 °C, and decreasing the construction cost by 82.57%. With proper translation, the approach can serve as a useful and robust design assisting tool for designing and developing cool and cost-aware buildings and neighborhoods in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The momentum transport and pollutant dispersion in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL) are governed by a broad spectrum of turbulence structures. Whereas, their contributions have not been explicitly investigated in the context of real urban morphology. This paper aims to elucidate the contributions from different types of eddies in the ASL over a dense city to provide the reference of urban planning, realizing more favorable ventilation and pollutant dispersion. The building-resolved large-eddy simulation dataset of winds and pollutants over the Kowloon downtown, Hong Kong, is decomposed into a few intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) via empirical mode decomposition (EMD). EMD is a data-driven algorithm that has been successfully implemented in many research fields. The results show that four IMFs are generally enough to capture most of the turbulence structures in real urban ASL. In particular, the first two IMFs, which are initiated by individual buildings, capture the small-scale vortex packets that populate within the irregular building clusters. On the other hand, the third and fourth IMFs capture the large-scale motions (LSMs) detached to the ground surface that are highly efficient in transport. They collectively contribute to nearly 40% of vertical momentum transport even with relatively low vertical turbulence kinetic energy (TKE). LSMs are long, streaky structures that mainly consist of streamwise TKE components. It is found that the open areas and regular streets promote the portion of streamwise TKE in LSMs, improving the vertical momentum transport and pollutant dispersion. In addition, these streaky LSMs are found to play a crucial role in pollutant dilution in the near field after the pollutant source, while the small-scale vortex packets are more efficient in transport in the mid-field and far-field. [Display omitted] • EMD partitions urban turbulence into building-initiated and atmospheric background. • Large-scale eddies dominate near-field pollutant transport even close to ground level. • Building-initiated and atmospheric background eddies contribute similarly in far-field. • Aligned streets promote large eddies whose transport efficiency is more favorable. • Building-initiated small eddies are less efficient in momentum and pollutant transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trees provide cooling benefits through shading and evapotranspiration; they are regarded as an important measure in heat-resilient urban planning and policies. Knowing where to plant trees for maximum cooling benefits, given practical and resource constraints, remains a challenge in both practice and research. Literature in the field of tree modeling and location optimization is limited, either by the incompleteness in accounting for tree shading, evapotranspiration, and the modifying effect of wind, or by the slow-running speed of the Computational Fluid Dynamics model, making them less applicable in practice. This paper describes a novel method to search for the optimal locations for trees to maximize their cooling benefits in an urban environment. A rapid simulation model was applied to assess on-site heat stress under the influences of trees, which was evaluated using field measurements conducted under hot, temperate, and cool weather conditions in an urban park in Hong Kong. It was then linked to a genetic algorithm in search of a near-optimal tree layout. The proposed method was tested in the same park, and it can automatically identify locations to plant new trees to minimize heat stress, subject to practical constraints such as avoiding existing buildings and utilities. It can also identify the optimal locations to rearrange the existing 55 trees, hypothetically, which can cool the park by up to 0.3 ℃ in on-site average equivalent temperature compared with the worse scenario. Trees can cool the most if they are concentrated on the leeward side of the park, rather than spread evenly. The proposed method runs significantly faster than existing approaches, and it can inform research and landscape design practices concerning park cooling as a goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An LES-based CFD model for air ventilation assessment in urban topology validated. • Effects of twisted wind flow inlet on urban wind conditions evaluated. • Wind-structure interactions around buildings of different heights analyzed. • CFD provides comprehensive AVA potentially useful to sustainable urban plans. This paper presents a CFD study on the air ventilation assessment (AVA) in urban topology with twisted wind profiles (TWP). At present, most AVAs were conducted through wind tunnel experiments, and conventional wind profile (CWP) with no deviation of wind direction along the heights was employed. However, in practice, the hilly terrain around cities such as Hong Kong results in twisted wind flow that wind directions vary along the heights. This paper presents an LES-based CFD model based on the best practice guidelines (BPGs). Two twisted wind profiles (TWP) were introduced, and six simulation cases were performed. The CFD predicted wind speeds were validated against wind tunnel measurements in the literature, and good agreement was achieved. With the aid of the CFD model, wind conditions over heights were investigated, and the effects of twisted wind were evaluated. The results indicated a significant influence of TWPs on the AVA's outcomes and the wind speeds' vertical distribution. In addition, with the CFD results, it is possible to investigate the wind-structure interactions in specific urban areas and provide a better understanding of the effects of buildings on the local wind conditions, which could be useful to the urban plan for sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsim Sha Tsui is one of the most important CBD areas in Hong Kong. From early 2000s, a new underground pedestrian network was being developed to extend the original Tsim Sha Tsui Metro Station to access a broader scope. This paper introduces statistical analyzes on land use, pedestrian flows, pedestrian trajectories as well as qualitative investigation on planning strategies, urban renewal and real estate development to answer the following research questions: How people use this underground space network as a second level of regional pedestrian system parallel to the surface street network? How this underground pedestrian system distributes people to improve accessibility of commercial land use? How newly-developed large-scale shopping malls directly connected to the underground space distribute pedestrians to the community more efficiently as well as benefit to their own profits? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong's steep hilly terrain poses significant constraints on its urban development. The shortage of developable land forms a key driver to explore other sustainable and innovative approaches to expand land resources. Rock caverns and underground space are viable sources of land supply, which can provide solution space for a broad variety of land uses and help address problems encountered in the congested urban environment. The enhanced use of these ‘hidden’ land resources can offer new opportunities for Hong Kong's planning and development gains. Since 2010, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has launched a number of strategic studies and pilot projects to unleash the potential of systematic utilization of rock caverns and underground space. The overall strategy is to formulate a holistic and long-term plan for wider application of rock caverns at the urban fringes and underground space in the urban areas. This paper aims to present the findings of the on-going studies to date, with particular focus on the initiatives being developed to take forward the long-term strategy for cavern development in Hong Kong. Notable overseas examples are cited to illustrate the benefits yielded by this innovative approach. Challenges and solutions with respect to the implementation will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in individuals' exposure to social/physical environment in daily life or activity–space segregation have aroused renewed interests in socio-spatial separation in geography and urban studies. However, there are not many empirical studies that comprehensively assess activity–space segregation perhaps due to the scarcity of detailed data to define and characterize activity space. This paper aims to help fill in this gap by contributing an empirical study in Hong Kong. We compare the daily life experiences of public and private housing residents in terms of activity space and exposure to people in their daily life. We find that inhabitants of public housing in Hong Kong are disadvantaged in many ways. Public housing residents' lower socio-economic status, smaller homes, and lower car ownership distinguish them from inhabitants of private housing. We also find that the activity spaces of these residents are not necessarily smaller than those of private housing residents. Public housing residents in fact have more extensive activity spaces and spend more time out of the home. However, their activity spaces are socio-economically different from those of private housing residents. They are more likely exposed to people similar to themselves than private housing residents. This study offers some important empirical evidence on activity–space segregation as well as improves the understanding about socio-spatial distance between public and private housing residents of Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the urban ventilation performance at the street and tower-level in the high-rise high-density urban environment of Hong Kong. By analyzing 218 residential developments and 659 residential towers from 2003 to 2013, this paper presented an innovative way of generating idealized urban forms that considers the regulatory and social-economic factors. Nine typical high-rise high-density residential urban design scenarios with different site division strategies and tower types were generated. The urban ventilation performance of these cases was studied using a validated CFD simulation technique under four different approaching wind directions. Two indices were applied to quantify the urban ventilation performance in this study, namely Wind Velocity Ratio (WVR) and Local Mean Age of Air (MAA). The results show that site and tower types have a great influence on urban ventilation. This paper concludes that extra-large sites (around 4000 square meters) have the potential of achieving the best performance in both street and urban level ventilation, while probably enduring poor indoor air quality. Therefore, a centralized tower plan without deep re-entrants is recommended for large sites. For the small (around 500 square meters) and medium (around 1000 square meters) sites that generally have poor street-level ventilation, adding service lanes can help to improve the street ventilation but may cause poor tower-level ventilation since two rows of towers are closely placed in one street block. For the small sites without service lanes, small and rectangular tower plans in one row could help to achieve better tower-level ventilation and indoor air quality potential. • View optimization principle is discovered by analyzing 218 residential development. • Site division are highly related to tower types in high-rise high-density city. • Extra-large site and corresponding towers have better street and urban ventilation. • Small and medium site generally have poor street level ventilation. • Towers with rectangular plans have good indoor natural ventilation potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable land use policies are concerned with the kind of world we want to live in now, and in future, and therefore inevitably involve some form of community involvement or consultation process. Hong Kong's sustainable land use planning system is well developed, involving considerable community participation and therefore serves as a good model for similarly situated cities. However, although there are several recent studies involving aspects of its land use planning system, none has yet examined the system as a whole from the perspective of sustainability. To correct this, this paper describes the land use conditions of Hong Kong from both demand and supply perspectives, reviewing its statutory and administrative procedures of land development and allocation together with the sustainable urban renewal practices involved. Problems in current sustainable land use planning and management, such as difficulties in urban renewal, the inherent shortage of land and the lengthy time involved due to need for coordination and responsiveness to multiple stakeholders, and outdated and overcomplicated administrative processes were also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed countries have experienced economic restructuring in the past decade which leads to deindustrialization. Many industrial buildings are left vacant or under-utilized owing to global economic shift from developed countries to developing countries of lower wages. The shift of economic activities from manufacturing to financial and business services causes tremendous increase in the value of properties in urban areas. Many artists cannot afford the high land cost and move to some of the industrial buildings which are converted into other uses such as studio. Hong Kong also experienced similar economic restructuring in the past decade. Industrial buildings become vacant or under-utilized. The Hong Kong Government of Special Administrative Region worked out the Revitalizing Industrial Building policy to expedite urban regeneration of industrial areas and optimize land use. Wholesale conversion and redevelopment is regarded as potential means to revitalize industrial buildings. Based on a series of case studies of different revitalizing industrial buildings in Hong Kong, this paper analyzes the potential measures to enhance the revitalizing process. The research identified facilitating measures that can be categorized into three main aspects, which includes rezoning old industrial areas into more diverse uses; government can offer some financial benefits to owners and provide appropriate facilities in neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Public participation in the planning and design of major public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects is crucial to their success, as the interests of different stakeholders can be systematically captured and built into the finalised scheme. However, public participation may not always yield a mutually acceptable solution, especially when the interests of stakeholders are diverse and conflicting. Confrontations and disputes can arise unless the concerns or needs of the community are carefully analysed and addressed. The aim of the paper is to propose a systematic method of analysing stakeholder concerns relating to PIC projects by examining the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. The results of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with different entities are provided, which indicate the existence of a significant divergence of views among stakeholder groups and that conflicts arise when there is a mismatch between peoples’ perception concerning money and happiness on the one hand and development and damages on the other. Policy and decision-makers should strive to resolve at least the majority of conflicts that arise throughout the lifecycle of major PIC projects so as to maximise their chance of success. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Greening is a useful mitigation strategy for planners mainly from a visual perspective. For high-density urban living environment such as Hong Kong, urban greening helps cooling the air and providing shade; it also helps lowering building energy consumption by providing a better outdoor boundary condition. Many researchers have also suggested that greening may be employed as a strategy for combating the ill effects of urban Heat Island (UHI). Working towards a set of better greening guidelines for urban planners, the current paper first provides a comprehensive review of planning with urban greening. It then describes parametric studies that have been conducted to investigate the preferred location, amount, and types of vegetation for urban planning. The parametric studies employed the numerical model ENVI-met, verified using field measurements, to simulate 33 cases with different combinations of factors. For benefiting urban activities, ambient air temperatures at the pedestrian level are compared among different greening strategies and building heights. For a city such as Hong Kong, which has a high building-height-to-street-width (H/W) ratio, the present study reveals that roof greening is ineffective for human thermal comfort near the ground. Trees are also suggested to be more effective than grass surfaces in cooling pedestrian areas. The amount of tree planting needed to lower pedestrians level air temperature by around 1°C is approximately 33% of the urban area. The present study allows urban planners to identify more precisely the greening principles, amount and policies necessary for better urban living environment in high-density cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In 2003, Hong Kong was hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from which many people died. The Hong Kong Government subsequently set up a Governmental Team Clean Committee to investigate possible urban design policies. Team Clean charged the task to the Planning Department, HKSAR. In 2003, it initiated a study titled: “Feasibility Study for Establishment of Air Ventilation Assessment (AVA) System.” A number of focused studies were conducted. It eventually led to the technical methodology and guidelines of the air ventilation assessment (AVA) system. Unlike many countries with guidelines for dealing with gust wind problems, AVA is a guideline for weak wind conditions specifically designed to deal with congested urban conditions. The AVA system basically establishes a method for project developers to objectively assess their designs. In 2006, the government of Hong Kong officially adopted the system and required all major publicly funded development projects to undertake the assessment. The scientific and implementation processes leading to the AVA system are reported in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Patch complexity and urban compactness indexes were developed to assess urban form. • The impact of urban form on PM 2.5 was explored in GBA by spatial panel models. • The complexity of urban patches had a negative effect on PM 2.5 concentrations. • The impact of urban compactness on PM 2.5 concentrations was positive. • A more complex and less compact urban form was adoptable in terms of reducing PM 2.5. Given the serious threat of PM 2.5 pollution to the environment and public health in China, reducing PM 2.5 concentrations through urban planning practices has become a common interest of urban planners and policymakers. In this regard, identifying the relationship between urban form and PM 2.5 concentrations has been a matter of much concern. This paper seeks to investigate how urban form influences PM 2.5 concentrations by taking the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as a case study. First, the urban form was assessed by two indicators, i.e., the patch complexity index (PCI) and urban compactness index (UCI), which were developed based on multiple landscape metrics and the principal component analysis. Then, the relationship between PM 2.5 concentrations and the two urban form indicators was revealed by spatial panel models. Our results mainly showed that PCI and UCI were negatively and positively associated with PM 2.5 concentrations, respectively, indicating that less compact urban forms with high patch complexity had advantages in reducing the PM 2.5 concentrations. According to these empirical results, the mixed-use urban development with high green coverage, which is conducive to constructing a more complex and less compact urban form, would be adoptable in terms of mitigating PM 2.5 concentrations in the GBA urban agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cities of Chongqing and Hong Kong are both located at hilly areas which are highly populated, with buildings and major highways located very close to slopes and earth-retaining structures. Landslides and rockfalls are very common in both cities, and large expenditures are being incurred by both Governments on the investigation, design and implementation of mitigation and preventive measures to reduce the likelihood of the loss of life and economic losses due to landslides.As a result of the collaborative studies and technical exchange programs between the University of Hong Kong and the Chongqing Jianzhu University, a more in-depth understanding of the landslide problem, methodology and mitigation measures in Chongqing and Hong Kong was achieved. The objective of this paper is therefore to: (1) highlight the similarities and differences of the slope safety problems which these cities have been facing and (2) present and compare the key technical approaches these two cities have been undertaken to reduce the risk of landslide and rockfalls, so that both cities could benefit from the experience and lesson learnt.Based on the review of literature and published case records, it is concluded that the city of Chongqing has to deal with natural hazards such as earthquake, river erosion and flooding more than that in Hong Kong, but both cities have been applying practical and latest technology to mitigating the landslide problem.It is recommended that the city of Chongqing should consider establishing a sustainable long-term landslide management plan and that the landslide prevention system being used in Hong Kong could be a good reference starting point. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Rapid urban development in hilly terrain, coupled with tropical storms with heavy rainfall, has led to the frequent occurrence of disastrous landslides in Hong Kong. This paper outlines several case histories of such disastrous landslides in Hong Kong and the major efforts that have been made to mitigate landslide hazards in Hong Kong since the mid-1970s. Factors that contributed to such landslides and their causative mechanisms are analyzed. Methods of predicting the runout distance and lateral extent of rainfall-induced slope failures are summarized. Slope maintenance requirements and stabilization measures are delineated, including the stabilization of loose fill slopes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This interdisciplinary paper, informed by property rights economics, urban planning, facility management, and medical science, as well as the study of the quality of life, (a) presents a typology of Hong Kong open space transformation in terms of property rights; and (b) a small scale indicative survey with a sample that was > 1% of the workforce of the constituency. The authors argue with the help the findings of the survey that the government, as a major provider and regulator, should be able to assign a higher priority to, or enact better designs and plans for usable open spaces to contribute to better public health. This would counterbalance the focus on the indoor environment and health after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and articulate with the issues of property rights and social justice in open space provision. • Public health and property rights considered in relation to open space. • Statistical analysis of public perceptions of health effect of public and private open spaces. • A sample of Hong Kong persons found favouring government provision of public open space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrianisation, the conversion of a vehicular street for pedestrian use, is increasingly being proposed worldwide as a sustainable measure by hegemonic powers. Pedestrianisation can bolster uneven urban development patterns, however social tensions can magnify on the pedestrianised street, where deprived social groups claim the right to the city. This study employs a mixed method approach to examine, within a de Certeausian theoretical framework, the relationship between the governmental strategies promoting pedestrianisation and the tactics of pedestrianised space informal appropriation. Within this context Hong Kong emerges as a revelatory case, it is a city where the extreme scarcity of public open space exacerbates the conflict between social groups interested in this resource. The analysis provides evidence of a discrepancy between expected and actual uses of the pedestrianised streets. Furthermore, this study highlights the need in the context of the global neoliberal city for discussing the theoretical dichotomy of strategies and tactics. This paper argues for pedestrian planning which includes stationary use as a main pedestrianisation objective, as well as for responsive urban design that carefully considers the association between behavioural patterns and spatial features of the pedestrianised street. • We applied de Certeau's Strategies/Tactics model to the analysis of the pedestrianised street in the global neoliberal city. • The production of the pedestrianised street in global neoliberal city is triggered by neoliberal forces. • Migrant workers constantly appropriated the pedestrianised space over decades, showing specific patterns of behaviour. • The regular occupation of the pedestrianised street by the migrant workers is a move from labour to action. • The spatial occupation lays bare the inability of hegemonic powers to propose a shared project of urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematically investigates the effects of the frontal area density of various three-dimensional (3D) array building models on the thermal comfort and air quality at the pedestrian level above four sidewalks (north, south, east and west). The buoyancy force for natural-convection flows and the realistic solar irradiance at local solar times (LSTs) from 0700 to 1700 are considered with five different frontal area densities (λ F = 0.0825–1.25). By a combination of the Rayman model and the ANSYS Fluent® software, the CO concentration and physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) are solved numerically. The simulated CO concentration and PET results are considered as outdoor parameters of the air quality and thermal comfort. A critical λ F is obtained for urban development by applying multivariable regression analysis to a group of dimensionless parameters. This analysis will facilitate the choice of building density and simultaneously enhance the air quality and thermal comfort. The results reveal that with an increase in λ F , the PET decreases above most of sidewalks during the daytime, while only is a steady reduction of air quality observed above west and east sidewalks of spanwise streets. According to the multivariable regression analysis for Hong Kong, the building density should have a λ F value between 0.82 and 0.84 to basically realize a PET <38 °C and CO concentration <30000 μg/m3 simultaneously in the daytime in June. • Effects of frontal area density on thermal comfort and air quality are investigated. • Outdoor thermal comfort is evaluated by PET considering realistic solar radiation. • Outdoor air quality is evaluated by CO concentration under realistic solar radiation. • A critical λ F is obtained for urban development by a regression analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There are wide opportunities for zero-carbon building policy formulation for Hong Kong. • Risks co-exist, particularly geographic ones, but are outweighed by opportunities. • Opportunities and risks are complex, interactive, interchangeable and context-specific. • Recommendations for mitigating the risks highlight policy and business strategy. • Stakeholder partnership and government and client leadership are critical. There is a worldwide policy agenda of reducing buildings' carbon emissions. Zero-carbon building has emerged as an advanced model with policy support, but high-rise remains a knowledge gap. This paper aims to contribute a better understanding of the opportunities and risks of formulating and implementing a zero-carbon building policy, and identify recommendations for maximising the opportunities and minimising the risks. Hong Kong as a typical high-rise high-density city was considered as the case for study. The research was conducted through the combination of a policy review, a questionnaire survey, interviews and focus group meetings with several hundred professionals and stakeholders carefully selected using stratified sampling. Wide opportunities were identified, with most important ones including raising public awareness of sustainable living, reducing buildings' energy use and carbon emissions, and promoting strategic urban planning. However, risks were found to co-exist, with most significant ones including geographical obstacles to domestic renewable energy generation, heavy reliance on fossil fuels, and resistance of practitioners to the policy. Nevertheless, the opportunities were considered to outweigh the risks. Recommendations were identified to mitigate the risks, which are centred on policy guidance, business strategy, stakeholder partnership, and government and client leadership. The findings reveal the complex, interactive, interchangeable and context-specific features of the opportunities and risks, which alert to reconstruct a dialectical system framework of implementing zero-carbon building policy for Hong Kong. The yielding policy implications and recommendations should shape the reconstruction of that framework for high-rise high-density cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]