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Collection, as the first stage of the recycling process, and pre-processing to increase waste stream purity constitute key operations for achieving high recycling rates and a closed loop in the circular economy. For wastepaper recycling in Hong Kong, it is the semi-formal-informal recycling (SFIR) sector that plays a central role in both stages. This study analyses the so far little explored SFIR stakeholder network in Hong Kong and sheds light on value chains, recovered waste paper quantities and the impact of policies on the sector. The findings show that SFIR stakeholders reclaim 55.6 t/recycling station/month of wastepaper and thereby achieve about a 5.7 times higher reclaim rate than the formal-private recycling system. Critical to this achievement is the SFIR transaction network, which enables its stakeholders to develop a value chain and thereby generate an added value of around 1900 HKD (243.9 USD/t) for wastepaper. Given limited circular structures in Hong Kong, financial subsidies are critical to sustain the SFIR's operations over the short-term. However, over the long-term legalization and integration of its stakeholders are necessary to ensure an economically and socially sustainable wastepaper recovery system in Hong Kong. [Display omitted] • Qualitative & quantitative analysis of the semi-formal-informal recycling (SFIR) sector. • The SFIR's wastepaper value chain achieves a cumulative added value of 1900 HKD/t. • The SFIR recovered 5.7 times higher capacities than the formal system in 2021. • Financial support can enhance the SFIR sector's recovery capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper replicates findings related to the analytical heuristic of 'metalinguistic density'. It provides updated theoretical motivations for an analytical focus on explicit metalanguage in online text-based settings, based on notions of symbolic interactionism. An analysis of online user comment data of the 2019 Hong Kong protests reconfirms that the relative occurrence of metalanguage focusing on certain terms indicates the extent to which these terms' denotational norms are shared amongst a community of language users. While most terms in the corpus do not regularly attract explicit metalanguage, several terms thematically related to the protests did. This disproportionate metalinguistic attention may be explained by political disputes on the movement's legitimacy, which led to normative debates on the discursive representation of the protest movement. Finally, certain phrases had become indexical of a certain political position to the extent that they were the frequent target of irony. In general, the results suggests that 'metalinguistic density' is a useful heuristic to employ in text-analytical investigations that seek to explain participants' interpretations of discursive interactions. • 'Metalinguistic density' measures the sharedness of terms' denotations. • Results of earlier research are replicated in a thematically distinct dataset. • Metalanguage reflects ideological clashes over discursive representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streets, vital for vehicular and pedestrian traffic, are increasingly repurposed to enhance urban vibrancy beyond transport needs. This paper explores intentional and spontaneous street experiments, drawing on Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis. Streets are seen as hosts to intersecting rhythms shaped by daily routines and mobility, with users as performers in rhythmic interactions. While initially disruptive, these experiments strive to integrate innovative elements for cohesive urban compositions. Through a musical metaphor, the paper promotes a holistic approach to identifying rhythms influenced and introduced by street experiments. It examines how these rhythms interact, presenting as synchronised dynamics, disruptive discordance, or coexistence in dissonant compositions. Combining rhythmanalysis with spatial discourse analysis, the study 'reads' and 'listens' to temporary spaces through historical records (N = 55) of seven street experiments in Hong Kong from 2016 to 2020. Findings uncover the overly abstract agendas of these experiments — exemplified through narratives involving chairs, railings, and traffic signals — often oversimplify and exclude possibilities. The paper calls for open dialogue to capture power dynamics in street infrastructure and embodied lived experiences during the transition from vehicle-centred to people-oriented streets. It suggests rhythmanalysis as an initial tool for urban planners to envision streetscapes as symphonies, fostering sensitivity to time-space dynamics. [Display omitted] • Explore street spatial-temporal dynamics through Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis. • Conceptualise experiments, though disruptive, for innovative synchronicity. • Establish musical metaphors for open-ended rhythmanalysis. • Identify street rhythms and examine their interactions pre/post-experiment. • Encourage open dialogue over abstract, selective and exclusive agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping of highly dynamic changes in land use and land cover (LULC) can be hindered by various cloudy conditions with optical satellite images. These conditions result in discontinuities in high-temporal-density LULC mapping. In this paper, we developed an integrated time series mapping method to enhance the LULC mapping accuracy and frequency in cloud-prone areas by incorporating spectral-indices-fused deep models and time series reconstruction techniques. The proposed method first reconstructed cloud-contaminated pixels through time series filtering, during which the cloud masks initialized by a deep model were refined and updated during the reconstruction process. Then, the reconstructed time series images were fed into a spectral-indices-fused deep model trained on samples collected worldwide for classification. Finally, post-classification processing, including spatio-temporal majority filtering and time series refinement considering land–water interactions, was conducted to enhance the LULC mapping accuracy and consistency. We applied the proposed method to the cloud- and rain-prone Pearl River Delta (i.e., Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, GBA) and used time series Sentinel-2 images as the experimental data. The proposed method enabled seamless LULC mapping at a temporal frequency of 2–5 days, and the production of 10 m resolution annual LULC products in the GBA. The assessment yielded a mean overall accuracy of 87.01% for annual mapping in the four consecutive years of 2019–2022 and outperformed existing mainstream LULC products, including ESA WorldCover (83.98%), Esri Land Cover (85.26%), and Google Dynamic World (85.06%). Our assessment also reveals significant variations in LULC mapping accuracies with different cloud masks, thus underscoring their critical role in time series LULC mapping. The proposed method has the potential to generate seamless and near real-time maps for other regions in the world by using deep models trained on datasets collected globally. This method can provide high-quality LULC data sets at different time intervals for various land and water dynamics in cloud- and rain-prone regions. Notwithstanding the difficulties of obtaining high-quality LULC maps in cloud-prone areas, this paper provides a novel approach for the mapping of LULC dynamics and the provision of reliable annual LULC products. • Novel LULC mapping via indices-fused deep models and time series reconstruction. • High-temporal-density 10 m seamless LULC mapping in cloudy and rainy areas (PRD). • Overall mapping accuracy yielded up to 87.01%, outperforming existing LULC products. • Potential to generate seamless near real-time maps and high-quality LULC data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

• This study compared drivers of the same ethnic group driving across within-country borders. • The existing theoretical framework of cross-border risky behavior patterns has been expanded. • Gender, age, illumination, and weather do not individually affect cross-border driving risk. • Conclusions are of representative reference value for cross-border risk management policies. Introduction: Due to globalization and the acceleration of cross-border exchanges, cross-border risk behaviors have received widespread attention. Previous research has concluded that foreign cross-border drivers engage in relatively more risk-taking behavior patterns and are likely to experience a higher crash rate or be more inclined to cause severe crashes. However, there is little evidence on the comparison of drivers who belong to the same ethnic group driving across within-country borders. Method : Based on the cross-border motor-vehicle crash reports in 2006–2010 from the Road Traffic Accident Database of the China Ministry of Public Security, this paper examines the risk factors of being at fault and getting killed or seriously injured in cross-border traffic crashes and casual paths toward crash liability and injury severity for Hong Kong and Macao drivers driving in the Chinese mainland. Results : There are extremely complex factors behind drivers from Hong Kong and Macao causing at-fault crashes or sustaining fatal and serious injuries in the Chinese mainland. Factors such as gender, age, illumination, and weather conditions do not individually affect the risk of driver at-fault crashes or severe casualties in the crashes among Hong Kong and Macao drivers driving in the Chinese mainland. Nonetheless, collectively, these factors influence them along with different vehicle types, roads, and environmental factors. Conclusion s: This paper provides more theoretical findings for understanding the compound effect of multiple risk factors involving cross-border at-fault crashes or serious casualties. The conclusions of this research are valuable as representative references for cross-border risk management policies. Practical applications : To reduce the effects of different factors on cross-border risky driving behaviors and/or injurious crashes, various measures should be focused on, including specialized driver training, enhancement of the roads/environment, development of effective road safety campaigns, and directives facilitating cross-border cooperation in the field of road safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent work on transport and the economy has focused on 'Wider Economic Impacts' (WEIs) of infrastructure investment, the impacts other than time savings benefiting those actually using the transport network. Differential effects of transportation infrastructure by mode such as urban rail and road are relatively well known. However, impacts of other mode such as walking are scarce. This paper estimates wider economic impacts related to productivity from full rail, road and walking transport networks in Hong Kong in 2016. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that makes use of complex network science indicators with spatial cognition-weighted accessibility combining full urban rail network, road network, and pedestrian network in capturing wider economic impacts. We use an instrumental variable approach to identify the causal effect of transport network centralities on productivity measured by gross value added. Our identification strategy largely relies on the exogenous variations from historical planned and existing transport networks. A first specification confirms the significance of urban rail and road. Specification with pedestrian network shows that pedestrian and rail networks can statistically significantly increase productivity in Hong Kong while roads play a less significant but still meaningful role. Our findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests such as using night-time light intensity and residential wage as alternative measures for productivity. The research suggests a key planning policy implication: place-based policies in a dense city require improvement in pedestrian and rail network structure that impacts local and global transport accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of business flow status updates creates a framework for dynamically evaluating operation and maintenance activities, and that assessment is an essential component of achieving intelligent management and control. Highway managers have relied on the operation and maintenance system to integrate business initiatives that improve performance at the organizational and individual levels recently. There are a few studies considering the actual accident or road infrastructure to improve the quality of the highway, but they ignore the power of operation and maintenance (O&M) management involving multiple parties. Furthermore, there is no comprehensive scale to measure the effect of implementing management measures. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a comprehensive multidimensional evaluation framework that considers the integration of the actual business and the objective environment from four aspects: worker, equipment, environment, and management measures. The proposed framework evaluates the current O&M performance with the improved Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model, which is used to interpret the comprehensive index results, and highlights the differences and variations of the factors that influence the evaluation results based on the deconstruction analysis. We utilize a mixed dataset of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) for two consecutive years to evaluate the performance of each month. The results show that the evaluation framework can effectively measure the O&M performance, and "Worker- Quality of daily inspection work" was identified as the most critical factor affecting the O&M performance. In particular, a comprehensive multiparty operational status assessment helps to review and revise current management strategies for targeted improvements that will enhance the safety and quality of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Hong Kong's smart city development as the case study, this paper aims to discover the influence of public trust on citizens' perception of Hong Kong's smart city performance in an international dimension, comparing with the smart city ranking by research agencies. Our central investigation further focuses on the association of public trust and digital trust, using COVID19 contact tracing app as an example. This paper uses data from a Hong Kong-based territory-wide survey in 2021 to conduct the analysis. The result suggests a positive relationship between public trust, subjective perception and digital trust, and supports that public acceptability is a cornerstone of an effective public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photorealistic 3D models are important data sources for digital twin cities and smart city applications. These models are usually generated from data collected by aerial or ground-based platforms (e.g., mobile mapping systems (MMSs) and backpack systems) separately. Aerial and ground-based platforms capture data from overhead and ground surfaces, respectively, offering complementary information for better 3D mapping in urban areas. Particularly, backpack mapping systems have gained popularity for 3D mapping in urban areas in recent years, as they offer more flexibility to reach regions (e.g., narrow alleys and pedestrian routes) inaccessible by vehicle-based MMSs. However, integration of aerial and ground data for 3D mapping suffers from difficulties such as tie-point matching among images from different platforms with large differences in perspective, coverage, and scale. Optimal fusion of the results from different platforms is also challenging. Therefore, this paper presents a novel method for the fusion of aerial, MMS, and backpack images and point clouds for optimized 3D mapping in urban areas. A geometric-aware model for feature matching is developed based on the SuperGlue algorithm to obtain sufficient tie-points between aerial and ground images, which facilitates the integrated bundle adjustment of images to reduce their geometric inconsistencies and the subsequent dense image matching to generate 3D point clouds from different image sources. After that, a graph-based method considering both geometric and texture traits is developed for the optimal fusion of point clouds from different sources to generate 3D mesh models of better quality. Experiments conducted on a challenging dataset in Hong Kong demonstrated that the geometric-aware model could obtain sufficient accurately matched tie-points among the aerial, MMS, and backpack images, which enabled the integrated bundle adjustment of the three image datasets to generate properly aligned point clouds. Compared with the results obtained from state-of-the-art commercial software, the 3D mesh models generated from the proposed point cloud fusion method exhibited better quality in terms of completeness, consistency, and level of detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper focused on the reliability of settlement prediction of immersed tunnel. • This paper focused on impact of time-dependent effects on settlement prediction. • A time-dependent expression for foundation modulus is proposed. • Several extreme conditions are considered in the future settlement prediction. The focus of immersed tunnel research has primarily revolved around settlement monitoring or prediction. However, there has been a lack of discussion regarding the time-dependent effects on settlement prediction, which could lead to obvious misjudgments in subsequent maintenance work. This paper addresses this issue by applying the physics-informed machine learning (PIML) algorithm to conduct an inverse analysis of the foundation modulus of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) tunnel, thereby identifying its variation tendency with time. The proposed time-dependent expression of foundation modulus demonstrates that the time-dependent effect is related to both post-construction settlement and the accumulation of back silting, which is significant and could persist throughout the entire service life of the HZMB tunnel. In further studies on settlement prediction for the HZMB tunnel, the results show that errors in prediction can exceed 30 mm at certain monitoring points. This error can be mitigated by considering the time-dependent effect, thereby significantly enhancing the reliability of predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the multi-actor making of the ruralscape in Hong Kong. I critically adopt the theoretical framework of Ingold's concepts of walking to understand how different "wayfarers", including but not limited to farmers, residents, land activists, agriculture learners, researchers, journalists, leisure practitioners and government officials, walk to make a multi-sensorial landscape. This paper encapsulates the observation outcomes of multiple times of walking by different individuals and groups recorded during my ethnographic fieldwork between 2008 and 2021. I shed light on the local practices and perspectives of hang cyun (walking in villages) and hang tin (walking in fields) to illustrate my observations. By analyzing the wayfarers' walking experiences and embodied movements, I consider the ruralscape as a vibrant space where people configure its meanings and materialize their lifestyle. The wayfarers' embodied experiences reflect the continuity and changes of a rural Hong Kong. Their making of ruralscape helps alleviate people's anxiety and enhance people's hope concerning the current Hong Kong society that faces food safety issues, environmental degradation, social class disparity and spoon-feeding education. I consider that being an agent who exercises his/her subjectivity during the walking in the ruralscape, a wayfarer makes the ruralscape meaningful in various aspects. My explanation contributes to the theoretical discussion of embodied movement and space making particular to the construction of a politicized nature telling us stories of (in)equality, (in)justice, and hope (lessness). • Walking is a political and socio-economic process that produces a multi-sensorial ruralscape. • Embodied movement and space making alleviates anxiety and enhances hope in rural Hong Kong. • Actor-actant interactions in Hong Kong's ruralscape entails stories of (in)equality, (in)justice, and hope (lessness). • People configure meanings and materialize lifestyle in walking in villages and fields. • Wayfarers's experiences reflect the continuity and changes of social movement, education, and agro-economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, promoting regional synergistic development has become the shared objective in city-regions during the new stages of development. This paper aims to uncover the dynamics of synergistic development in urban agglomerations by constructing an index measurement system based on four dimensions: industrial synergy, innovation synergy, infrastructure synergy, and institutional synergy. By comprehensively employing theories and methods such as "space of flow" big data analysis, network analysis, and interlocking network models, this study examines patterns and capacities of synergistic development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The main instances of industrial cooperation between cities are observed in Hong Kong-Shenzhen and Guangzhou-Shenzhen; capital flows primarily concentrate in Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Hong Kong-Shenzhen. Research paper and patent collaborations between cities are predominantly concentrated in Hong Kong-Shenzhen; joint laboratories are mainly established in Hong Kong-Macao and Hong Kong-Guangzhou; inter-city co-construction of higher education institutions is mainly focused on Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen-Hong Kong. Infrastructure synergistic development performs best in Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Foshan, and Shenzhen-Dongguan. Cross-border collaboration benefits from institutional advantages held by Hong Kong and Macao. Urban interactions with outstanding performance include Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Hong Kong-Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Foshan, Shenzhen-Dongguan. Additionally, increasing interaction trends can be observed between Guangzhou-Dongguan as well as Shenzhen-Zhuhai/Shenzen-Foshan partnerships. Understanding the typical characteristics and potential trends of synergetic development within the GBA holds significant practical value for establishing a first-class bay area along with a world-class urban agglomeration. • Concept and connotation of synergistic development in urban agglomeration area was examined. • Indicators and methods for evaluation of synergistic development in the GBA were conducted. • Patterns and capacities of synergistic development at urban scale in the GBA were explained. • Urban interaction with highest synergistic development level is Guangzhou-Shenzhen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the Shanghai-Hong Kong connect program as a natural experiment, the paper investigates if stock market openness impacts firms' ESG performance. The results show that, the ESG rating of the connected firms improves significantly compared to the non-connected firms, and the improvement is larger in firms with stricter financial constraints, but smaller in stocks with better financial or market performance. The findings imply that since foreign investors value ESG more than domestic investors, the connected firms may promote their ESG performance to cater to the northbound capital, and their catering incentive becomes stronger when their demand is more urgent. In the post-pandemic period, with the continuous challenging from anti-globalization trends, our results suggest that it is of theoretical and practical significance to utilize the positive role of market openness on corporate sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ubiquity of Internet gaming as part of the younger generation's (11-35 year-olds) lifestyle to-day warrants a deeper understanding of its impact on their mental health. In particular, there has been scant research investigating the link between Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and suicidal behaviors in this demographic group, even though several mental health symptoms of the former are known risk factors for the latter. This paper aims to establish the presence or absence of association between IGD and each of suicidal ideation, self-harm, and suicide attempt among the younger generation. A large-scale online survey on Internet gamers in Hong Kong was conducted in February 2019. 3430 respondents were recruited through purposive sampling. Study samples were stratified into distinct age groups and multiple logistic regression was conducted for each measured suicidal behavior in each age group. After controlling for sociodemographics, Internet usage, self-reported bullying perpetration and bullying victimization, social withdrawal, and self-reported psychiatric diagnoses such as depression and psychosis, analyses revealed that adolescent (11-17 year-old) gamers with IGD were more likely than their peers who had no IGD to have had suicidal ideation, self-harm, and suicide attempt in their lifetime. These associations did not hold for 18-35 year-old gamers. Findings suggest that it may be prudent to recognize IGD as a growing public mental health priority for the young populace, particularly adolescents. Existing suicide prevention efforts can be complemented through screening adolescents for IGD, and could be expanded to online gaming platforms to reach more hidden at-risk individuals. • Adolescent gamers with IGD had higher odds of lifetime suicidal ideation compared to their peers with no IGD. • Adolescent gamers with IGD had higher odds of lifetime self-harm compared to their peers with no IGD. • Adolescent gamers with IGD had higher odds of lifetime suicide attempt compared to their peers with no IGD. • IGD was not associated with lifetime suicidal behaviors among gamers aged 18–35 years old. • Suicide prevention efforts may be enhanced by screening individuals for IGD and expanding efforts to online game platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, urban rail funding has become an increasing concern in some western cities. The underlying issues over ridership and funding has largely been driven by trends such as increasing teleworking and new transport modes like ridesharing, which are likely to further exacerbate funding issues in the aftermath of the worldwide health crisis. This paper contributes to the discussion through the examination of funding within urban rail transport, specifically the strengths and weaknesses of mechanisms that can be used to achieve sustainable, stable long-term funding. A unique, very long-term historical dataset of five large metros around the world was collected for this research, with the analysis based on evidence of actual practices, from a relatively rare organisational perspective. Key results include: i) appropriate fare-setting has been critical for long-term financial health, but is vulnerable to inflation effects and political interference; indexing is important but use of consumer prices has led to revenue erosion in real terms, since wage growth is typically higher. ii) How subsidies are generated can have varying impacts on funding stability and sustainability — dedicated taxes and cross-subsidies from road charges are typically better than direct grants as they are secured by legislation; they also reduce political changes and avoid competing claims from other types of government spending (health, education), as compared with grants. iii) Commercial revenue can be a valuable source for future growth, in light of increased resistance to taxation. Real estate-related revenues in particular can be substantial, as in Hong Kong and Tokyo, with historically faster growth than wages, while also capturing any further value increases from rail system improvements. • Strengths and weaknesses analysis of funding sources, using data from 5 large metros • Fare-setting with appropriate index (wages) is crucial for long-term financial health • How subsidies are generated – intrinsic impacts on funds stability and sustainability • Ideally, subsidies secured multi-year with legislation – avoids competing claims • Real estate enables long-term value capture and revenue growth from rail improvements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary on "Just wanna give you guys a bit of an update": Insider perspectives on business presentations in Hong Kong (2013) explores the significance of the paper written by Stephen Evans, its influence on the study of business English, and its main contributions to business communication and presentations, including a number of highlights for future research projects. • This is a researcher's commentary on Evans (2013). • It tries to highlight research interest in business English oral interactions. • The research on business presentations has multiple aspects to be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-energy buildings usually achieve annual net-zero energy balance by generating electricity using on-site renewable energies and interconnecting with the power grid. However, the impact of energy mismatch problem in zero-energy buildings design on the grid is often overlooked, which potentially compromises grid's stability. To address this issue, this paper presents an optimization design method based on "grid-friendly interaction" which optimizes the energy system of zero-energy buildings to ensure better alignment between the building's electricity purchase/sale and grid demand. In this study, an indicator of "grid-friendly interaction", which represents the ratio of the net building friendly interaction power to the total annual interaction power, is firstly established to guide buildings in improving their interaction with the grid. Next, the energy supply, demand, and storage schemes of renewable energy systems in the zero-energy building are iteratively adjusted to achieve the best match with grid's expectations. This optimization design method was applied to a practical case in Hong Kong. Results show that, compared to the benchmark building, the optimal system design scheme increases grid friendliness by 83 %, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 77 %, but also incurs a total cost increase of 180 %. The optimization design method proposed in this paper can effectively mitigate the impact of zero-energy buildings on the power grid, fostering enhanced interplay between the building structures and the grid. The study significantly contributes to the advancement of exploring the potential for energy flexibility in zero-energy buildings, which is of great significance for the safe and stable operation of future grids. The purpose of this study is to explore the energy flexibility potential of zero-energy buildings, which is of great significance for the safe and stable operation of future grids. • A novel indicator that reflects the degree of friendly interaction is proposed. • An optimization design method based on "grid-friendly interaction" is presented. • Single-objective and multi-objective optimization are applied respectively to ZCB. • It is of great significance for the safe and stable operation of future grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper proposes a reliable method to evaluate GNSS multipath effects on a smartphone with the known positions in urban canyons. • This paper for the first time to evaluate GNSS errors comprehensively using large-scale data on the smartphone. • This paper is the first to determine the primary error source for smartphone GNSS in urban areas -NLOS or multipath errors. • For the first time, this paper established connections between fault-free measurements and the sides of the street in urban areas. • Results show that pedestrian network can be used to identify the sides of the street for pedestrian, eliminating the need of complex 3D building models. In urban environments, the code measurements of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) on smartphones can be significantly degraded by presence of multipath and non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) effects. Extensive studies have been carried out on characterizing the quality of GNSS code measurements under different conditions, which can be used to refine the weighting model and fault detection method. However, our knowledge regarding the impacts of multipath effects on smartphones remains limited. This includes determining the dominant error source for urban GNSS on smartphones between multipath and NLOS errors, and characterizing the fault-free code measurements for pedestrians in urban canyons. To address these issues, we conducted extensive tests in a typical urban area in Hong Kong and analyzed characteristics of multipath effects. Analysis revealed that 92.5 % of code outliers stem from NLOS signals, which result in longer ranging measurements, making NLOS the dominant error source impacting GNSS performance. Further, we established that over 92 % of fault-free signals are from the opposite sky of a pedestrian, and we found that the sidewalk can be reliably determined by examining signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) measurements, eliminating the need of complex 3D building models. The identified sidewalk can be used to enhance GNSS performance in urban areas. An experiment in the urban canyon was performed in urban canyons. Results show that the accuracy can be improved from 15 m to 4.6 m when the correct sidewalk can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Automatic MiC envelopes and layout generation by a novel SSG-MOO method. • Multi-objective optimization formulation for passive MiC design. • A pilot MiC study in Hong Kong produced 5 selected Pareto optima out of 625. • Up to 0.42% energy savings and 9.71% spatial daylight autonomy improvement against the baseline. • A multi-level analysis of results and design strategies for practitioners. Modular-integrated Construction (MiC) is an emerging construction technique promoted in the building sector for high productivity and low waste emission in the construction phase; yet, the standardized modules also bring new challenges, such as balancing passive energy efficiency and spatial daylight autonomy, to the operational phase. This paper proposes a Symmetric Skeleton Grammar-based Multi-Objective Optimization (SSG-MOO) method to formulate parametric MiC envelopes and detailed layout, with the two objective functions being energy efficiency and interior daylight performance in the operational phase. Pareto optima of the SSG-MOO, computed by the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II, are generally verified and analyzed in three levels, i.e., MOO's solution space, SSG layout, and MiC design parameters. A case study of MiC residential building in Hong Kong demonstrated the SSG-MOO method through five new passive MiC designs (i.e., spatial reorganization of three architectural modules, and parameter tuning of the envelops and corridors), achieving up to 0.42% energy savings and 9.71% spatial daylight autonomy improvement compared to the baseline design. The contribution of this paper is two-fold, including a novel and sound SSG-MOO formulation for parametric MiC designs, and offering time-efficient and evidence-based design tactics for MiC designers and industrial practitioners to push boundaries of MiC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to examine people's EV purchase intention in Hong Kong, an Asian compact city, and how the influential factors are different from the Western context, for which a low-density Nordic context, Denmark, was chosen. To achieve this, we conducted a survey in Hong Kong to understand the effects of several key factors, including subjective norms, personal norms, and perceptions and knowledge about EVs. Structural equation modelling was employed and multi-group analysis was conducted. Our findings show that EV purchase intentions in Hong Kong are highly value-driven with the assimilation to social expectations directly and strongly encouraging individuals' EV acceptance, which is different from the European case where the adoption desire is built upon the assessment of usage difficulty. In addition, range anxiety poses a direct deterrence to EV adoption even in the compact city. Availability of charging opportunities, be it the public ones or home-based ones, plays a critical role in an individual's decision of EV adoption in the high-density city. Our study reveals a strong disparity in the pathways towards EV adoption between the Asian and the Nordic contexts, thereby illustrating the necessity to differentiate e-mobility promotion policies in compact cities from low-density cities. • We analyse the influential factors of EV purchase intention in Hong Kong & Denmark. • Attitude, moral obligation and perceived ease of use affect EV adoption. • EV purchase intentions are highly value-driven in Hong Kong. • Range anxiety poses a deterrence to EV adoption even in the compact city (HK). • Availability of charging facilities is key to EV adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect programs, the correlations among the three stock markets have been more complex. Therefore, this paper applies the Minimum Spanning Tree and Sliding Window methods to analyze the complex correlations of the 38 financial institutions in the three markets. Based on closing prices ranging from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2021, three conclusions are obtained. The top 20 institutions in the network were mainly banking institutions from 2011 to 2013, while the node strength of non-banking financial institutions tended to increase from 2014 to 2021. The network shows different structures over time, even the changes in the three correlation coefficients generally show the same trend. The degree correlation between any two layers is positive, but the similarity shows different characteristics. These results would help to enrich multi-layer network theory and reveal the evolutionary characteristics of the correlation between financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel blockchain-based tool is proposed for MRV of carbon emissions. • It ensures the traceability, immutability and transparency of carbon emission data. • It is successfully used in life cycle carbon audit in Hong Kong's building sector. • It supports the implementation of the HKGBC carbon emissions regulatory framework. The Hong Kong Green Building Council introduced the Climate Change Framework for the Built Environment, aimed at enhancing the monitoring and management of life cycle carbon emissions within the building industry. In response to this initiative, this paper presents a novel blockchain-based carbon audit tool designed to facilitate the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of embodied carbon in Hong Kong's building sector. Specifically, a consortium blockchain is utilized for system development in this study. The proposed blockchain system records the information pertaining to each stage of the building's life cycle, which is uploaded for storage. The system ensures the traceability, immutability, and transparency of the recorded information. To test and verify the system, it was initially applied to manage and audit the embodied carbon in Hong Kong's building sector in 2020. We anticipate our findings will provide a viable tool for MRV of building life cycle carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic distortion of data points caused by the averaging process was uncovered. • An average absolute bias was proposed to objectively quantify the embedded bias. • A practical optimal dataset determination procedure was proposed. • The proposed method was demonstrated using real-world traffic data. Estimating traffic flow models, such as speed-density relationships, using data from multiple sources with different temporal resolutions is a prevalent challenge encountered in real-world scenarios. The resolution incompatibility is often intuitively addressed by averaging the high-resolution (HR) data to synchronize with the low-resolution (LR) data. This paper shows that ignoring the variability of HR data within the LR interval during the averaging process could lead to systematic data point distortions, resulting in biased model estimations. The average absolute biases of models estimated from the average data increase with the lost variability of HR data within the LR intervals. Subsequently, it proves that for any given complete average data dataset, there must exist an optimal dataset that minimizes the average absolute bias in model estimations introduced by the averaging process. A novel procedure for determining the practical optimal dataset is proposed. To test the proposed method, real-world HR data from four sites in Hong Kong and Nanjing, China were collected to mimic situations with multi-resolution data. Results demonstrated that the proposed method can significantly reduce the average absolute biases of models estimated from the determined practical optimal dataset, as compared to models estimated from the complete average dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A particularly large data set and modern modeling give new insights into variation. • Grammatical aspect, persistence, and frequency exert a consistent effect on marking. • Second-language acquisition processes and unique sociohistories explain variation. • There is a core grammar of variable past inflection in English. • Patterns of grammatical variation purportedly unique to creoles are unexceptional. In this paper, we investigate variable past inflection in four New Englishes. Our data are drawn from the conversational parts of the Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, and Philippine subcomponents of the International Corpus of English. We investigate the entire range of language-internal factors that have been found to influence non-obligatory past marking in varieties of English. This includes morpho-phonological verb class, lexical aspect, grammatical aspect, marker persistence, the presence or absence of a temporal adverbial, and, for consonant-final regular verbs, preceding and following phonological environment. We also consider verb frequency, which has received only scant attention in past inflection research so far. Employing both mixed-effects regression and random forests, we argue that, despite inter-variety differences, there is a core grammar of past inflection, which is constrained by general structural and cognitive phenomena such as grammatical aspect and marker persistence, with frequency also exerting an important and consistent effect. This has implications for debates about universals vs. substrate influence or creole effects in morphosyntactic variation in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A large-scale sociolinguistic survey (N = 779) on age-graded variation. • Disappearing construction (i.e. S-V-DO-IO 'I give a ball him') was least acceptable to 48–53 year-olds, but more acceptable to adolescents. • First quantitative study in Prosodic Syntax on Cantonese. This paper investigates age-graded variation in the use of the Inverted Double Object Construction (IDOC) in Hong Kong Cantonese. IDOC is unique because it is currently only attested in Cantonese, not in Mandarin or English, and its grammaticality is determined by prosodic factors rather than purely syntactic ones; however, its use is now declining. We conducted a web-based acceptability task using audio stimuli that contrasted different types of direct objects (DO) and indirect objects (IO), and the presence or absence of a pause between DO and IO. The effect of age was also analysed. Participants were asked to rate test sentences produced with neutral focus intonation on a Likert scale. Our results showed that the acceptability of IDOC was determined by (i) the prosodic weight of IO; (ii) the relative prominence of DO and IO; (iii) the presence of a pause; and (iv) listeners' age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hong Kong Observatory operates ocean model in support of marine weather forecasting • Model validation of current and wave forecasts uses moored and drifting buoys data • Downscaling model results serve as benchmark reference for future model enhancement The Hong Kong Observatory has been running an Operational Marine Forecasting System (OMFS) adapted from the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) coupled with the WaveWatch III and SWAN wave models to provide wave, current and sea temperature forecasts up to 144 h twice a day since December 2021. To facilitate users' interpretation of model forecasts of significant wave height and current speed in coastal predictions and open seas which are of particular significance in high wind situations, model forecasts were validated against moored buoy observations and wave recorder measurements near the shores of Hong Kong and drifting buoy data over the South China Sea, as well as Mercator Ocean model reanalysis in 2022. The validation results showed that the wave forecasts generally agreed well with the buoy observations with coefficient of determination (R2) of around 0.7 and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of less than 0.2 m up to 72 h ahead. The R2 for sea current forecasts ranged between 0.4 and 0.6, and the RMSE was around 8 to 11 cm/s in near shores up to T + 144 forecast hours. Validation against drifting buoy demonstrated that the trend of current forecasts generally agreed well with the measurements. RMSE of surface current forecasts over open seas ranged from 19 cm/s for 24-hour forecast to around 30 cm/s for 144-hour forecast when compared against Mercator Ocean reanalysis. Results from the current downscaling approach could serve as a benchmark reference for HKO to enhance OMFS in the future. In this paper, applications of model forecasts in the provision of marine weather services in Hong Kong are also introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many intervention strategies, such as patient isolation and contact tracking, had been implemented in different countries to slow down and control the spread because of the enormous threats and losses caused by COVID-19. Since the contact relationships of millions of people within cities change over time, it is difficult to accurately predict the dynamics of large-scale outbreaks and evaluate the impact of the contact tracking and isolation strategy based on individual contact history on epidemic transmission. Here, we propose a non-markov spreading model based on individual contact dynamic network, to simulate the dynamic contact processes in a city with millions of people. In this model, the historical contact population of each infected person can be backtracked and tracked. Our model can accurately describe the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan and Hong Kong. We assess the impact of four agent-based epidemic intervention strategies: travel control, contact tracking and isolation, vaccination, and regular nucleic acid testing to all residents on the epidemic evolution and economic losses. We find that for the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, a strict travel control strategy is effective in both suppressing the spread of COVID-19 and minimizing economic losses. For the Omicron variant (BA.2) with stronger infectious capacity, a relatively loose travel control and an appropriate combination of the other three strategies can effectively control the epidemic outbreak while minimize economic losses. This paper provides an efficient framework for assessing the combination of different agent-based strategies by large-scale simulations in the case of unknown historical contact information of large populations, and the studies on different combinations of control strategies can provide theoretical guidance for future prevention and control. • We propose a non-markov spreading model based on individual contact dynamic network. • Our model can accurately describe the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan and Hong Kong. • We assess the impact of four agent-based epidemic intervention strategies. • A strict travel control strategy may lead to relatively high economic losses. • Tracking strategy can control the epidemic outbreak while minimize economic losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The proposed tropical cyclone model is completely driven by a set of environmental variables. • This model reproduces the spatial and temporal characteristics of observed tropical cyclones. • The model achieves remarkable balance between computational complexity and efficiency. • This model will provide decision-makers with valuable information regarding potential wind-induced hazards. • When future climate data are fed into this model, the impact of climate change on tropical cyclones can be evaluated. This paper presents an environment-driven tropical cyclone (TC) model for the Western North Pacific basin, which comprises a revised Poisson regression genesis model, a tailored beta-advection track model, and a fast intensity model. The TC model reproduces the temporal and spatial distributions of genesis events, the motion pattern of tracks, as well as the intensity evolutions along tracks. Risk analyses for Hong Kong and along the southeast coastline of mainland China demonstrate that this model can simulate extreme TC events with high fidelity. And the Gaussian mixture model outperforms the Frank Copula in approximating the joint distributions of the annual maximum wind speeds and the corresponding wind directions. This model is driven by a set of environmental variables including relative vorticity, relative humidity, sea surface temperature, vertical wind shear, potential intensity, sub mixed layer depth stratification, mixture layer depth and so on. This enables the model to not only reproduce historical records, but also make predictions for future TC behaviors under climate change with combination of global climate models. Besides, the computational efficiency of the TC model is comparable to traditional purely statistical models. The proposed model can also be coupled with other natural hazard models to conduct multi-hazard analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A comprehensive analysis of root causes for the accelerated internal corrosion in steel saltwater pipes coated with fusion bonded epoxy. • Cathodic delamination of the epoxy lining is identified as the primary cause of early internal corrosion failure. • Dynamic cyclic load has a greater chance for crack propagation in the epoxy lining compared to static load. • Development of recommendations and precautions based on the results of failure analysis. Effective functioning of saltwater supply system is essential to Hong Kong government agencies. However, it has been frequently observed that steel saltwater pipes suffered from severe internal corrosion and consequently early burst accidents, which may cause high economic loss and safety concerns to the public. Therefore, by taking a sample saltwater pipe made of DN450 mild steel with internal and external walls coated with fusion bonded epoxy in Hong Kong, this paper investigates the root causes and failure mechanism for the internal corrosion of this failed steel saltwater pipe through laboratory experiments and numerical simulation analysis. Two hypotheses are proposed and validated: (1) cathodic delamination of the epoxy lining, and (2) delamination of the epoxy lining due to external mechanical loads. The results verify that the sample saltwater pipe failed due to the cathodic delamination of the epoxy lining, and the electrochemical corrosion of the inner pipe wall. Moreover, it can be concluded that external mechanical load has few significant impacts on the damage of the epoxy lining for this sample pipe. This study exemplifies the importance of an in-depth analysis on the internal corrosion of steel water pipes, especially in a highly-corrosive internal environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments face urgent challenges from sea-level rise (SLR), impacting coastal urban areas significantly. Despite a shared commitment to adapting to climate change and SLR-induced hazards, strategies for SLR adaptation vary significantly between cities, reflecting a spectrum of political, socio-economic, and cultural contexts. This paper examines potential SLR adaptation strategies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, cities with different political and socio-economic frameworks, to understand the effectiveness of varied local adaptation pathways to meet adaptation objectives. Through an analysis of shoreline adaptation infrastructures, including natural shelters and hard defense structures, alongside historical coastal reclamation data from 1985 to 2020, we identify the most cost-effective adaptation pathway. Specifically, our cost-benefit analysis reveals that Shenzhen's "Hybrid management" pathway offers superior economic efficiency, increasing benefits by up to 63% for only a 7%–16% rise in protection costs. Conversely, Hong Kong's "Relative-risk Reduction" pathway shows less timely adaptation actions, indicating a need for more dynamic approaches. The findings highlight the pitfalls of overly rigid SLR adaptation strategies and the necessity for flexible, transition-capable adaptation pathways to better manage future uncertainties. Lessons learned from this study will enable refinement of local SLR adaptation pathway approaches and could significantly improve decision-making under uncertainty in other coastal cities based on investment perspective. • Integrate coastal structures and reclamation to explore SLR adaptation pathways. • Limited investments constrains the efficacy of nature-based adaptation strategies. • Prioritise adaptation options is critical to address uncertainty in SLR management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Applying InVEST model to determine ecological sources. • Building ecological resistance surfaces for highly urbanized region. • Proposing a local evaluation model for ecological networks. • Summarizing the ecological network development suggestions. Metropolitan regions usually encounter sustainability difficulties such as overexploitation of resources, severe land scarcity, and ecological degradation, resulting in the progressive collapse of ecological networks (ENs). It is therefore essential to strengthen the construction and protection of ENs by integrating various resources, improving the quality of the urban ecological environment and creating a favourable living environment. Using the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a case study, in this paper, the ecological resistance indicator system that balances natural condition and human disturbance is rebuilt. In doing so, a construction scheme (applicable to highly urbanised areas) is established to simulate ENs at a more precise scale. Moreover, a local evaluation model of ENs is proposed and the spatial patterns of multiple indicators are fully summarised. The findings show that the ENs of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area exhibit apparent spatial disparity. Disturbance through human activities seriously affects the spatial pattern of ENs, leading to structural imbalance and quality impairment of ecological corridors. Based on our assessment, the construction of complementary ecological corridors in the "two green belts" planning of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will improve structural problems. The findings of this paper can provide a reference to the harmonisation of urban development and ecological protection, by guiding the scientific management of ecological spaces in highly urbanised regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rail development can increase land value, reduce commute time, and increase accessibility, as reported in the literature. However, little is known about the impact of opening urban rail transit stations on people's sentiment, particularly in the context of large metropolises where population density is significantly high. This paper investigates such impact by studying six new transit stations opened in Hong Kong. People's sentiment and activity in station nearby areas are estimated by tweet sentiment and tweet activity. We use the difference-in-difference model to study the impact of opening new transit stations. Tweet sentiment, tweet activity, tweet content, and footprints of people who visit the station-influenced area 'before and after' the opening of transit stations are analyzed. The results suggest that, in general, the introduction of transit stations causes a positive change in tweet activity, and the change is statistically significant after six months. Regarding tweet sentiment, new transit stations tend to pose a mixed effect in a short-term, a positive influence on areas with high-density residential places, yet a negative influence on areas with a large proportion of nature reserve areas. These short-term effects, positive or negative, become not significant in the long term (after twelve months). Our analysis also confirmed that the introduction of new transit stations increased accessibility from (to) other parts of the city to(from) the station's nearby area, which was shown by the expanded locations sustaining users visited. These findings indicate that the urban rail transit system in Hong Kong promotes more active neighborhoods yet does not always promotes positive influence on people's sentiment. Further studies are needed to make future urban rail transit systems promoting active and happy neighborhoods. The study is relevant to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in methodologies, data, and findings. The social media analysis method used in this study, including text mining and sentiment analysis, can be easily extended to multiple language analysis for Singapore, Malaysia, as well as other regions in the belt and road plan. The developed tools could contribute to analyzing the influence of cross-country projects on local neighborhoods in the belt and road plan. • This study assessed the effect of new transit station on people's activity and sentiment via social media data. • Methods on analyzing Twitter data in Hong Kong are developed. • The introduction of new transit stations increases tweet activity in nearby areas. • New transit stations yet not always promote positive changes on tweet sentiment in nearby areas. • The methodologies, data, and findings are applicable to other regions in the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study analyzed demolition practices and discussed existing challenges. • BIM is integrated with advanced technologies for building demolition. • Three key services are proposed to facilitate the building demolition. • A case study is provided to demonstrate the proposed framework. • A benefit-cost analysis is used to assess the proposed framework performance. Hong Kong's construction industry, known for its massive building infrastructure, produces an enormous amount of waste every year, the vast majority of which is disposed for landfills. Therefore, some effective operational measures and waste management policies have been implemented. However, enormous waste remains a concern for stakeholders and exert pressure on the limited capacity of Hong Kong's landfills. Though previous research discusses Building Information Modelling (BIM) application for construction waste management enhancement, the BIM model has not been widely implemented for building demolition with waste management. Hence, as a response to the aforementioned shortcomings, this paper develops a conceptual framework that allows collecting, maintaining, and analyzing comprehensive information through Smart BIM that uses advanced technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and capable of reacting to user activities such as waste quantitative assessment, demolition process planning, optimal disposal route selection, and waste management strategy are executed. The advantages of the proposed framework are shown in a case study benefit-cost analysis based on three planned reuse and recycling-rate scenarios that explain on- and off-site recycling methods. The results show that the proposed framework will pave the way for generating sustainable waste disposal practices by providing technical and decision-making support functionalities to engineers and planners in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper integrates bifacial photovoltaics as sunshades into buildings. • The impact of installation and building factors on power generation is studied. • The impact of installation factors of bPV on the energy savings is studied. • The south orientation, small tilt angle and wide bPV are recommended to install. • The buildings with high wall reflectivity and low WWR achieve more energy savings. Solar photovoltaic (PV) shading systems are of great significance for achieving low-carbon buildings. Bifacial photovoltaics (bPV) is a promising technology that can generate electricity from both the front and rear sides of bPV modules. By integrating bPV shading systems into buildings, more power generation and less building energy consumption can be achieved compared to traditional shading systems. This study aims to integrate and optimize bPV shading systems into the building vertical façades in hot and humid regions, considering varying installation and building parameters. The evaluations of electricity generation and energy saving were conducted based on a typical three-story office building in Hong Kong. The evaluation of electricity generation reveals that the optimal installation condition for bPV sunshades in Hong Kong is south orientation with a tilt angle of 35°. Regarding the width of bPV sunshades, as the width increases, the annual electricity generation per unit area (AEGPA) decreases, but the total annual electricity generation (TAEG) increases. Besides, the bifacial gain of optimized bPV sunshades increases from 3.3% to 6.1% as the wall reflectivity increases from 0.15 to 0.7, while being insensitive to window reflectivity. Similarly, when the window-to-wall ratio (WWR) increases, the bifacial gain decreases. Furthermore, the energy-saving evaluation indicates that the south orientation with small tilt angles and wide sunshades tends to achieve much more energy savings benefits. The findings of this study provide practical guidance for maximizing the power generation and optimizing the design of building-integrated bPV sunshades to achieve maximum energy savings. [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]

• Most peer economies diversify their mix of policies both the supply and demand sides of developing domestic clean energy technologies. • Peer economies with higher innovation rankings tend to provide more direction and coordination mechanisms. • A heavy reliance on technology adoption only is seen in the policy mixes of Hong Kong and Slovakia. • Hong Kong lacks policy strategy(ies) as well as R&D support targeted at energy technology. • Support for production, adaptation and retirement of energy technologies seems to be scarce across all 12 small economies. In this paper, we analyzed Hong Kong's sustainable energy transitions innovation policy, and compared it to the policies in 11 small, high-income jurisdictions. To do this, we identified 696 innovation interventions implemented between 2008 and 2020. We classified them into 42 types of policy instruments. Then we visualized the policy mixes of the jurisdictions with the assistance of correspondence analysis methods. The results suggest that Hong Kong's overall policy mix heavily relies on overarching policy strategies to guide research and demand side policies to support energy technology adoption. However, Hong Kong's support for research and development of domestic clean energy technologies to overcome the so-called "valley of death", a critical gap between public and private support, remains limited. This contrasts with the policy mixes of more innovative peer jurisdictions, which provide R&D funding and business support targeted at encouraging clean energy technologies and facilitating connections across the innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric buses (EBs) are considered a more environmentally friendly mode of public transit. In addition to other practical challenges, including high infrastructure costs and short driving ranges, the operations of EBs are more demanding due to the necessary battery charging activities. Consequently, more sophisticated optimisation models and algorithms are required for effective operations. This paper presents an EB scheduling problem with multiple termini and service routes. Various realistic but complicated factors, such as shared facilities at multiple termini, the flexibility of plugging and unplugging chargers before an EB is fully charged, stochastic travel times, and EB breakdowns, are considered. We propose an integrated learning and mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework to overcome the computational difficulties when solving the problem. This framework leverages the strengths of reinforcement learning and MILP for fast computations due to its capability of learning from outcomes of state–action pairs and computational effectiveness guaranteed by the constraints governing the solution feasibility. Q-Learning and Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient are adopted as our training methods. We conduct numerical experiments on artificial instances and realistic instances of a bus network in Hong Kong to assess the performance of our proposed approach. The results show that our proposed framework outperforms the benchmark optimisation approach, in terms of penalty on missed service trips, average headway, and variance of headway. The benefits of our proposed framework are more significant under a highly stochastic environment. • Electric bus scheduling with multiple termini and service routes. • Shared facilities at multiple termini and the flexibility of plugging and unplugging chargers considered. • Integration of Q-learning and mixed-integer linear programming for solving the problem. • Experiments on artificial instances and a real-world case to demonstrate the high computational performance. • Managerial insights derived from the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of an ecological security pattern (ESP) is an important undertaking in ensuring the stability of the ecosystem and the long-term growth of humanity. Existing research, However, existing research often overlooks the quantification of policy implications in ESP development. The objective of this paper was to bridge this gap by integrating policy quantification analysis (PQA) with nature, society and into ESP construction and providing targeted ecological management recommendations. The policy texts were quantified into reusable research data, which served as a foundation for the selection of indicators and the optimization of ecological security patterns, by using machine learning techniques. The methodology "Patch-matrix-corridor" was used to create a spatially correlated ecological security pattern. Through factor analysis and Random Forest (RF), the impact of each indicator on ecological security was thoroughly examined, offering substantial support for policy development and ESP construction planning. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GBA) was selected as the study area, the study found that: (1) The proposed framework PQA based-ESP could provide a useful eco-management tools. (2) Policy adaptability had a substantial impact on environmental security in the GBA, but the ecosystem service index has the highest impact. (3) Applying the framework, we identified a total of 1,993 km2 of ecological sources, 23 key ecological corridors, 58 general ecological corridors, and 31 ecological nodes. An improved ESP, characterized as "one circle, two bays, three rivers, multiple areas, corridors, and nodes," was constructed in the GBA. (4) Given the multi-scale analysis, tailored ecological management policy recommendations were proposed for each city in the GBA. The study's findings offer actionable solutions for the international community facing growing ecological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc worldwide. To mitigate the spread of the virus, societies around the world implemented various social control measures and restrictions on mobility. Traditional work practices were upended, leading to a widespread adoption of telecommuting in many cities, effectively turning urban spaces into expansive work-from-home laboratories. The exchange of digitized documents, virtual conversations, and online transactions replaced physical movements and face-to-face communication, allowing for the continuation of productive activities. This shift to telecommuting raises important questions about the impact on traditional business practices and power dynamics in the workplace. It also prompts us to examine how new communication and surveillance tools facilitate collaboration and enhance worker productivity. Furthermore, it is essential to understand how employees navigate and adapt to the opportunities and limitations presented in a teleworking environment. To gain insights into these issues, this paper focuses on the experiences of work-from-home employees in the community of Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong, using the concept of governmobility as an analytical framework. The findings reveal that telecommuting is enabled by innovative social interaction mechanisms, changes in power dynamics, and the implementation of new discourse and surveillance methods, all of which are contingent on specific work and life conditions. The various experiences of telecommuting, such as working in a home office, in virtual workspaces, and using on-body devices, demonstrate adaptable responses to the emerging opportunities and constraints of telecommuting. These experiences illuminate the intricate ways in which work and life intertwine in both physical and temporal dimensions. • Exploring the mechanisms of governmobility in telecommuting during the Covid-19 pandemic. • Theorizing diverse telecommuting practices and experiences. • Discussing the prospects of telecommuting in the post-Covid world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examine the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. • Establish an AI supported digital technological framework. • Propose and discuss future research areas. In the digital age, supported by disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain (BC), digital twins (DT), and extended reality (ER), the use of metaverse for real-world operations has emerged. In this paper, we examine the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. To be specific, we first examine the related literature by a selective critical review. Then, we discuss how the use of metaverse can facilitate transportation operations with some relevant cases such as the metaverse project of MTR (from Hong Kong). We establish an AI supported digital technological framework, called the ABCDE framework, for transportation and logistics companies to adopt with their use of metaverse. Finally, we propose and discuss several important future research areas. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which comprehensively examines the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. The theoretical framework also lays the foundation for future studies. The findings and insights provide constructive and helpful guidance to both practitioners and academics on the future development of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper captures the group dynamics underpinning preservice teacher identity formation to understand how childhood schooling and teacher education shape the teaching metaphors teachers construct of intercultural education. We propose a theory of identity grafting (IG) for a precise framing of the diverse ways teachers identify with intercultural education vis-à-vis other pre-established aspects of their teacher identities. Studying their IGs helped us connect the preservice teachers' experiences with the experiences of other teachers that had emerged in global literature. We draw insights from our efforts to co-construct with preservice teachers their professional development in facilitating intercultural education. Adapting the activities based on their responses, we co-constructed with each other during the workshop teacher identities with a sense of connectedness between intercultural education and other pedagogical forms. We observed preservice teachers as we facilitated their discussions, employing ethnographic approaches to immerse ourselves in the interactions of the workshop participants. The findings revealed that preservice teachers had become more mindful of the implications of their intercultural education practices after having reflective dialogues with each other. However, although the teachers successfully integrated each other's views about intercultural education practices, this could not be sustained when they attempted to contextualize these efforts. The teachers could not reconcile their disparate childhood experiences with cultural diversity as students graduating from schools with differing academic performance rankings (school banding). Therefore, they struggled to connect their experiences with other pedagogical forms that they had previously encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiative cooling coating technology is gaining increasing attention in the context of mitigating urban heat island and tackling global climate change. This paper is concerned with the development of an inorganic geopolymer-based radiative cooling coating using red mud, incorporating varying sizes of TiO 2 and hollow glass beads. The developed colored coating demonstrates its radiative cooling capability in reducing the surface temperature by harnessing the potential of red mud. The physico-chemical properties, surface morphology, and element distribution of the coating were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TG-DAT, SEM and EDS. The coating exhibited lower UV (0.0844) and visible reflectance (0.5275) but high NIR reflectance (0.7536), as well as high infrared emissivity of 0.9455, enabling a red color with a CIE value of L* = 74.56, a* = 9.55, and b* = 11.98, and a maximum temperature reduction of 7.3 °C under the climate of Hong Kong. Additionally, the skid resistance, abrasive resistance and adhesion strength of the proposed coating could meet the requirements of standards, indicating a great potential for footway applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A method based on Neural Network is proposed for provincial-level CO 2 emissions estimation. • An autoencoder is proposed to downscale the provincial-level CO 2 emissions to city-level. • A complete city-level CO 2 emissions inventory of GBA and surrounding cities is complied. • Spatial dependence and agglomeration characteristics of CO 2 emissions are analyzed. • Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of factors affecting CO 2 emissions is investigated. Significant attention has been given to the issue of CO 2 emissions worldwide, especially for China as the largest emitter. Cities, as the main carriers of China's economic development, account for up to 85 % of CO 2 emissions from energy use in the country. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and surrounding cities play important leading roles in low-carbon development. However, compiling city-level CO 2 emissions is challenging due to the limited availability of data. In this paper, a new idea is proposed by using SSA-BP for estimating provincial-level CO 2 emissions and downscaling provincial-level CO 2 emissions to city-level CO 2 emissions by reconstructing missing values of city-level CO 2 emissions with an autoencoder. This study compiles a city-level CO 2 emissions inventory and conducts a spatio-temporal analysis of CO 2 emissions in the GBA and surrounding cities. The results show that CO 2 emissions exhibit a spatial distribution pattern with spatial dependence. Furthermore, according to the analysis of spatio-temporal heterogeneity, GDP influenced CO 2 emissions the most within the five influencing factors, and the influences of GDP, population, and energy intensity were mainly positive, while the influence of patents was mainly negative, and that of trade was both positive and negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study tested effects of demographic, psychological, and situational variables on Leave No Litter intention. • Attitude, perceived behavioral control, and preparedness had significant direct effects. • Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control had significant indirect effects. • Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed. Along the line that "Leave No Litter" (LNL) in protected areas is promoted globally, Hong Kong launched its LNL campaign in 2016. The success of the campaign is critically dependent on the compliance of the park visitors. Because behavioral intention is influenced by determinants of different domains, this study adopted a multilevel perspective to examine how demographic, psychological, and situational variables affected LNL intention using a voluntary response sample of 374 hikers in Hong Kong. The results indicated that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and preparedness were significant predictors of LNL intention, indicating the direct associations between them. Furthermore, preparedness mediated the effects of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on LNL intention. The findings of this paper may contribute to the body of knowledge on pro-environmental behavior of recreationists by providing a novel understanding of LNL intention of Hong Kong hikers. Furthermore, this study may cast light on the sustainable management of protected areas in Hong Kong as well as cities around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit-induced gentrification is a popular topic of research and a pressing concern worldwide. However, little attention is paid to the connection between rail transit development and the movement of low-income residents. To investigate this important issue, this paper studies the development of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in Hong Kong between 2001 and 2006, which added three new rail transit lines covering a total length of 65 km. By using census statistics at the district council constituency area (DCCA) level in a difference-in-differences approach, we find that MTR development in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2004 increased the number of advanced degree holders (Bachelor's degree and above) by 10% in the New Territories and 7.81% in the new towns and reduced the number of low-income households by 5.85% in the New Territories and 7.53% in the new towns. To confirm that these socioeconomic changes were driven by internal migration, we further use household-level data from the 5% population censuses in 2001 and 2006 in a multinomial logistic regression. The results indicate that MTR development between 2002 and 2004 was likely to induce high-educated people to move into and low-income households to move out of MTR-served areas. The results show that the New Territories and the new towns in Hong Kong underwent gentrification between 2001 and 2006. We therefore suggest that the Hong Kong government negotiate with MTR Corporation to allocate resources to develop properties for low-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid design and construction of mobile cabin hospitals (MCHs) have become imperative in the COVID-19 response. However, due to unique design specifications (e.g., parallel design and model pre-revision), collaboration in emergency construction projects (ECPs) like MCHs presents data security vulnerabilities, including a lack of traceability and transparency. These hazards invariably reduce design effectiveness, leading to undesirable rework and project delay. Blockchain technology is a potential solution to address the aforementioned security issues in ECPs because it offers immutable and traceable data storage. Nevertheless, directly implementing blockchain in ECPs is impractical, for the blockchain has a complex deployment process and provides limited functions supporting BIM-based design. Therefore, this paper develops a lightweight blockchain-as-a-service (LBaaS) prototype to enhance the ECPs design efficiency by securing and automating information exchange while eliminating the difficulties of deploying and using blockchain. This paper contributes three elements: (1) Security vulnerabilities of design in ECP are identified. Taking an MCH in Hong Kong as an example, this paper investigates its design process and determines two design characteristics and associated security flaws. (2) Key technologies to support easy deployment and usage of blockchain in ECPs are developed. New technical elements, including a Multi-to-One mapping (MtOM) kit for easy blockchain registration, an integrated workflow retaining existing design practices, and smart contracts for secure interaction with blockchain, are developed to support LBaaS functionality. (3) An LBaaS prototype is validated and evaluated. The prototype is illustrated and evaluated using design examples based on actual MCH project data. Results show that the LBaaS is a feasible and secure approach for ECPs collaboration. This paper deepens the understanding of data security issues in ECPs and offers technical guidance in establishing blockchain solutions. • Identified security vulnerabilities of BIM-based collaboration in emergency construction projects (ECPs). • Exploring the mechanism of integrating ECPs design with a lightweight blockchain-as-a-service (LBaaS). • Developed key technical elements to support functionalities of an LBaaS prototype. • Validated LBaaS prototype via three design examples from an actual mobile cabin hospital project. • Results show that the LBaaS is a practical solution for improving data security and ECP design efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two questions facing the use of the concept of the 'good farmer' in rural studies: what are the most appropriate methods to understand good farming; and what is the relevance of the concept in non-western countries? The paper explores these issues in the context of pig farmers' biosecurity decisions and daily disease management practices in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Specifically, we argue that to broaden the relevance of the good farming concept, we need to devise specific methodologies to capture the relational practices among farmers, non-human life forms and substances that construct the 'good farmer' meaning in different cultural contexts. Firstly, we consider the language of 'good farming', its possible translations, potential meanings and alternative phrases used amongst Chinese-speaking farmers. Secondly, we develop a farmer-oriented methodology to analyse how these locally specific translations of good farming are constructed and used in relation to the management of animal disease. Drawing on 12 farmers' mapping and their interview discussion, we develop a narrated mapping methodology in which the creation of farm maps acts as a device to illustrate and talk about biosecurity and good farming. This visual method triangulates the graphical data with subsequent interview data of farmers' maps. From this we show how the idea of the 'diligent farmer' has much stronger resonance in Hong Kong than good farming. Farm maps identify specific symbols of diligence, highlighting values of productivism, environmentalism and social relationships. The mapping methodology also reveals the performative work involved in becoming a diligent farmer. In conclusion, the paper considers the broader methodological implications for the concept of good farming, suggesting that cultural linguistic differences need to be recognised in the concept, and arguing for further methodological advancement. • The methodological and linguistic basis of the 'good farmer' and 'good farming' are questioned. • Visual narrated mapping methodology is developed to explore 'good farming' and 'good farmer'. • Language of 'good farming' and 'good farmer' varied in non-Western contexts. • The role of 'diligence' and 'diligent farming' is a useful theoretical lens to explore farm biosecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the "Kowloon Walled City" was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of 'product differentiation' in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place. • Challenge dark views of Kowloon Walled City with socio-economic statistics & oral testimonies • Refute representation of Kowloon Walled City as a dark prison • Project a bright picture of Kowloon Walled City [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a first attempt to position the role of museums in land use planning, this paper modifies a neo-institutional economic perspective to canvass the economic advantages of a museum as a form of real property in a community. It explains that a museum , outdoor or indoor, as a derived demand for real property because selected ex situ heritage items need space to concentrate. Such concentration not only reduces the transaction costs of searching for users but also accumulates value by being positioned at a fixed location , as in the case of a heritage building as in situ heritage, so that it may even become a new heritage site (if not also a heritage building) over a period of time. This is demonstrated by the case of London Bus Museum, which stands in sharp contrast to a hidden private collection of retired buses in Hong Kong. An empirical test of the effects on values of neighbouring property of a cattle depot/slaughter house reused as an art museum was conducted to shed light on the economic advantages of a museum. This paper expands the understanding of curating to encompass the formation of a museum and the gaining of heritage value for the museum itself. Some land use implications are discussed, particularly that museums should be purpose-built rather than being accommodated in heritage buildings. • Original economic inquiry of museums in terms of transaction cost reduction & betterment by ex-situ heritage items. • Pioneering study of bus museums in heritage planning terms in a surge of curatorial concepts in planning & urban studies. • Pioneering empirical study of the impact of a museum on nearby property values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]