Director of Planning on Sustainable Development (English Only)

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The following is the paper prepared by the Director of Planning, Mr Bosco Fung, at the Conference "Cities in Transition: The Face of Our City in the Next 20 Years" co-organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Planners and Hong Kong University's Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today (Tuesday):

PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN HONG KONG:

CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

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INTRODUCTION

Hong Kong is a very small place by the standard of most world cities. Yet it faces tremendous development pressures which are generated not only from its own growing population but also from the rapid economic development in the adjoining Pearl River Delta region. Although deficient in natural resources, Hong Kong people have a very strong desire for economic and social development to secure rising standards of living, both for themselves and for their children. They also have strong aspirations for a good environment. Satisfying these desires and aspirations is at the heart of pursuing sustainable development for Hong Kong.

In this paper, I shall try to highlight some of the main challenges town planners face in the pursuit of sustainable development in Hong Kong and how we have tried to respond to these challenges over the years.

MEANING OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

To set the scene, perhaps firstly a brief discussion on what we mean by the term 'sustainable development'.

The most commonly used Brundtland definition coined in 1987, namely 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'(1), is so broad that it can mean different things to different people. According to Holmberg and Sandbrook(2), there were in 1992 already over 70 definitions for sustainable development. There is, clearly, no consensus on a universally applicable definition.

More specific to Hong Kong, a definition of sustainable development has been developed in the on-going consultancy Study on Sustainable Development for the 21st Century (SUSDEV 21) which commenced in September 1997. After a series of public consultation, the SUSDEV 21 consultants have come up with the following definition :

'Sustainable development in Hong Kong balances social, economic and environmental needs, both for present and future generations, simultaneously achieving a vibrant economy, social progress and better environmental quality, locally, nationally and internationally, through the efforts of the community and the Government(3)'.

This definition has been used by the Consultants to develop a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators for measuring the sustainability performance of various government policies, projects and programmes in Hong Kong.

More recently, in the 1999 Policy Address delivered by the Chief Executive of the HKSAR in October, sustainable development has been promulgated as a key policy objective of the HKSAR Government in its effort to make Hong Kong a world city with a status comparable to that of New York and London. In the Policy Address, sustainable development is taken to mean :

* 'finding ways to increase prosperity and improve the quality of life while reducing overall pollution and waste;

* meeting our own needs and aspirations without doing damage to the prospects of future generations; and

* reducing the environmental burden we put on our neighbours and helping to preserve common resources'(4).

Whilst the above definitions may read differently, the underlying themes and meanings are in fact similar and consistent. In essence, I think they underpin the following common elements :

* simultaneously meeting social, economic and environmental needs;

* economic prosperity should not be at the expense of the environment and quality of life;

* the need to think not only of our present-day needs but also those of our future generations;

* the need to look beyond our small territory to achieve sustainable development; and

* the need for joint efforts of the community and the Government.

These common elements represent the challenges we face in the pursuit of sustainable development in Hong Kong. Obviously, sustainable development is a much wider concept than physical development. It can touch upon the non-physical elements like human and social development. It can even be considered as a way of life. Being a town planner, I shall however concentrate on the physical aspects in this paper. In the following paragraphs, I shall try to discuss the following major challenges faced by town planners and our planning responses in turn:

(a) Facing pressures of growth

(b) Achieving better environmental quality

(d) Strengthening Government decision making

(e) Getting community support and forming partnership

CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

Facing Pressures of Growth and Demand for Land

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While Hong Kong is physically a rather small place, economically it is very much part of a wider region comprising the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and other parts of South China. This region has undergone rapid economic growth over the past two decades which is having major impacts on Hong Kong. A key factor is that such growth is stimulating various hub functions of Hong Kong, especially in respect of its role as a major port, an international and regional airport, a financial and business centre, and a tourist destination, amongst others. Such functions have, in turn, created increasing demands for land for a wide range of economic activities as well as for new infrastructure to handle growing volumes of cross-boundary activities.

At the same time, the domestic needs of Hong Kong continue to grow apace. Today, in an area of about 1,095 square kilometers (of which about three-quarters is of hilly terrain), we have a population of about 6.8 million. According to past trends, this population may grow roughly at about a million every decade. There is thus an ever-growing demand for more land for housing, employment, community and other supporting facilities for the additional population. In addition, with growing prosperity, expectations are rising for improved living standards in the form of better city layout and a wider range of community facilities, all of which have implications for land requirement.

Territorial Development Strategy Review

In response to development pressures, the Hong Kong Outline Plan was prepared in the 1970's; and a comprehensive Territorial Development Strategy (TDS) was first formulated in 1984 to establish a broad land use-transport framework to guide the physical development of Hong Kong. The TDS was updated in 1986 and 1988, and subsequently went through another comprehensive and long review over the period from 1990 to 1996. This last review was finally endorsed by the Executive Council (ExCo) in February 1998 after a series of public consultation. It recommended a medium-term strategy up to 2006 and a long-term strategy up to 2011, the latter assuming two population scenarios of 7.5 million and 8.1 million respectively.

New Town Development

In the seventies, the demand for housing land, particularly public housing, was largely met through the new town development programme. Relocation of villages, filling of fish ponds and conversion of agricultural land appeared to be the obvious choices at that time to make way for new town development. Reclamation was accepted as the most direct and fastest means to make land available for housing and various other urban uses. Environmental protection was not yet a controversial issue.

Port and Airport Development

From the mid-eighties to early nineties, there was a change in development focus from the new towns back to the metropolitan area, giving emphasis to urban restructuring and the new airport and port development. Following the endorsement of the Port and Airport Development Strategy and the Metroplan Selected Strategy by ExCo in 1989 and 1991 respectively, reclamation and other airport core projects were in full swing providing land for the new airport at Chek Lap Kok and the associated new infrastructure development, mostly on new reclamation areas. A large amount of the reclaimed land was however given over to the planned strategic highway such as the Western Harbour Crossing and the Airport Railway which together with their wide buffer areas required to meet environmental standard have sterilised a good part of the land. Despite the urban restructuring framework provided in the Metroplan and apart from some isolated successes by the Land Development Corporation (LDC) set up in 1988, urban renewal was also not effective because of the many implementation problems involved.

Harbour Reclamation

More harbour reclamation projects were planned in the mid-nineties, namely, in South East Kowloon, Central to Wan Chai and Green Island, mainly for transport infrastructure projects, housing and extension of the Central Business District. However, there was a growing outcry of the public against further harbour reclamation leading eventually to the enactment of the Protection of Harbour Ordinance in 1997. Harbour reclamation was criticised as causing irreversible damage to the environment, and reducing incentives and efforts for urban renewal. Following a series of objection hearings and public consultation forums in 1999, published reclamation schemes for the Central Waterfront and South East Kowloon were significantly revised to reduce the reclamation limit. The Town Planning Board also formulated a Vision Statement for the Harbour to make it 'attractive, vibrant, accessible and symbolic of Hong Kong'.

Strategic Growth Areas

With the strong public resistance to harbour reclamation, the priority for new strategic growth development is now back to the New Territories, notably in the North West and North East New Territories. This is of course not without problem, as it would exacerbate the imbalance in the distribution of homes and jobs in the territory, resulting in more commuting flows to the Metro area where employments are concentrated. Apart from the building of major new infrastructure, more extensive urbanisation of greenfield sites in the New Territories would also bring significant pressure on the landscape and ecological habitats of the countryside. A new planning strategy is therefore to concentrate development along the existing and planned railway lines, focusing particularly on developments above and around rail stations. This is considered a form of sustainable development most suited to Hong Kong.

Urban Renewal

Of equal importance is the renewal of brownfield sites in the old urban area, with the objective to restructure obsolete areas and improve the dilapidated urban fabric. Learning from the experience of the LDC, a more comprehensive district-wide approach to urban restructuring, including both redevelopment and rehabilitation; a quickened land assembly process; provision of more rehousing resources; as well as a package of financial and non-financial incentives to improve the viability of urban renewal projects have been devised to achieve the wider urban renewal objectives. All these are enshrined in the urban renewal initiatives set out in the October Policy Address, and in the new Urban Renewal Authority Bill that was recently published for public consultation. With all these new measures, the momentum for urban renewal would hopefully be accelerated in the coming years. This is another form of sustainable development as it is focused on a more efficient utilisation of an existing land resource.

Hong Kong 2030

We have just started another round of the review of TDS under the caption of "Hong Kong 2030 : Vision and Development Strategy". A new round of review of the TDS is necessary because of the many changing circumstances. These include the recent financial turmoil in Asia and the associated changes in economic growth forecasts, the potential increase of migrants from the Mainland, and the need for a more visionary approach to the planning of the city that should take account of the developments in the adjoining PRD Region. To be more forward looking, we have extended the planning horizon to 30 years for the new strategy. We would also take a broader regional view. The objective is to produce a more flexible and responsive strategy that would take into account the regional dimensions and the changing of external and internal pressures, including major shifts in population, environmental and socio-economic conditions, which are beyond our control.

Achieving Better Environmental Quality

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Environmental Objectives in Planning

Increases in population and development are putting intense pressures on the small land area of Hong Kong. Environmental conditions could deteriorate as a result of development impacts on our air, water, natural and ecological resources. Achieving a satisfactory environment depends to a large extent on incorporating environmental considerations in the early stages of planning.

Environmental planning has long been an integral part of planning studies including the TDS Review. For example, two of the six principal objectives of the last TDS Review have been related to environment protection, namely(5) :

'To make Hong Kong an attractive place by, inter alia, conserving and enhancing significant landscape and ecological attributes, and important heritage features'; and

'To enhance and protect the quality of the environment with regard to air quality, water quality, noise level, solid waste disposal and potentially hazardous installations by minimizing net environmental impacts on the community and maximizing opportunities to improve existing environmental problem.'

Strategic environmental assessments were also carried out to test various development options in the TDS Review to screen out undesirable elements; to protect areas of specific conservation value; and to focus on areas where development could be achieved in a controlled manner.

"New" Planning Concepts

The 1999 Policy Address has proposed a comprehensive package of measures to control air and water pollution and reduce waste disposal at source. Insofar as land use planning is concerned, in promoting a quality living environment, we are exploring and incorporating a package of new planning concepts in new development areas and comprehensive redevelopment areas. They include creation of a people-oriented environment; greater use of environmentally-friendly modes of transport, such as mass transit system, electric trolley buses, people's movers and travelators; building of sunken, decked-over and submerged roads; and designation of more pedestrian walkways and pedestrian zones to segregate road and pedestrian traffic. To planners, these concepts are of course not "new" as they have been used quite extensively in various development areas. What we are advocating is just a new and more comprehensive packaging of the measures, the underlying objective being to draw the minds of the community to the importance for a quality built environment.

Cultural and Ecological Attributes

Preservation of our cultural and ecological attributes would be another important aspect of achieving a better quality environment. Despite our limited land and rapid development, Hong Kong still has a wide variety of ecological species and habitats, extensive areas of natural landscape and scenic coastal waters, and many sites of historical or cultural heritage. These provide the necessary breathing spaces for our high-density urban living; they can also be enhanced as tourist attractions. Our current policy is to conserve and enhance the good natural environment that remains, by protecting designated conservation areas, identifying new areas for protection, and compensating where possible areas with conservation potential lost to essential development projects. Apart from administrative protection, protective measures have been applied through statutory outline zoning plans or other relevant ordinances. The conservation of wetlands in Mai Po is a typical case in point.

Tackling Transboundary Issues

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Hong Kong is in a unique position to the Mainland and there has been a tremendous increase in socio-economic interactions between the two places in the recent decade. Increase in trade and movements of people and goods across the boundary as a result of these interactions have placed immense pressures on our environment and the traffic capacity of the existing cross-boundary links. The proliferation of container back-up uses and the traffic congestion often seen near the boundary crossings in the New Territories are indications of these environmental and transport problems. Apart from deteriorating air and water quality, the increased development and urbanisation on both sides of the boundary with concomitant decline in the area of wetlands have also affected the bird population and posed threat to the world-renown ecological habitat in Mai Po and Deep Bay. Clearly, in social, economic, environmental and ecological terms, the whole PRD Region is one common entity.

Cross-Boundary Coordination

The need to examine more closely the emerging development patterns and trends in the PRD Region with respect to their implications on the sustainability of Hong Kong's development has long been accepted. For many years, the Hong Kong-Mainland Cross-Boundary Major Infrastructure Co-ordinating Committee has been co-ordinating the planning and design of new cross-boundary road links, apart from other cross-boundary issues such as air traffic control, railway and marine channel. To enhance co-operation and co-ordination on environmental pollution control, the Hong Kong/Guangdong Environmental Protection Liaison Group have been working jointly to monitor progress since the early 1990's. To further the co-operation between Guangdong and Hong Kong on cross-boundary environmental issues, a "Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection" will be established under the Hong Kong/Guangdong Cooperation Joint Conference. The co-operation will be in six areas of environmental protection including improvement of air quality, standards for motor diesel, afforestation, maintenance of water quality as well as assessment of environmental impact of town planning and economic development. Obviously a lot more work is to be done.

Strengthening Government Decision Making

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Hong Kong has a well-established system for policy formulation, planning, resource allocation and the implementation of public works. However, the current system of decision making operates to a large degree within a vertically organised structure. There has been a tendency for economic, social and environmental policies, plans and programmes to be dealt with on their own account, with each sector competing for the allocation of scarce resources. Whilst integration mechanisms within the Government are available, they tend to operate towards the later stage of the decision-making process when inter-policy sector conflicts become apparent.

We need to move towards an improved system of government decision making that provides a more integrated way of setting and measuring community-based goals, and of deploying resources and introducing timely administrative measures to achieve such goals. We also need to ensure that all policy and programme areas are consistent with the objectives of sustainable development, and that major decisions taken in one policy sector should be balanced against the impacts on other sectors. We need to go from sectoral to cross-sectoral thinking in our decision making.

Decision Support System

One of the major tasks of the SUSDEV 21 Study in progress is to provide the Administration with an improved decision support system to promote cross-sectoral consideration of sustainable development issues. A computer-based decision support tool, called the Computer Aided Sustainability Evaluation Tool (CASET), is being developed to assess the implications of a policy or project on the sustainability indicators developed for the study. The system can be used to identify the trade-offs involved in any decision amongst the range of environmental, economic and social issues. By bringing together this range of aspects into one system and output, CASET will help develop cross-sectoral analysis of a scenario and facilitate decision. It will provide a consistent, comprehensive and consensus-based method of examining a wide range of sustainable development issues associated with strategic decision making. It will however not replace decision making which will still be the responsibility of decision makers.

Institutional Changes

To promote sustainable development and ensure sustainability considerations are taken account in decision making, leadership from the top is very important. An important recommendation in the 1999 Policy Address is the setting up of a Council for Sustainable Development and a Sustainable Development Unit. The Council is to directly report to the Chief Executive of the HKSAR and to provide expert advice to the Government and keep the public regularly informed about its work, so that we can build a better understanding of the concept of sustainable development. Within the Administration, all bureaux will in future be required to carry out "sustainability impact assessments" of major new policy proposals. The proposed Sustainable Development Unit is to monitor these assessments and provide analysis and support to the Council.

Getting Community Support and Forming Partnership

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Sustainable development cannot be achieved by Government alone but requires every one's participation. As sustainable development is still a relatively new and unfamiliar concept to the majority of people in Hong Kong, raising community awareness and obtaining community support are important to the implementation of our various sustainable development initiatives. Community values can however be so divergent and rapidly changing to make consensus building and decision making difficult.

Enhancing Public Awareness

A key part of the SUSDEV 21 Study has been to increase general public awareness on the sustainable development concept and to encourage the widest possible public participation in the study process. This is being achieved through a continual and extensive awareness-raising programme and the two stages of public consultation under the Study. As a policy commitment to sustainable development in Hong Kong, apart from the set up of the new Council and Unit for Sustainable Development, Government would set aside a $100 million grant to support community initiatives on sustainable development especially on educational programmes for citizens and students to develop a strong awareness of sustainability.

Public Participation in Planning

In the field of town planning, we have had a tradition of public consultation and we are making further efforts to increase the transparency of the town planning process. Planning is for the people; it is basically to serve the preferences or values of the community. No plan is static nor is there an absolutely right or wrong plan. It only reflects the objectives behind the plan at the time of plan making, and no objectives are ever-lasting. It involves balancing the different planning objectives. Community involvement in the plan making process brings the different interests together and this is an important means to promote mutual understanding and consensus building. Consensus building does not of course lead to unanimity but the process would help participants to understand the trade-offs involved.

Public consultation is now an essential ingredient in the formulation of development plans and strategies, as can be seen in many of our recent forums held to discuss various issues, such as the Vision for the Victoria Harbour, the South East Kowloon Outline Concept Plan and the South East New Territories Development Strategy Review. Compared with consultation with individual stakeholder groups, public forums involving all key parties provide opportunities for more open exposition and better understanding of sectoral views and for more constructive discussion of cross-sectoral alternatives, thus helping to resolve conflict and build consensus. Sustainable development is of course about conflict resolution and community consensus building.

Public-Private Sector Partnership

Public-private sector partnership is also an important way to achieve sustainable development. One case in point is the effort to balance conservation and development objectives in the Deep Bay area to achieve ecologically sustainable development. In the subject area, the fish ponds adjoining the world-renowned wetland area designated under the Ramsar Convention have been found to be ecologically important; but the majority of the landholdings are in private hands and there is little economic incentive for continued fishing operation. Short of public funding to acquire the land for its conservation purpose, and without proper management (not to mention the possibility of deliberate mis-management by the landowners), the ecological value of the fish ponds might not be maintained. The challenge is therefore how to devise a "win-win" situation whereby the objectives of the conservationists and the landowners/developers can be simultaneously achieved. After much discussion, a public-private sector partnership approach has been incorporated in the latest revised Town Planning Board Guidelines for Application for Developments within the Deep Bay Area, under which limited and compatible development in exchange for wetland enhancement and management can be considered(6). The success of this approach is however yet to be tested.

CONCLUSION

The biggest challenge in the pursuit of sustainable development in Hong Kong is how we can make the best of our limited resources to satisfy the diverse, often competing, needs and interests of different sectors of our community. Planning in response to changing circumstances and community values will, as always, be a great challenge to town planners. This is particularly the case in view of rising public aspirations and the growing public desire for greater participation in the decision making process. The planning process would need to be more transparent and consensus building would be important to strive for compromises amongst different stakeholders, as a decision that can satisfy all would be almost impossible.

Town planners have long been striving for the balancing of the diverse community needs, long before the term 'sustainable development' becomes fashionable. Success depends largely on the community accepting the need for a holistic, cross-sectoral approach to the discussion of issues and to decision making. This requires a readiness of individual sectors to listen to the views of other sectors and to accept compromises. I think the time has come for all government bureaux, departments, business, environmentalist and other sectors of the community to accept a paradigm shift and work together in finding solutions to our long-term sustainability issues. Without considering its long term sustainability, a decision of today can be a problem of tomorrow. This year's Policy Address is a significant step leading Hong Kong to its long path to sustainability. Let us work together along the way.

References

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(1) World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), "Our Common Future" Oxford University Press

(2) Holmberg, J and R Sandbrook (1992), "Sustainable Development : What is to be Done?", in J Holmberg (ed) Policies for a Small Planet, Earthscan, London pp. 19-38

(3) Planning Department (1999), "Sustainable Development in Hong Kong for the 21st Century, Second Stage Consultation"

(4) HKSAR (1999), "Address by the Chief Executive, the Honourable Tung Chee Hwa - Quality People, Quality Home" p. 29

(5) Planning Department (1998), "Final Executive Report of the Territorial Development Strategy Review - A Response to Change and Challenges" pp. 1-2

(6) Town Planning Board (1999), Guidelines for Application for Developments within Deep Bay Area under section 16 of the Town Planning Ordinance

End/Tuesday, November 9, 1999

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