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The Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) of the Civil Engineering Department has published a technical guide to help to ensure that slope works in the territory are to be carried out to a high standard of appearance.
The guide has received a Grand Award today (February 16) in the Outstanding Green Project Awards 2000 organised by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department, the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, and the Society of Horticultures, Hong Kong.
The guide - GEO Publication No. 1/2000 - provides guidelines for engineers and professionals in related field, such as landscape architects, on good practice in landscape treatment and bio-engineering techniques when carrying out slope works on government and private man-made slopes.
Apart from giving key principles and an integrated approach to design and implementation of slope landscape designs, the guide also places special emphasis on the need of sustainable development to ensure that the designs are compatible with the ecology and the micro-climate of the surrounding environment and to provide opportunities for natural habitats to develop.
Ecological considerations, including retention of existing healthy trees and reduction of ecological impacts are covered. Details of the suitability of plant species for different uses, and their tolerance to different site conditions are given.
Successful examples of slope works undertaken by the GEO and others to illustrate the proper application of various landscape treatment techniques and principles are also included.
The Head of the GEO, Mr Raymond Chan Kin-sek, noted that few places in the world have so many steep slopes and such dense urban development as in Hong Kong.
In response to the publication receiving an award in the Outstanding Green Project Awards 2000, he said, "The publication of the guide is an important step forward in addressing the rising public expectation for the improvement in appearance of slopes in Hong Kong."
Mr Chan said, landscape treatment measures have been provided to slopes upgraded under the Landslip Preventive Measures (LPM) Programme with a view to blending them into their environment. The expenditure in 1999 in providing landscape treatment for LPM slopes was about $20 million.
"From this year onwards, the GEO is committed to providing landscape treatment to every slope to be upgraded under the LPM Programme. In the coming years, we are aiming to spend up to $60 million on some 250 slopes per year," he added.
Mr Chan noted that the technical guidelines, prepared after consultation with professionals in the field, are not intended to be prescriptive and should only be applied where all safety standards and requirements have been met.
He added that according to an earlier public opinion survey conducted by the GEO, although the public expects better aesthetic designs and the Government to green more slopes, the community is still putting safety above appearance.
"It has always been and will continue to be our top preference to achieve aesthetic improvement by providing vegetation cover on slopes. However, in choosing a surface cover for a slope, we must consider both safety and practicability," he said.
"In dealing with steep slopes with shallow soil cover, landscape treatment measures other than vegetation cover will have to be adopted to improve the appearance of slopes," he explained.
The document is now for sale at $114 per copy at the Government Publications Centre, Ground Floor, Low Block, Queensway Government Offices, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong.
End/Friday, February 16, 2001
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