The project led by our member, Dr Xiaolin ZHU, Assistant Professor of Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), has been awarded a funding of HK$281,060 from the first round of the Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme, managed by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office. This project is one of the only two projects receiving funds out of 27 applications.
Illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) materials can lead to severe environmental issues (e.g., destroyed wetlands), life and property risks (e.g., landslide), hygiene problems (e.g., clogging waterways), public health hazards (e.g., breeding germs), and urban planning issues (e.g., seizing public lands). Illegal dumping has become the third-largest source of pollution complaints in Hong Kong since 2020. With the anticipated saturation of the landfills’ capacity, public concern for illegal dumping becomes even more intensive. Illegal dumping of C&D tends to be stealthy, concealed and scattered, making it difficult to track the activities over a large area. Therefore, the capability for detecting illegal dumping should be enhanced urgently to maintain a clean and healthy city environment and to construct a liveable and competitive city.
Dr ZHU’s project provides not only an overview of the suspicious illegal dumping activities in Hong Kong, but also an effective approach to deploy manpower optimally across the relevant government departments for illegal dumping management. The departments can also determine their responsibilities based on the geographical distribution of the illegal dumping activities and other complementary data, such as land use maps. This project will not only contribute to detection of occurrence of illegal activities for the early warning but also to assessment of recovery works after a site is destroyed by illegally deposited C&D, as an essential part of illegal dumping management.
Please click here for more information about the research reports under PPR Funding Schemes.
| Research Units | Research Institute for Land and Space |
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