News

Management Committee Member of RILS has been appointed to the Urban Forestry Advisory Panel (2023-2024)

The Development Bureau announced on 30 December 2022 that 16 non-official members were being appointed to the Urban Forestry Advisory Panel (UFAP) for a term of two years from 1 January 2023. Sr Prof. Charles Man-sing WONG, management committee member of RILS, Associate Dean (FCE) and Professor of LSGI, was honoured to be one of them to receive the membership. The UFAP comprises both local and overseas experts from diffeent fields including urban forestry, plant science, engineering and landscape architecture related academics, professionals and experts, and will provide advice on orban forestry policies and intiatives from multiple perspectives. Please click here for access to the official Press Release from the HKSAR Government.  

RILS researcher wins the NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2022/23 Exercise

Dr H.F. DUAN, member of RILS and Associate Professor of CEE, has received a funding of HK$1,244,750, granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/Research Grants Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2022/23. Awarded Project Summary: The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) possesses an important strategic position in the overall development of China. In 2019, the Chinese Central Government released the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)”, with aims to fully utilize the advantages of the city cluster (9+2 cities) within the GBA. However, in recent years, extreme and compound climate and weather events (e.g., typhoon and rainstorm) have become more and more intense and frequent globally, leading to challenging situations for the environment and resources in coastal regions including the GBA. Recent studies have revealed that a large portion (estimated at 15-28% based on different methods) of current resident areas in the GBA will be below the flooding water level in 2100 due to climate change. This indicates that the coastal flooding issues induced by the joint occurrences of rainstorms and storm surges will become increasingly severe in the future in the GBA. Through the close collaboration of the Hong Kong and Mainland teams, this joint project carries out scientific research on investigating the patterns and characteristics of joint occurrences of coastal rainstorms and storm surges, thereby assessing the resultant flooding risks in the GBA. This project addresses two scientific research issues as follows: (1) the underlying patterns of rainstorm-storm surge joint occurrences in the coastal regions of GBA; and (2) the physical mechanisms of coastal flooding caused by compound climate and weather events in the GBA. To this end, the comprehensive methodology of statistical analysis, numerical simulation, laboratory and field tests is applied for this research. The results and deliverables from this project could provide scientific guidance and technical support for effective planning and management of coastal flooding in the GBA, as well as offer significant references for urban flooding mitigation and prevention in other coastal regions.

RILS scholar wins the Research Team of the Year Award in the 2022 RICS Awards Hong Kong

The research team led by Prof. Geoffrey Qiping SHEN, member of RILS and Chair Professor of Construction Management from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), has won the Research Team of the Year Award in the 2022 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards Hong Kong.  Since Year 2019, the research team has been working closely with the Qianhai Authority to comprehensively improve the level of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation in the construction sector. The team has proposed solutions to problems encountered in cross-regional collaboration of the construction industry in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). As an achievement, the team successfully drafted two sets of record-filing measures, named as "Administrative Measures for the Registration of Hong Kong Construction Organisations in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone" and "Administrative Measures for the Registration of Hong Kong Construction Professionals in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone". These two measures have been enforced by the Qianhai Authority. As of 18 November 2022, 409 Hong Kong-based professionals and 45 Hong Kong-based organisations had completed their filings in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone. The implementation of the two measures helps break down the qualification barriers in the construction sector of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, a move that was praised by the former Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government, Mrs Carrie LAM, during the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperation Meeting 2021. In July 2021, the administrative measure was listed as one of the 47 innovative measures and practices by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be promoted nationwide. Contribution by the research team in promoting collaboration in the construction sector in the GBA has been highly recognized by the RICS Hong Kong. The prestigious Research Team of the Year award represents the team’s outstanding achievements to the built environment, which will inspire the team to continue contributing to cross-regional collaboration in the GBA development.

RILS researcher wins the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme 2022/23

Dr Shuo WANG, member of RILS and Assistant Professor of Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), has been awarded a funding of HK$470,350, granted by the Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme 2022-23. The title of the funded project is "Incorporating Spatial Heterogeneity of Rainfall Response to Climate Change into the Design of Slope Drainage Provisions in Hong Kong". The proposed project aims to incorporate global climate change impacts into local rainfall IDF curves for improving the design and adaptation of slope drainage systems to the changing climate, creating climate-resilient pathways for sustainable urban development in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the proposed project will provide the scientific foundation for climate adaptation policy, thereby supporting Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050. 

More RILS members recognised as top two percent of most-cited scientists 2021/22

Stanford University has announced the list that represents the top 2 percent of most-cited scientists in various disciplines. The report was prepared by a team of experts led by Prof. John IOANNIDIS, an eminent Professor at Stanford University. RILS is very honoured to have 17 of our high-performing members on the list this year. The updated list can be downloaded from here. Congratulations to our top scientists!

RILS researcher receives the NSFC’s Young Scientists Fund 2022

Congratulations to Dr Xiaopu LYU, Member of RILS and Assistant Research Professor of CEE, for winning the National Natural Science Foundation of China’s (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund 2022. The awarded project "Chemical processes and impacts on ozone formation of peroxyacetyl nitrate in high-altitude background atmosphere of Central China" will be granted funding of RMB 300,000 to support basic research work for three years. Thirty-nine research projects led by young researchers at PolyU have been recognised by the NSFC's Young Scientists Fund 2022, with PolyU ranking as the top grant recipient in terms of the number of projects awarded funding among local universities. The successful PolyU research projects cover a wide spectrum of topics, including environmental protection, green living environment, climate change, construction technology and innovation in AI-assisted medical devices, fostering a better future for our changing living environment.  

RILS member wins the ASCE 2022 Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize

Dr H.F. DUAN, member of RILS and Associate Professor of CEE, wins the 2022 Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This international recognition is given to the author, or authors, of that paper which is judged to be of superior merit, dealing with a problem of flowing water, either in theory or practice. Preferably, the award is given to a paper that is not otherwise recognized by receiving another Society prize. Click here for more details about the past award winners.

RILS member has published a comprehensive review article on remote sensing of land surface phenology

Collaborated with scholars from Mainland China, Australia, Switzerland, USA, and Singapore, Dr Xiaolin ZHU, member of RILS, and his former PhD student Dr Jiaqi TIAN have recently published a comprehensive review article on remote sensing of land surface phenology in Global Change Biology, a top journal in the field of Ecology (IF: 13.211). In this article, Dr ZHU and Dr TIAN present their research outcomes in the past few years. These studies mainly focus on the uncertainties in remote sensing of land surface phenology, which investigated the impact of spatial resolution, viewing-solar angle, temporal resolution, and noises in the time series on the vegetation phenology detection. The studies have also provided new insights on ecological studies based on satellite data.   Please click here for more details of the publication.   Other related publications: Tian, J., Zhu, X., Chen, J., Wang, C., Shen, M., Yang, W., Tan, X., Xu, S., Li, Z., Improving the accuracy of spring phenology detection by optimally smoothing satellite vegetation index time series based on local cloud frequency. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 2021, 180, 29-44. Tian, J., Zhu, X., Wan, L., Collin, M. Impacts of Satellite Revisit Frequency on Spring Phenology Monitoring of Deciduous Broad-Leaved Forests Based on Vegetation Index Time Series. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. 2021, 14, 10500-10508. Tian, J., Zhu, X., Shen, Z., Wu, J., Xu, S., Liang, Z., Wang, J. Investigating the urban-induced microclimate effects on winter wheat spring phenology using Sentinel-2 time series, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 2020, 294, 108153. Tian, J., Zhu, X., Wu, J., Shen, M., Chen, J. Coarse-Resolution Satellite Images Overestimate Urbanization Effects on Vegetation Spring Phenology. Remote Sensing. 2020, 12, 117.

RILS study explores the impact of place attachment on well-being for older people in high-density urban environment

Dr Yi SUN, Member of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) and Assistant Professor of the Department of Building and Real Estate at PolyU, and his research teammates have had some collaborative studies on ageing and environment.  The paper conceptualizes aging in place as a process where older people’s encounter with various environmental factors helps develop well- being. The articulation of aging in place as a meaning construction process highlights the importance of place attachment. The study extends the focal point of aging in place research from Western contexts to a denselylated Asian city, Hong Kong. Using a qualitative research approach, the researchers explore the meanings of well-being and place attachment, as well as how these two terms interact. The study has been published in Journal of Aging & Social Policy from Taylor & Francis Online. Please click here for the publication.

LSGI and RILS co-organised a Training Course for the Lands Department

Prof. Qihao WENG, Associate Director of Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) and Chair Professor of Geomatics and Artificial Intelligence of Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), successfully launched a 3-day training course for the Lands Department on 18, 19 and 23 August 2022. The participants explored topics concerning remote sensing and machine learning, applied their professional knowledge and skills in the following lab exercises, and developed sense of solving remote sensing related issues in a deep learning fashion.