The barriers to sustainable urban development of a compact city

In the environmental level approach of sustainable development, sustainability focuses on prevention of exploitation of natural resources to exhaustion therefore advocates for rational use and environmental protection and conservation. Environmental protection focuses on water resource management, sustainable construction, investment in renewable energy sources and promoting sustainable mobility of people and goods. This makes environmental protection an important aspect of consideration in urban planning. Social sustainability describes the development of people, Kwun Tong and cultures which focuses on fair distribution of resources, adequate health care and safety and education. Social sustainability includes emerging matters such as gender equality. The practitioners of urban planning include architectures, public consultants, public administration, planners and civil engineers. Planners and engineers play the role of designing streets, buildings parks and the general appearance of urban areas in such a fashion that these facilities are well interconnected to serve communities with great efficiency and with least disturbance to the natural environment.

The landscape architectures play the role of formulating the aesthetic appearance of the town and its regions while civil engineers play the role of designing how this can be achieved through structural designs. Other persons of interests in urban planning are public consultants and environmental impact assessment officers who through working as a team formulate policy recommendations, implementation, maintenance and management strategies of the infrastructures and facilities provided in urban areas. 2 Problem statement Hong Kong is a town located in south china comprising of high dense environment of mixed land uses , housing diversity , high population with efficient transit and transport systems which makes it a typically compact city. For instance in a study carried out in 2001 in Hong Kong 60 percent of vehicles in Hong Kong are privately owned and usually have a lower passenger capacity and thus they occupy most of the spaces causes traffic congestions and parking problems.

Hong Kong is an internationally recognized city and port that has numerous economic activities taking places owing greater production of commercial waste and sewerage as well as increased demand for transport. Therefore, due to the situation serious investigation on the barriers of urban planning needs to be addressed and appropriate mitigation measures proposed in this research project. 3 objectives 1. 1 Main objective To investigate the barriers to sustainable urban planning of a compact city case study of Hong Kong city 1. In this period Hong Kong underwent sets of event that lead to territorial economic growth. The first major event that is considered to have boosted the development if Hong Kong establishment of People’s Republic of china (PRC). The establishment of PRC limited the natural expansion of Hong Kong in South China (Chiu, 2018).

  This negative factor was as a result of a series of other factors including the increase in number of migrants comprising of poor, unskilled and powerful Shanghainese industrialists. These merchants moved their businesses from Shanghai to Hong Kong in order to take advantage of the local cheap labor that was available in Hong Kong. According to Chan& Postiglione (2016) the process of rehabilitation and redevelopment of cities in town is a continuous process throughout the world. At the early stages of development of a city, the planning process is not guaranteed to be perfect due to a number of factors. The rate of growth of a town, economic activities and the social factors influence how the town will be in future. It is a difficult and challenging task for the planners to predict the future appearance of a town.

Hong Kong like other cities in the world is faced by the challenges of urban decay and this is attributed by the dense population in limited land space. The population of Hong Kong has been increasing gradually and it is not attributed to increase in birth rates of the residents in Hong Kong but as a result of movements of people from the mainland of china to Hong Kong. As stated earlier, Hong Kong has been offering so many opportunities in terms of cheap labor and also as a result of its strategic plan. Its strategic location offers a good site for the development of infrastructures such as airports, railways and ports. As a result of the migration of the people from the suburbs and rural areas to Hong Kong, the city has experienced rapid changes in terms of housing demand and degradation of the environment.

There are so many factories and industries located in the city which pose a great danger to the urban life and the quality of living (Zheng,Shen & Wang, 2014). Forecast of population of Hong Kong in 2050 (source: Hong Kong Population, 2018) 2. 1 Pollution One of the major environmental challenges of concern in Hong Kong is air pollution due to many industries and factories. This is a similar problem in many other Asian cities but due to the fact that Hong Kong is more developed in terms of infrastructure, it has a greater challenge when it comes to pollution. One of the major factors that have contributed to challenges of pollution is inappropriate siting of industries and residential buildings. From the history of Hong Kong the government of china had non-intervention policies which lead to the unplanned placement of industries, factories and other infrastructures in relation to the residential buildings (Hassan & Lee, 2015).

The government was mow moving to imposing fine on polluters through the “polluter pay principle”. This principle aimed at imposing fines to industries and individuals for causing pollution in proportion to the level of pollution and extent of the hazard to the environment and the effect on health of the people. By levying the environmental polluters the principle led a positive impact and a significant move to achieving sustainability in the city but did not offer a long term solution. This is because; companies that were capable of paying the fines could continue to discharge their wastes into the environment since there was no other restriction apart from the fines (Zhu & Zhao, 2015). The negative impact of the initiative was that it was not widely enforced and it was so techno centric in that it focused on the problem rather than the cause of the problem.

2 Housing Hong Kong’s poor residents live in smaller spaces of approximately 4. 6 sq meters compared to prisoners, according to a survey carried out in 200 families. Hong Kong is one of the wealthiest cities in the world but still remains to be one of the deeply unequal societies. Hong Kong has the world’s most expensive housing market since the house prices have been increasing as a result of investments increase by the mainland Chinese in the property market and governments unwillingness to employ developers. In a government report on a survey carried out in 2016, more that 65 percent of families in some parts of Hong Kong live in units ranging between 7-13 sq meters. We're stacked like sardines, and there are no regulations.

We'd all be dead if a fire were to start (2011). ” Housing shortage and economic limitation predisposes thousands of citizens to health and safety risks. Housing shortage is a common practice in which a single living unit is subdivided further to accommodate more people. Two men living in a metal cage (source: Cugurullo, 2018). Increase I traffic congestion results in increased delays as well as environmental pollution (Hannam et al. According to the Third Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-3) commissioned by the government in 1997 was focused in providing advanced technology in transport management, better use of the railways as major public transport system and better integration of land use and transport. The CTS-3 also focused on providing better environmental protection initiatives (Black, 2018). According to CTS there are five broad categories of recurrent problems that increase traffic congestion: 1.

Increased vehicle ownership 2. Vehicles circulate on the roads as drivers search for on-street parking which is not readily available (Rode et al. Private vehicles on roads in Hong Kong (source: Rode et al. Consequently, it has become difficult to implement effective management and enforcement measures to tackle the problems of parking and limiting number of vehicles entering the city. The Working Group has been emphasizing for development of off-street parking as a strategy to reducing the number of private vehicles accessing the city in order to increase the efficiency of the available road space. The effectiveness of the management and reinforcement measure is dependent on the cooperation and compliance of the road users. This in turn increases the overall cost of living thus reducing the quality of life.

Long traffic queues allows continued emission of engine gases which reduce the quality of breathing air in the city and exacerbates public health threat and quality of life. Internationally, this kind of pollution portrays an negative image of the world class metropolitan, thus limiting its attractiveness to the overseas companies which would like to establish their branches and headquarters in Hong Kong. Finally, the efficiency of emergency response teams such as fire engines and ambulances is limited by slow-moving traffic, therefore they do not effectively respond to incidents (Rakowska et al. 5 How urban planning contributes to sustainable urban development 2. In 1972 warning were issued on urbanization in the Stockholm Conference which stated principle 15 states that: ‘Planning must be applied to human settlements and urbanization with a view to avoiding adverse effects on the environment and obtaining maximum social, economic and environmental benefits for all’ (Principle 15) (Shobeiri et al.

The consequences of rapid urbanization were realized in 1976, when the world witnesses the fastest migration into cities and towns as recognized by the Habitat I Conference. Urban planning is an important development tool for managing and converting the natural environment into built environment. Sustainable urban planning is divided into sustainable urban models, stages within planning process and structure of planning and planning procedures. Sustainable urban model depicts that urban sustainable development covers Compact and efficient land use, healthy social ecology, Kwun Tong participation and involvement , reduced usage of automobiles, reliability on renewable resources, efficient use of resources , less pollution and controlled waste generation, adequate and safe housing and living environments, sustainable economics and preservation of local cultures, norms and wisdom. These are main characteristics found in cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai making them suitable examples for use in this research project.

They are cities characterized by increased socio-economic aspects which are inseparable with environmental issues in those cities. The cities differently address their social, economic and environmental factors due to their differences in stage of development, administration, location, assets and resources. As a result, they provide different approaches which can be adopted in cities that have similar problems at some point of development. As a result these cities are individually addressed in connection to Hong Kong study. Due to its strategic location it well connected to at least 600 ports and more than 120 countries (Neirotti et al. Among the south Asian cities, Singapore is known to be the most connected and well advanced in communication technology such as the Ericsson tech provider. In matters of transport, Singapore is different from Hong Kong.

The streets are cleaner and wider to accommodate more vehicle traffic. There is a greater control of solid waste in the cities and waters nearby. The Four National Taps strategy was established in Singapore as goals for making the city fully water self-sufficient by 2016. Both cities depend on traditional water sources as well as innovative usage. The Hong Kong government is a suspect considering the methods of environmental data reporting. The reports on per capita water consumption are not accurate on the public domains in the sense that domestic water is categorized into flushing and fresh water whose data are published separately thus Hong domestic water is be 40 percent lower than it is practically. Dongjiang River in mainland China is the Hong Kong’s main source of drinking water.

Singapore has it waster sources from local catchments (active beautiful and clean waters (ABC waters)), reclaimed waters (NEWaters), desalinization of sea water and importation from Malaysia. According to plans by water resource management boards, the importation of water will be phased out in order to achieve sustainability goals of self-reliance in water resource usage. The plans by the Public Utility Board are to ensure maximum collection of rainfall water, increase recycling and reuse of water to over 50 percent by the year 2061. The goal of Singapore is to have 90 percent of the water supplied from natural catchment and collect as much rainfall as possible as strategies for phasing out expensive sources such as desalinization and importation (Irvine, Chua & Eikass, 2014). The tops ranks were taken by European cities in a research done by the Centre for Economic and Business Research for assessment done in over 50 cities under three key areas of planet, people and profit under the principles of sustainable development (Menikpura, Sang-Arun & Bengtsson, 2016).

Other cities among the best top ten were Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Madrid and Berlin all performing better than Hong Kong. The key issues used to rank the cities by the index was energy consumption of the city, the rate of air pollution, recycling rates, drinking water quality and sanitation standard and the ability of a city to do well in global economic networks. Singapore is more recognized for the ability to maintain a sustainable ecosystem at the core of the urban mater planning. According to the reports, Asia was poorly performing in the social factors sector due to longer working hours as compared to the global standard. Most cities showed a great challenge in managing the human factor in that standards of living were high, citizens worked for longer hours.

The adoption of consumption-led approach by china has been a threat to economic growth all over the globe. Population characteristics highly determine the economic potential of a country. In Singapore there is a major challenge since there are lower birth rates and increased aging rates which has led to loss of the active population therefore, the country relies on foreign workforce. The problem with aged population is that they consume more and produce less and the government is forced to provide services to cater for the elderly therefore, diversion of resources meant to focus on production of goods and services that could help lift the GDP. Unemployment is Singapore has led to decreased in demand for goods due to inflation and weak economic growth.

The number of Shanghai residents living in relative poverty will continue to rise with increasing levels of unemployment. The major uncertainty is whether the economic structural changes as a result of SOE reform will be able to promote economic growth end up reducing the number of people living below the poverty line. On the matters of the environment urban housing development, use of natural resources and industrial sectors are not always sustainable as ought to be. The environmental degradation and overexploitation associated with rapid urban development is a major concern of the Shanghai government. The dramatic population increase, urban expansion and industrialization have resulted to increasing the pressure on the land use. Tokyo has been building an urban environment that is rich greenery such as Parks and other attractive cityscape while promoting the construction of better housing and controlled settlement of people.

The Bureau of Urban Development has been regularly revising the City Planning Vision and is proceeding with a variety of projects which are basically focused in promoting the basic concept of bringing up an attractive and prosperous environmentally sustainable city that will serve as a model for the world. The modern urban development is a process of continuous transformation and improvement of sustainable development worldwide and as a result of differences in resources, stages of development and other demographic factors each city may take a unique approach to achieve sustainable development, progress and specific countermeasures to protect the natural resources that have not reached critical conditions. The practical process of transition therefore requires each city to follow a specific path that is suitable to its sustainable development and respond to positively to dynamic changes in society (Turker, 2018).

In conclusion, the most important concept for city planning is its sustainability since urban civilization cannot take place with the traditional approaches which limits the contemporary mankind. The area should also be characterized by low quality of housing, unauthorized housing, inadequate infrastructure and social services. Consideration will also be given to the overall settlement patterns which are also am major problem in the developing cities. Prior to carrying out a reconnaissance , it will be necessary to collect information about the study area from literature and Google Earth. Reconnaissance - before carrying out the actual survey to collect data and information a prior visit will be done to familiarize with the area of study and acquire the necessary legal permits to carry out a study.

After the legal permits have been obtained, there it will be important to introduce the researcher (myself) to the locals of the area and give them a brief about the research projects and the objectives of the survey to be carried out. As a result of massive immigration of the Chinese immigrants there was increase in demand for housing in Kwun Tong. Out of 200 questionnaires sent in each region, 72 percent were filled up and returned. 56 percent of the returned questionnaires were filled by permanent residents who agreed that the setting up of the high-rise building has usually been uncontrolled, ungoverned and in most cases they were not sure whether the laws, regulations and building codes are not usually observed. Poorly constructed and aged buildings are a great threat to the residents since they risk collapsing.

Most resident claimed that the combination of issues of overcrowding and failure to follow building regulations results in most of the building collapsing. According to most of the residents, the town’s assets include natural environments and increased technology. The city was considered by the residents to be technologically fit in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, smart city and financial technology which were referred to as the four major strengths for development in Kwun Tong district. This is supported by global innovation index; report Kwun Tong district has been a growing research, innovation and technological centre being ranked the second largest technological cluster. Industrial data (source: Global Index Reports, Erkkilä & Piironen, 2018) The main liabilities of the city according to the citizens include the environments for which he city should be responsible for any damages to the environments during development process.

Most of the residents did not have knowledge of the existence of natural beauty such as parks within then town. By doing so the residents believes that when the industrial waste are segregates o their own they can become easier to handle that when in a combined system with the residential waste. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS TO HOUSING PROBLEM 1. Decongestion and Resettlement The Hong Kong city management should focus on decongestion of overcrowded areas. The city management should separate the residential areas from industries and provide efficient means of transport for people to travel to places of work. Resettlement should involve distributing people to different places so that congestion can be relived where the ecosystem does not support as much people has there are in a region.

The demolition wastes and construction debris are not usually well disposed that destroying the living environment when they get combined with other municipal waste in the dump sites. The residents indicated that city decay due to old buildings is major problem in sustainable development due to inefficient use of available land. The residents thought that there is a problem with the law, regulation and building codes enforcement in Kwun Tong District since no control is exercised to control the putting up of houses and other structure in order to have order in the city. Inappropriately sited and houses built without adherence to building codes have become a major environmental hazard. Residents proposed that the environmental department in Hong Kong should improve their strategies in handling the environmental matters.

99 percent of the respondents who make routine trips to the city indicated that they have always been caught up by traffic congestion while on a taxi or other vehicles. According to the residents, the four major problems facing transportation systems in Kwun Tong District include; overcrowding in pavements and MTR facilities attributed by the high population of immigrants owing the high demand for public transport, traffic congestion and noise pollution. Although Kwun Tong District is faced by various problems addressed in this research project, it has a well developed system to cater for the high population. Due to increased traffic volumes there are higher chances of collisions between vehicles and pedestrian owing to the high rise of accidents. In areas such as TKO tunnel there are increased traffic bottlenecks due to narrow traffic lanes which limit the design speed of the road leading to traffic congestion.

This will assist in reducing the journey time thus facilitating high traffic flow. Human traffic has been increasing due to commercial development in Kwun Tong district since most of the people work in the city centre. This problem can be alleviated by relocating some of the important business centers to the suburbs so that at least half of the population does not need to commute to and from town thus reducing the human traffic and high demand for public transport. This can also be solved by renovating the existing the subways and footbridges to facilitate the mobility of the pedestrian. The activities in the streets can also be reduced in order to give way to human traffic along the streets. Investigation should be carried out to find out how the locally available materials can be effectively be used in construction of affordable housing.

The government of Hong Kong should regulate the ownership of vehicles in order to handle the problem of parking and congestion in the city. The MTR should have greater coverage of the destinations in order to reduce the chances of passengers alighting at some points to take a taxi to their desired destination. CHAPTER SEVEN References A review of the effectiveness of urban renewal in Hong Kong | Property Management | Vol 26, No 1. (n. Black, J.  Urban transport planning: Theory and practice. Routledge. Brooks, A.  Gendered work in Asian cities: The new economy and changing labour markets. A.  The Hong Kong Reader: Passage to Chinese Sovereignty: Passage to Chinese Sovereignty. Routledge. Chiu, S. W. K.  City states in the global economy: Industrial restructuring in Hong Kong and Singapore.

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K. The roles of scientific research and stakeholder engagement for evidence-based policy formulation on shipping emissions control in Hong Kong.  Journal of environmental management, 223, 49-56. Zheng, H. W. APPENDICES Questionnaires The questionnaires, also know and View Collection Forms (VCFs) will be designed to seek views and suggestions on the following areas: • urban design issues and other relevant urban design objectives and issues to be considered • sustainability design principles relating to social, environmental and economic aspects in Hong Kong • environmental protection, conservation and pollution • Public opinion on housing and transportation problems and possible remedy • Sustainability issues (social, economic and environmental) • challenges to sustainable development QUESTIONNAIRES (PLEASE TICK AS APPROPRIATE) GENERAL QUESTIONS (a)I am: Permanent resident Seasonal resident (b) What do you values most about living in these regions of Hong Kong? (c) What are the three major issues facing your municipality of Kwun Tong ? 1………………………………….

(d)Does the Kwun Tong have the basic services such as water, road, sewer, health centers and recreation? Yes No (e) If no, what is the basic need service missing and where? (f) In the list provided below, identify and list 5 most important issues the town should focus on depending on level of urgency: Transportation, security officers, affordable housing, land use planning, environmental protection and services , library, nursing homes, health clinic, child care, recreation, waste management services, entertainment and leisure, continuing education, technology and telecommunications, shopping facilities, tourism and hospitality Other (please specify) 1…………………………………………………………. 4…………………………………………………………… 5…………………………………………………………… (g)Have you ever heard of town planning process? YES NO (h)The town is planning to develop sustainable own, Do you have any ideas and suggestions? (i)What is the town are greatest ASSETS? (j)What is the town are greatest LIABILITIES? (k) Do areas of ‘natural’ beauty exist in the town? YES NO (l)Are you aware of any parks in cities or towns? YES NO (m) Do you consider Parks and Woodlands to be important in city and town areas? YES NO PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES Please indicate the degree to which you agree with the following statement: (please tick the term you feel describes it best) (a) I am aware of the impacts of the built environment on public health (b) In your opinion, what are the most pressing Kwun Tong issues in your town area? (Please check all that apply.