The Urban Hong Kong

This week, I was involved in a paper on why an urbanised area has specific risks and how contents from the conference can be translated into the built environment. More than half of the world’s population live in an urban setting, and the numbers are only going to increase. This requires careful planning and the input of scientific evidence in coordinating solutions specific for an urban setting.

Hong Kong is not particularly susceptible to natural disasters, but according to the Sustainable Cities Index, we are the third highest in the world for risk of natural disasters. Hong Kong is an urbanised area where impacts of climate change and other naturalised events are starting to take a toll. Hong Kong is a very typical urban heat island, frequent victim to typhoons, and perhaps more severely affected, heatwaves. With an urban migration to Hong Kong, there is no doubt that the high density of residents will ultimately exacerbate urban disasters.

In Hong Kong, Hung Shui Kiu is currently the only development that will be following a sustainable plan where urban spaces and low carbon lifestyles will be considered. However its resistance towards natural disasters have been little mentioned, with only typhoons taken into account. Climate change is happening and the future risks are unpredictable. The government must act fast in order to establish more sustainable and resilient developments.

Assessing Health-system Capacity for Crisis Management

While discussing possible work for my duration of my internship in PHE, I was provided with the suggestion of proposing a plan for assessing Hong Kong’s Health-system Capacity for Crisis Management. This is of utmost importance to evaluate what is currently in place in order to improve the system.

Climate change might also bring about new hazards previously not common for Hong Kong, such as the intense cold surge a few weeks earlier, where some citizens might not have acted rationally in the cold, perhaps due to such rare drop in temperature and lack of public education, thus endangering their own lives and those of the rescue teams.

Although the Hong Kong emergency system is faring well under current circumstances, we must be ready to fight against unknown and unpredicted risks. Perhaps we can learn from other countries what they do better than us and adapt new preventive measures into a Hong Kong context? It is also vital to educate the public on how to react to such adverse weather events in prevention of accidents in the future.

Aftermath of UNISDR Conference

It has been a week since the conference and we have received numerous messages of congratulations and praise on the organizing committee’s hard work for organizing the conference.

In Public Health England’s perspective, we released a blog post on the importance of this high-level conference. Professor Murray also explains the history and different resources that interlink to create the pathway towards this conference. Scientists’ important input towards disaster risk reduction around the world was also highlighted

We were also honoured to be mentioned in Duncan Selbie’s weekly Friday message of activity highlights:

It’s also one of the busiest weeks since I started work here. We have two weeks to compile and create one piece of conference proceeding to be submitted as a journal article, where we talk about the discussions held during the conference, and some of the outcomes that were reached and agreed upon. 

Research Gaps

This conference aims to bring science and technology into the planning and implementation of disaster risk reduction measures. In order to come up with an effective comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach, there needs to be an interdisciplinary collaboration where expertise and pooled to maximize the utility of resources.

During the conference and while writing up the proceedings of the conference, what struck me most is the fragmentation of the scientific community. Each research group and organisation has their own research agendas and communication between different parties is minimal. This has led to a lot of duplication in research areas and research gaps in areas that are perhaps more difficult to work in. One of the biggest gaps in science and technology is the mapping of all researches that are being undertaken in order to fill in the gaps and improve efficiency of research. Partnerships can thus be formed to further improve the quality and breadth of research.

Hong Kong is a small city, and the main research institutes are mostly affiliated with a university system. Each research institute has its own networks and areas of expertise, hence a collaboration can perhaps make the most out of the pool of existing resources. For example, those that research on the disaster risks of vulnerable populations can collaborate with those that research in health service infrastructures to come up with health policy recommendations that can be comprehensive, needs-based and have a multi-hazards approach.

This sharing of research directions, which allows the transparency of research interests, allows for the mapping of areas that are research-rich where ideally partnerships can form, and most importantly, identify the gaps in research where there is a necessity.


The other important issue is the dissemination of knowledge to the public. There are an abundance of research topics in Hong Kong, yet most of these researches that are done for the community have not been effectively translated into laymen language for dissemination to a wider audience. With the sharing of resources brought on by partnerships, maybe there will be an increased capacity in translating research information to a more general public?

Young Scientists Side Event

Inside the conference center

One of the events that hit me close to heart is the young scientists’ side event during the conference. I am a young scientist, hence I felt much more involved.

Although there can definitely be improvements on the process of the event, the outcome has made me proud. I was very impressed seeing the enthusiasm of the young scientists. As young scientists are often disregarded in the science community due to young age and lack of experience, their opinions are often ignored. The young scientists’ platform accumulates the power of young scientists from all over the world and acts as a bigger spokesperson with higher bargaining power in order to make young scientists’ voices heard. Young scientists’ biggest asset is creativity as they are not bound by societal rules. This can be beneficial when novel inputs are needed where ideas are exhausted, such as identifying research gaps.

Hong Kong’s young people are never afraid to let their voices be heard. However, there is no effective young scientist platform as such, where young scientists can congregate and share knowledge and form partnerships. While there are a lot of student associations and organisations for youth, there is no big voice that represents young professionals. In order to show the science community the assets we have, young scientists have to unify to form a formal platform in order for ideas to be shared. I believe the passion a lot of young people have can make a significant impact on the research scene in Hong Kong.



A visit to Geneva will not be complete without the obligatory photo of the broken chair.

Preparations of UNISDR Conference

It has been a hectic week, with final preparations for the conference. It is only a few days countdown for it. I have learnt so much during the preparation leading up to the conference. This is the first time I’ve been involved in something in such scale and such height in the global arena. I will share more about my academic learning more after the conference. But first I would like to express my absolute amazement in all the people skills I have learnt working with the team and the organizing committee during this preparation.

As the scientists involved in the conference, ranging from the speakers to the organizing committee are all from different parts of the world, it has been a challenge getting information and details across to all target participants. However the zeal eluded from all that are involved, while striving for the same goal, is priceless. There are precious lessons to be learnt from each country’s practices and  each DRR initiative  hence this conference seem to be the perfect platform to share ideas to improve each others’ practices. It also offers an opportunity for collaboration with each other, and with the Sendai Framework.

Although Hong Kong is not particularly hit by a lot of major natural disasters, prevention is better than cure, hence it would be useful to learn and adopt preventive DRR measures in the future.

Banner for our conference at the Centre International de Conférences Genève!

Disasters all over the world

Other than preparation for the UNISDR conference, one of my tasks here include a weekly bulletin sent out to a subscription list that involves those interested in global hazards. This bulletin includes natural disasters around the world that has made significant impact both to human lives and in a public health perspective.

During the research for this bulletin, it was humbling to come across so many neglected incidents happening around the world. Most of these stories do not make headlines as they do not make a significant enough impact on human lives to raise attention, but nonetheless make sufficient impact on the affected population. Although these events seem trivial compared to larger world events, the lives of the affected are significantly destructed and even destroyed. The bulletin is useful as small impact disasters should merits attention too.

While it is understandable that media attention can lead to increased public attention and hence support, it is also worrying about the events that do not even make it onto the news due to remote geography or social isolation of the populations. How can we effectively reach all these populations? How would we even know about these disasters?

Whilst there are numerous non-governmental organisations trying to reach such communities, they often act on a needs based and only react after emergencies happen. Although there are various organisations that engage in bottom-up resilience building work, a full coverage is impossible. Hong Kong is a relatively small place, but even at this age and technology, many settlements in the countryside and ethnic minorities (such as the large domestic helper populations) are still often neglected in policy making and services. There needs to be a bridge to reach the forgotten populations.