Densification potential in Hong Kong neighborhoods

Abstract

As the global population is surging tremendously, urban densification has become an inevitable solution in urban planning to manage the density. While in Hong Kong, densification has also become a foundation of urban planning due to the mounting population; limited buildable lands and land sale policy. In addition, urban densification has been researched in addressing urban problems and bringing advantages in sustainability such as shortening travel distances, concentrating public services facilities and reducing resource depletion. However, urban densification has also been challenged of its adverse effects. Due to densely built environment, poor ventilation is particularly significant due to contributing to urban heat island effect. Therefore, it is compelling to study the densification potential in Hong Kong before further densification can take place in order to reduce issues and to control future densification. The presented research has taken on a novel approach to studying the densification potential of urban neighborhoods, based on quantitative urban planning data sets and qualitative computational fluid dynamic analysis. Based on the developed theoretical framework, the presented report summarizes the application of the framework by means of three case studies for evaluation and validation.