PRESENTED BY: MAHA HASAN SYED ALI IMAM TAHIR

Achieving Environmental Sustainability through ICT Model country: Hong Kong

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Outline

Geopolitical position of Hong Kong Environmental issues in Hong Kong ICT projects implemented to achieve environmental sustainability Impacts and take aways for Pakistan Environmental conservation Proposed projects to achieve environmental conservation in Pakistan Conclusion

Geopolitical Position of Hong Kong

http://connekt.seecs.nust.edu.pk/

Hong Kong is located at the center of Pearl River Delta on the coast of Southern China. Hong Kong Island is positioned at the south of Victoria harbor. It comprises of more than 200 islands. Its northern territories stretch back to China.

Environmental Issues in Hong Kong

Air Pollution Hong Kong has had several cases of air pollution getting out of hand, in

particular in 2010 when about 1200 hours' worth of +100 reading on the Air Pollution Index (API) were recorded which explains the rise of medical conditions like Asthma and Bronchitis in the same year.

During March 21-23 when Hong Kong was afflicted with a sandstorm, 9 of the 14 monitoring stations in Hong Kong reported API levels above 500 which is the maximum on the scale and indicates hazardous conditions for human life.

Persistent smog continues to be a recurring problem in Hong Kong and has become very noticeable recently- with visibility less than 8km for a good 3-4 months of the year and the least sunlight hours of almost any city of the world

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Water Pollution

Most of Hong Kong’s fresh water supply (70-80%)is taken from the East River via aqueduct. This means that most of the water has to go through rigorous sewage water treatment.

Around 60 desalination and treatment facilities are required to operate in Hong Kong due to the pollution content of water.

Highly urbanized cities in China like Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan discharge hundreds of metric tones of waste in the water daily.

According to several news report, many pig farms have been illegally made alongside the river where feces and dead bodies are dumped into the water directly.

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ICT projects implemented by HK to achieve environmental sustainability

Green Buildings in Honk Kong• E-billing• E-aquaculture• Air Quality Monitoring Network• Carbon footprint management at home for sustainable low carbon living• Octopus card & MTR

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Green Buildings in Honk Kong

Green buildings lower the impact on the environment as they are designed and built in a way to be resource and ecological efficient.

Green buildings are dependable on many computational technologies such as GIS techniques to collect data and analyze sustainable location for construction, sensor taps in washrooms for conserving water and sensors to monitor Indoor Air Quality of buildings, temperature, humidity and air pressure.

Buildings such as Diamond Hill Crematorium, Lo Wu Correctional Institution, Yau Ma Tei Theatre, Fire Station-cum-Ambulance Facility at Kowloon Bay have been re-built as green buildings with the support of the government.

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E-billing

Hong Kong Associations of Banks (HKAB) launched Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment Service on 11th December, 2013. This offers one stop service to the clients as they can manage, view and receive electronic bills from those dealers who are registered, through their E-bank accounts.

E-billing has contributed majorly in achieving environment sustainability in Hong Kong by reducing the use of papers hence, discouraging deforestation. So far, according to Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Cooperation Limited more than 1000 companies of different sectors have registered for E-billing

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E-aquaculture

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Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) of Hong Kong has started relying on e-aquaculture. This consists of underwater monitoring survey, monitoring of drug concentration in fish to ensure food quality, early disease detection and viral screening services. The department also keeps the past records of disease outbreaks and chemical concentration in fish on online database to provide warning notification in future.

Air Quality Monitoring Network

Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong has established an air quality monitoring network which comprises of 14 monitoring stations. These stations are located in Yuen Long, Tai Po, Tap Mun, Tsuen Wan, Shai Tin, Kwai Chung, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Tung Chung, MongKok, Eastern, Western and Central Causeway Bay.

The monitoring network notifies about the level of air pollution in the respective areas, forecasts the air quality for the coming time and assesses how much the air quality standard has been violated or achieved. Air quality levels are also updated timely online on Environmental Protection Development for public view.

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Carbon footprint management at home for sustainable low carbon living

A step taken by the HKSAR government, this project has aimed at a 50-60% cut in Hong Kong's greenhouse emissions.

This project uses a database to provide the public a Carbon Audit Toolkit which consists of a carbon calculator and guideline material for use in homes. It's a simple principle in that the system uses data of carbon emissions in a cause-and-effect related scenario and allows the user to enter data allocated to their lifestyle and receive an overall report in carbon emission. They are then detailed on what they can do to reduce these emissions via the Carbon Audit Guideline software.

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Octopus card & MTR

Hong Kong has introduced Mass Transit Railway (MTR) which leads to transport sustainability and lowers the threat of air pollution.

All transactions and payments are made through contactless smart cards known as, “Octopus cards”. The Octopus card uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Octopus cards make it easier to manage MTR efficiently as the number of people availing the facility and payments become available to MTR Corporation on their online database.

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Carbon emission: Comparison between HK & PAK

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Greenhouse gases emission: Comparison between HK & PAK

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KEY LESSONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

Pakistan needs to employ environmental conservation techniques immediately due to the exploding population, especially in Urban regions which are highly populated.

Currently, pollution in Pakistan is one of the biggest challenges the country has to face especially keeping in mind how much economic strains the country is already facing.

If these issues are not tackled, they will put a strain on the health services sector which in turn puts a bigger strain on economy which results in even lesser expenditure on environmental conservation. Remember: Prevention is better than cure.

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Proposed projects to achieve environmental conservation in Pakistan

E-agriculture Air Monitoring System AQI Mobile Application

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E-agriculture

Weather forecasting monitors can be used to provide proper notifications of

rainfall to the farmers so that harvesting of crops which are ready can be done earlier.

Crop monitoring system can also be designed which would notify the farmers whether the crop is ready for harvesting based on the size of the crop. This monitoring system would have proper size or weight limits information in which the crop should be in order to be harvested, in its database.

Apart from that, the formation and progression of weed, pests and insects can also be monitored by such a system. It would detect and warn the farmers of any insect that poses threat to the crop.

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Air Monitoring System

Air monitoring system can be created by installing air pollution detectors in major places of major cities and connecting them to a central station. The detectors would receive information regarding air quality index of those places. Air quality index (AQI) could then be monitored, compared and implementations can be planned in order to regulate air pollution as per the results achieved.

This information can be updated online on websites for the public to view.

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AQI Mobile Application

AQI mobile application will notify the users of the air quality index of the place where they are at the moment. Apart from that, it can also provide them with information regarding the air quality of other place or cities of Pakistan as well as give them air pollution forecasts.

The mobile application can be designed in a way to show the following colors in order to indicate the air quality of the surrounding areas.

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Conclusion

Many of the techniques employed by Hong Kong involve education and awareness of public. If the public is made aware of the issues of environmental pollution and what they can do to actively reduce their impact, it results in an overall noticeable change in the emissions for that country.

Pakistan too should start with the people. Internet usage is wide spread here as is the growing demand for people to get their children educated in search for a better future. Having one the highest populations of students in the world, now is a critical time for Pakistan to address this issue and for environmental engineers to discuss and assess how they can employ practical approaches such as ICT as a solution to these issues.

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THANK YOU!

Follow the link for more information:

http://theenvironmentalist.host56.com/

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http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/air_quality/backgdf_2.html