Passing by the drainage system of Hong Kong island, I am starting to think about water issues in Hong Kong (HK), a city highly dependent on water supply from outside. One third of Hong Kong's surface is developed as water catchment area which is not enough to meet high water demand, even despite average annual rainfall in HK amounts to about 2400 mm. Therefore Hong Kong imports about 70 % of its water needed for industry and private use.
There are systems in place which help to reduce water dependency, such as a seawater toilet flushing system and several desalination plants. From a landscape perspective it is interesting that in Hong Kong even ocean bays (or arms) have in the past been fenced off from seawater and are now used as freshwater reservoirs. When it comes to water large scale landscape interventions have always been possible.
From a design (research) perspective it would be interesting which up-to-date (green) infrastructure measures could be inserted into the landscape of Hong Kong to harvest rainfall and mist and to which extent they would help to alleviate outside water dependency.
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