RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development engages primarily in applied, multidisciplinary environmental research and development activities that promote the social and technological development of Hong Kong and its region.
Agenda 21, produced at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, and agreed to by more than 150 governments, including China and Hong Kong, admonished all signatories to give high priority to issues of sustainable economic development. In the spirit of the accord, the Institute is pro-development and pro-technology, placing a strong emphasis on meeting the challenges of sustainable development.
Several priority areas of research, development and service are being pursued through a number of initiatives in the following areas:
REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS
Since the inception of the Institute, over 50 research or consultancy projects totaling more than $25 million in funding have been undertaken. In addition, many environmental research projects of academic staff members in the departments are carried out , some with assistance or participation by IESD. Representative projects from the Institutes' major research area are highlighted below followed by a more complete listing of IESD activities.
Coastal Ecosystem Management Programme for South China Sea
The South China Sea is one of the most economically and ecologically significant marine and coastal environments in Asia. Wastes produced by large urban populations and industrial development degrade tourism and fisheries activities in the region. The problems of environmental degradation are further complicated by the fact that the South China Sea coastline is shared by nine countries. Add-ressing trans-boundary environmental manage-ment issues in an important, inter-national water body requires both a high level of multidisciplinary work and well developed cooperation between institutions and governments of many countries. The Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development has initiated a major international project aimed at obtaining essential baseline environmental data and developing management tools to assist in devising an environ-mentally sound development strategy for the South China Sea region (China and Vietnam coasts). A remote sensing capability is now being developed to facilitate acquisition and interpretation of environmental data over this large coastal region. In a related pro-ject, the transport of suspended matters and ocean primary pro-ductivity in the waters sur-rounding the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong will be studied using remote sensing images to be transmitted by the SeaStar ocean color satellite and ground surveys. Funding for this project will come from international, national and local sources. The project will take up to 15 years.
Mangrove and Coastal Ecosystems
Mangrove forests are ecologically and economically important coastal vegetation zones. They provide nursery areas for juvenile sea life thus enhancing fishery productivity, they act as physical buffers between mainland developments and sensitive coastal zones, reducing sediment and other pollution loading to the sea. They also protect the land areas from erosion by sea waves. This research programme examines issues of mangrove wetlands management for conservation, wastewater treatment as well as other purely biological aspects of mangrove ecosystems.
Air Pollution and Atmospheric Modeling
The air quality research programme covers a wide range of projects related to the occurrence, distribution and health impacts of airborne pollutants. The ultimate objective of this programme is to provide knowledge and tools required to manage and reduce air pollution problems and their adverse health effects. IESD has successfully developed an integrated and comprehensive approach to air quality studies using ground data, airborne data (when available) and satellite data to drive meterological and air quality models. This approach is now being used to study the dispersion of air pollutants over Hong Kong and South China.