Urban problems in a growing city

In this unit, we are going to learn…

Housing problems

Traffic congestion

Urban
problems in a
growing city
Land use conflicts

Environmental problems

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Hong Kong

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What problems does a growing city bring?
What is wrong in Hong Kong? Identify the problems shown below.

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Summarize these problems.
Any other problems have been brought about by the growth of urban Hong Kong?
What has the HKSAR government
done to tackle problems?
What new problems or conflicts may arise when solving these
problems?
- Developing new towns takes up rural areas, poses harm on
natural environment.
- Traffic congestion on the trunk roads linking between the new
towns and main urban areas may occur
- Redevelopment involves a huge amount investment and may
cause social conflict and disappearing of neighbourhood
network in the community.
- Landfills waste a lot of valuable land resources and intensify
land use competition.
- Waste recycling may face opposition from society since
people need to change their lifestyle. Besides money is
needed to support the recycling industries.
- Building more roads and rails occupies land. This intensifies
land use competition and may lead to reclamation and land
assembly.
- Reclamation causes harm to the environment.
- Land assembly may arouse social conflict, disappearing of
neighbourhood network in the community.
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Problems in a growing city

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  The supply of housing cannot meet the
Housing problems
growing demand.
 High land rent may create a huge burden
for poor people (and new migrants).
 Many buildings in inner city areas have
poor appearance and structure, obsolete
and inadequate facilities, and poor
hygienic conditions.
 These buildings usually do not receive
proper maintenance.
 The living environment in these buildings
is often poor.
Traffic congestion  Traffic demand exceeds roadway
capacity.
 It is particularly serious:
- during peak hour when a large
number of people commute between
suburbs and city centre
- in inner city areas where streets are
narrow and traffic flow is high

Environmental problems  Caused by exhaust gases, such as sulphur

dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen
oxides and suspended particulates, from
power plants, factories and vehicles.
 Hong Kong’s air pollutants mainly come
from power plants in Hong Kong and
factories in the Zhujiang Delta.
 Serious air pollution leads to more cases
of respiratory illness and increases the
government's medical expenditure.
 Economic and industrial activities and
domestic consumption generate a large
amount of waste water.
 This sewage may contain toxic chemicals
and bacteria that are harmful to our
environment.
 In Hong Kong, the spread of red tides due
to huge blooms of algae pollutes our
beaches and fish culture zones.
 Caused by street traffic and construction
activities.
 Noise pollution causes a nuisance to
people and affects their daily lives and

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 health.
 Several different types of solid waste are
generated from household, commercial
and industrial sources.
 These wastes may be toxic, hard to
decompose and need a large amount of
land to build landfills for their disposal.
 It is a form of environmental degradation
in which excessive artificial outdoor
lightings, such as street lamps, neon
signs, and illuminated signboards, affect
the natural environment and the
ecosystem.
 The wasteful light emitted directly
upwards or reflected upwards from
poorly-designed artificial light sources
can be scattered by clouds, fog, and
pollutants like suspended particulates in
the atmosphere.
 The night sky is thus brightened, leading
to a reduced number of stars visible in
the sky due to a decrease of the light
contrast.
 Environmental health addresses all the
physical, chemical and biological factors
in the natural and added environment
that may affect our health.
 Overcrowded urban areas facilitate the
spread of diseases, e.g. the outbreak of
SARS disease in 2003
 Different kinds of pollution may threaten
the health of people.
Land use conflicts  Due to a lack of proper planning in the
inner city:
- different land uses mixed within the
same building
- incompatible land uses located
adjacent to each other