Urban problems – creating a Case Study

Hong Kong
Andrej Ivanic 2b

Introduction

Hong Kong, is actually not counted as neither a country nor a

city. Due to its previous history, and politics, today it is a
Special administrative region (SAR) of China, similar to
Macau. The area of Hong Kong is 1104km 2, smaller than the
likes of Los Angeles, London, but larger than Berlin and
Madrid. Its population is more than 7 million, with the
population density being 7140 people per km 2. The place of
Hong Kong is the home of a few urban problems.

Poor air quality

Air quality is a serious concern in Hong Kong, with the

pollution of their air having estimating more than 5000 deaths in 2021. For nearly one third of the year,
visibility in the area doesn’t go above 8 kilometers. For several days, you can see haze roaming in the
city. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend PM2.5 levels to be no higher than 10 µg/m3. A
few years back, Hong Kong had over 30 µg/m3 and significant amounts of harmful gases, which is seen
as unhealthy and can lead to respiratory problems, such as asthma. It can also cause most people
irritations of the nose, eyes and such. The main source of pollutants come from vehicle emissions, which
there is a lot in the city. Other
than vehicles being a cause for
smog, we also have power
plants in the city that influence
the air very much. Many
departments and charitable
organizations have been
established to help improve
the air quality. There have
been made new rules and laws
for the use of older diesel
fueled cars. It is hoped that the
coal powered stations convert
to the use of natural gas, as
well as energy consumption
being implemented. When cars
are stopped at junctions, it is
now required that the engines
are turned off and not left idling. As well as in the rest of the world, there is major promotion of the
using of electric cars.

High levels of traffic congestion

Traffic congestion is high in Hong Kong. This is due to there being a lot of private cars, with a large
population density. There is a lot of people, on a small amount of land, that need to move around a lot.
As there is not a lot of land, there is a limit to how much can be invested in transport infrastructure. On
average, it has more than 30% congestion level, which isn’t the worst, but also isn’t very good. Around
6pm, traffic is the worst, reaching up to 70%, meaning that a ride took 70% more time than in non-
congested conditions. Thanks to limited road space, there is not much the government can do to resolve
this issue.

Housing problems and high costs of land

Hong Kong has a housing crisis, in the sense that they lack affordable housing. They have been ranked as
one of the most expensive cities to live in. On
average, a person would have to save for 18
years, if they did not spend anything on food,
clothing, and such, to buy a house. Same goes for
buying land. This happened for many reasons,
such as their very high population density, the
green spaces and scarcity of the land, and the
policies of the government which lock up 40% for
parks and green spaces, which makes it even
more scarce, tax revenue and such. A lot of these
poor people live in something called a cage home,
which is very something horrible and
disrespectful, where people basically
live like animals. Some proposed
solutions were to building public
housing in parklands, reclaiming land for
artificial islands, creating capsules the
size of cage homes and revitalizing old
industrial buildings as homes.
 REFERENCES

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