Climate Exchange

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Climate services in Hong Kong:

accomplishment through

partnership and outreach

Hilda Lam, Assistant Director and Tsz-cheung Lee, Senior Scientific Officer, Hong Kong Observatory

ong Kong has a sub-tropical climate, situated off the

coast of south China with a land area of about 1,100

square kilometres. It has developed from a small fishing

village in the mid-nineteenth century into a modern and vibrant

metropolis with seven million people today. With the first obser-

vational post set up in 1883, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)

has been making meteorological measurements for almost 130

years. These serve as a valuable basis for its climate research and

services. During the rapid modernization period in the second

half of the twentieth century, HKO rendered high-quality climate

services in support of the infrastructural build of the city. In the

last few years, with a view to addressing the increasing needs

of society for climate services for policy and decision-making

(including for climate change mitigation and adaptation), HKO

has lent itself to building partnerships with various stakehold-

ers and engaging in outreach activities to broaden the scope and

applications of its climate services.

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Climate services in the twentieth century

During the twentieth century, the main thrusts of

HKO’s climate services were:

• To conduct climate observations and monitoring and

to maintain proper climate records

• To use relatively simple statistical methods to determine

the average climate conditions of Hong Kong

• To use extreme value analyses to estimate return

periods of specified values of meteorological

parameters.

With government departments and the engineering

community as its main clients, HKO was often called on

to provide meteorological data, analyses and advice for the

establishment and regular review of the engineering design

standards and codes of practice appropriate to local condi-

tions for protecting public safety. These included:

Image: HKO

The Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Project in the Victoria Harbour – a new harbour-front development in Hong Kong