An Exploration of the Planning Approach for New Development Area with Underground Space in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is a densely populated city. Development of New Town or more recently called New Development Area (“NDA”) has been adopted to create more space for housing, working places and community facilities in the last few decades. But till now the planning of NDA remains focusing on above ground intervention without consideration in making use of underground strata and the opportunities for underground space development as a major land asset have not been fully explored. Whenever the potential use of underground spaces would arise, they are usually found to conflict with the established surface land development and difficult to be pursued.With the public aspiration for better living and working environment, the demand for enhanced utilization of underground strata as one of the spatial solutions is ever increasing in Hong Kong. As a response, underground space is now considered by a government appointed task force as one of the medium-to-long term options in increasing land supply. This paper will endeavour to propose an integrated approach of land use planning incorporating underground space for the future NDA planning, drawing on the experiences from recent plans and projects in other cities.