The Impacts of Environmentally Mitigated River Channelization on Agriculture in Hong Kong

Abstract

Cities struggle with diminishing stormwater risks and improving urban climate resilience while supporting urban functions and enhancing the well-being of the residents. These circumstances have allowed studies on river renaturation to progress rapidly since the early 21st century. Nevertheless, the existing research has primarily focused on European or North American contexts, leaving the river renaturation for high-density Southeast Asian areas largely unexplored. This study seeks to advance the understanding of how environmental mitigation works impact the physical transformation of the landscape amid post-channelization in high-density Southeast Asian periurban areas, using the case study of the Sheung Yue River, Hong Kong. Longitudinal data on the morphological change of the Sheung Yue River and the landscape pattern modifications of a selected 1-km2 area from 1995 to 2005 were harvested from aerial photographs and analyzed. The outcomes suggested that the negative impacts of channelization on the landscape transitions could be limited by environmental mitigation work in the high-density Southeast Asian peri-urban context. Through these results, this study aims to contribute to policymaking on urban water management and river renaturation in the high-density Southeast Asian context.