Hong Kong's poor air quality, particularly in the urban areas, is a particularly pressing issue. Predictions for urban air quality suggest that emissions of pollutants will continue to increase, resulting in further erosion of assimilative capacity in the absence of far-reaching and co-ordinated strategies of regulatory, fiscal and technological measures designed to address the problem. Continued decline in key air quality parameters such as respirable particulates, nitrogen oxides and ozone have implications for the health of the SAR population and the attractiveness of Hong Kong as place to live, work, invest and visit. Worsening air quality may also bring about ever-stricter emissions controls on industrial and commercial plant, necessitating regular replacement of abatement technologies. All of these effects have significant economic impacts. Swift and effective responses via policies and direct measures are urgently needed to overcome declining air quality, notwithstanding the political obstacles which certain influential vested interests may present.

Local environmental quality is also influenced by a high level of exposure to excessive noise from transport and construction activities in Hong Kong. Tighter planning controls together with more rigorous standards for construction site noise, actively enforced, with much tougher financial penalties to discourage repeat offenders, are needed. Traffic flow demand management may also be necessary to address excessive noise from this source in the medium term.

Heritage Resources - Issues and Trends

• The heritage baseline resource has been defined for the study as comprising 67 Declared Monuments, 8 Deemed Monuments, 443 graded historic buildings and structures and a further 184 Sites of Specific Archaeological Interest (SSAI). Only Declared and Deemed Monuments however are afforded legal protection from damage or destruction.

• Knowledge of the historical resource has been augmented by a recently completed territory wide archaeological survey, and research shows that evidence of human settlement in Hong Kong dates as far back as the Neolithic period - up to 4000 BC. Artefacts and remains from this period to the 20th Century have been discovered, and indicate the existence of both coastal and inland settlement.

• Despite the massive scale of development in Hong Kong there are also many examples of Chinese architecture including temples, villages and ancestral halls together with significant evidence of military structures in parts of the territory.

• Although the heritage resource has the potential to increase as additional sites are discovered, it is also under significant threat from new development, particularly in urban areas where older buildings with no statutory protection have traditionally been demolished to make way for new schemes rather than being incorporated into urban redevelopment programmes. In addition, the areas of highest potential for heritage resources are often in coastal regions where the pressure for new development is greatest and where significant reclamation has already been carried out. Rural areas too are under increasing threat from encroachment of developments, particularly in growth areas such as the new towns and where the lack of development controls on private land is threatening many traditional village buildings and other cultural features in the New Territories.