Land Supply and Land-Use Planning of Public Open Space in Hong Kong

Download or read book Land Supply and Land-Use Planning of Public Open Space in Hong Kong written by Man-Wai Darren Cheung and published by Open Dissertation Press. This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "Land Supply and Land-use Planning of Public Open Space in Hong Kong" by Man-wai, Darren, Cheung, 張文偉, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Modern cities do not only aim at focusing on economic development solely, but they also need to provide high quality of urban living environment which could achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability. Public open space constitutes an indispensible part in achieving this planning objective. Nevertheless, open space is not a unitary planning concept. It has been being constantly redefined to suit changing social and economic needs. This study investigates the development of land supply and land-use planning of public open space in Hong Kong. It attempts to examine how open space was understood, planned, and provided in different periods in Hong Kong. Open space is presumed to be influenced by the interplay of three main social forces, namely the government, the capitalists, and the people. The interplay of the three forces changes in different periods of time in Hong Kong, resulting in the changing meaning and transformation of open space in the aspects of locations, forms, distributions, and ways of provisions. My key arguments are as follows: In the pre-Second World War colonial period, extraction was regarded as the primary objective of the colonial government. Since the colonial atmosphere shared the idea of earning from re-exporting trade and temporal stay, public open space, except for private leisure facilities, was not truly a concern of any of the social groups. While recreational opportunities and open space were still necessary to attract foreign investments and provide political functions, the colonial government provided open space in a residual manner, utilizing urban fringe areas of Victoria City and existing land-uses for open space functions. To maximize the use of open space, though the government was reluctant to provide, open space was utilized for political functions to preach social conforming behaviours and Western lifestyle to the Chinese immigrants as well as to new Chinese generations. The post-Second World War open space development was characterized by an expansion of the scope of open space, as well as political reform of the municipal governments and the planning institution. Triggered by the large influx of Chinese refugees that migrated to Hong Kong and the rising population of the local-born Chinese youngsters, elected representatives were introduced to the municipal councils. These elected representatives endeavoured to urge the government to provide open space where available, persuading the government by giving new meanings to open space. The planning institution, however, continued to plan open space in a residual manner. Inspired by the Abercrombie Plan, open space was planned towards the countryside and new forms of open space were introduced to expand the scope of open space. The contemporary pattern of public open space is examined by quantitative analyses. Three kinds of open space are examined, namely zoned open space, administered public open space, and public open space within private developments. Results show that large-scale zoned open spaces tend to cluster in urban fringe areas and countryside, whereas zoned open spaces in urban areas tend to be fragmentary. Waterfront and coastal areas, whether in urban or rural areas, are commonly utilized for open space purposes. These findings echo the planning strategy, aiming at shifting open space from the inner urban areas to the urban fringe and rural areas. Admin