ENG-1971 — Page 166

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LAND AND HOUSING

Control surveys carried out included the laying down of a precise triangulation network over the urban areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong as a sound basis for future general mapping and engineering development. The network was designed to be of a sufficiently high standard to be suitable as control for the proposed mass transit underground railway system. A number of special detailed surveys were carried out in connection with the planned mass transit routes where redevelopment of sites over or abutting the routes threatened to frustrate their construction. In critical areas these involved the exact design of the alignment which in turn required precise surveys of land sections of the routes and of the affected lot boundaries, buildings, etc. Electronic distance-measurement equipment was used extensively on this project and on other survey tasks, significantly speeding up the field work in all cases.

Progress on a programme for 'cyclic' revision of large-scale plans has been impeded by lack of staff. The total number of plans of the Colony now approaches 1,950 nearly 700 at 1:600 scale of the urban areas and about 1,250 at 1:1,200 scale of the New Territories. Ideally all plans of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon should be revised at one, two or three yearly intervals, depending on the rate of change in the areas they cover. Most of the plans of. the New Territories cover remote and hilly areas where little change occurs and these need checking every five years or so. But to main- tain the plans of the Colony in a reasonably up-to-date condition, several hundred plans must be revised annually and the lack of sufficient survey and cartographic staff has caused a back-log of out-of-date plans.

The original large-scale air survey contract has now been com- pleted but at the request of the District Commissioner, New Ter- ritories it was extended for another year to map a number of areas above the 600-foot contour where the boundaries of cultivated areas are raising land administration problems. It is expected that mapping of these areas will be completed during 1972.

The majority of the urban area is now covered by the new edition of the 1:2,400 plan series. Progress on the production of a parallel 1:4,800 series, which is compiled by direct reduction of the 1:2,400 series, is also well advanced. Both series are expected to be completed in early 1972. The Survey Branch of the Crown Lands Office is undertaking revision of the 1:10,000 map series (L884), its conversion to dual-language form and the publication of a second edition. Printing is being carried out locally. Twelve sheets, covering mainly the urban areas and adjoining districts, have been revised and second