ENG-1996 — Page 497

THE ENVIRONMENT

areas, and enables them to be developed for outdoor recreational and nature conservation purposes. Conservation education is also provided through six visitor centres, nature trails and tree walks, the Lions Nature Education Centre, and guided educational walks.

The Marine Parks Ordinance provides the necessary statutory powers for the designation and management of marine parks and marine reserves in Hong Kong. It also provides for the making of regulations for the good management of marine parks and marine reserves.

Besides general conservation of the countryside, Hong Kong has adopted the concept of identifying and conserving sites of special scientific interest, such as a site where a rare species of tree or butterfly can be found. In all, 58 sites have been identified.

Meteorological Services

Royal Observatory

The Royal Observatory was established in 1883, mainly to provide scientific information for the safe navigation of ships. Since then, it has evolved in line with community needs providing services and studies on weather forecasting, hydrometeorology, climatology, physical oceanography, aviation and marine meteorology, and radiation monitoring and assessment. The Observatory also operates the official time standard for Hong Kong, provides basic astronomical information and maintains a seismological monitoring network.

Weather forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather are the responsibility of the Central Forecasting Office at the Observatory's headquarters. Marine weather forecasts cover the South China Sea and East China Sea. Forecasts and advice are also provided for the civil aviation, business and industrial communities, port and container terminal operators and the oil-prospecting industry.

Whenever Hong Kong is threatened by tropical cyclones, frequent warnings with advice on the necessary precautions to take are widely disseminated. A colour-coded rainstorm warning system is activated to warn people of serious road flooding and traffic disruption. The Observatory also warns of thunderstorms, flooding, landslips, fire danger, strong monsoon and frost.

Weather programmes for the public are presented regularly on television by the Observatory's meteorologists. During adverse weather, live interviews and briefings are given over the radio and television.

The Observatory operates a Dial-a-Weather automatic telephone answering system providing hourly updates of weather forecasts, temperature readings, warnings or tropical cyclone information. About 63 000 calls were received on an average day in 1996, totalling around 23 million calls for the year. A home page on the Internet was set up in March 1996 to provide public access to weather forecasts and information on climate, tides, earthquakes and other areas. Weather information is also provided to commercial communications and paging services which make it available on various electronic media. The Observatory produces a variety of meteorological and climatological publications, most of which are obtainable from the department free of charge.

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