ENG-1997 — Page 485

THE ENVIRONMENT

the use of any kind of apparatus for fishing which is detrimental to fisheries or has a harmful effect on the marine ecosystem.

Meteorological Services

Hong Kong Observatory

The Hong Kong 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, floodings, 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 1997, totalling around 23 million calls for the year. The Observatory maintains a home page on the Internet to provide the public with the latest weather forecast and information on climate, tides and earthquakes as well as satellite imageries. The number of visits to the Observatory's Home page exceeded 200 000 calls per month. 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.

Weather Monitoring and Forecasting

To provide weather forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather, the Hong Kong Observatory maintains a close meteorological watch round-the-clock.

The Observatory exchanges weather observations with the rest of the world through the Global Telecommunications System operated under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation. Through its telecommunication lines with meteorological centres in Beijing, Tokyo and Bangkok, about 20 000 weather reports are received each day.

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