ENG-2004 — Page 357

The Environment | 307

Land Use Planning

Environmental concerns are incorporated into land use planning through the application of the environmental assessment process and the adoption of the environmental planning standards and guidelines. For major land use planning studies, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required to integrate environmental considerations into the formulation of land use plans. As part of the engineering feasibility study of urban development or redevelopment projects with a study area covering more than 20 hectares or involving a population or more than 100 000, a statutory environmental impact assessment under the EIA Ordinance will be carried out. These environmental assessments form an integral part of the planning studies and help identify major environmental issues and possible mitigation measures for integration into the land use plans.

Environmental Sustainability

An assessment of the development strategies at territorial level showed that continuing urbanisation would likely have implications for air and water quality, increase public exposure to noise and overload Hong Kong's waste disposal capacity. While the timely provision of resources and environmental mitigation measures could resolve some of these issues, others may require fundamental reconsideration of the proposals' implications on Hong Kong's long-term sustainability. The issue of environmental sustainability is being revisited in the new round of review of the Territorial Development Strategy (known as Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy), which began in September 2000. Starting from April 2002, a Sustainability Implication section is also required to be included in the submissions to the Executive Council.

Environmental Management

The Government has introduced new initiatives to promote environmental management in both the public and private sectors, including the Green Manager Scheme, environmental auditing, environmental management systems (EMS) and environmental performance reporting. The Government leads by example: all bureaux and departments have appointed Green Managers; most have regular environmental audit programmes; and some have been certified to ISO 14001 standard. Since 2000, all bureaux and departments have been required to publish annual environmental performance reports on their operations, programmes and policy areas. To support this reporting initiative, a number of reporting guidebooks and benchmark tools have been published to help government bureaux and departments improve the quality of their performance reports. All these documents and the reporting experience were consolidated into a useful web-based 'Cyber Helpdesk on Environmental Performance Report' in August 2004 to provide readily accessible, concise guidance and information for reporters. Useful environmental management information is also available at the EPD's home page.

A study and a support package on ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electrical/electronic sector and the construction sector were completed in mid 2004. To provide EMS support to local SMEs, a seminar on the ISO 14001 EMS support