ENG-2015 — Page 303

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The Environment

information and advice on environmental compliance, pollution prevention and environmental management.

In 2015, department inspectors made more than 53,500 visits to different locations to enforce controls on air, noise, waste and water pollution and to deal with complaints about pollution, resulting in 416 prosecutions and over $4 million in fines.

Environmental Monitoring and Auditing

An environmental monitoring and auditing process seeks to validate assumptions made during the planning of development projects and monitors the effectiveness of mitigation measures to ensure every project meets the environmental performance promised in the environmental impact assessment. In 2015, the EPD handled 117 monitoring and auditing programmes for major projects. As required by environmental permits, these projects must set up dedicated websites to publish the results and data obtained from the process.

Meteorological and Geophysical Services

Hong Kong Observatory

Established in 1883, the Hong Kong Observatory currently provides meteorological, climatological, radiation monitoring, oceanographic, geophysical, time and astronomical services.

Weather Forecast and Information Services

Weather information is delivered to the public through the media, the mobile application MyObservatory, the Observatory website, the Windows desktop application Weather Wizard, social media platforms and the Dial-a-Weather telephone service. The Observatory produces free television weather shows regularly and an educational programme, Cool Met Stuff, for Hong Kong's major television networks and other media. In 2015, the Observatory's online information service, including its mobile application, registered about 68.8 billion page views.

During the year, the Observatory extended its tropical cyclone track forecast from three days to five days. It launched an 'Automatic Regional Weather Forecast in Hong Kong & Pearl River Delta Region' webpage, providing the public with rainfall forecasts for the next two hours and regional weather forecasts for Hong Kong and the neighbouring region in the following nine days. The Observatory also revamped its home page with a brand-new design and updated MyObservatory with contents catering for users' needs. It launched a 'Met on Map' web portal at the end of the year, integrating global weather and geophysical data for convenient access of information by the public.

The territory's first long-range, dual-polarisation Doppler Weather Radar was installed at Tate's Cairn in 2015. This radar monitors hail and rainfall by identifying hail areas and raindrop sizes in the clouds. The Observatory also improved its radar webpage to refresh radar images of a 64km range in six-minute instead of 12-minute intervals, to provide more timely updates of rain development.

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