A QUICKER, cheaper and more accurate way to detect dangerous slopes is to be adopted by Civil Engineering Department in a move which will make Hong Kong the first in the world to use the technique.
The so-called 'downhole' method - most commonly used in the oil industry - will form the heart of future slope detection in the SAR, senior geotechnical engineer Dr Clive Franks said.
At present engineers depend on collecting core rock and soil samples, a cumbersome method involving large amounts of drilling which costs millions of dollars.
By using radioactive sensors suspended down an open hole, engineers will be able to get more accurate information on ground layers and in particular clay distribution - a crucial factor in landslides.
Dr Franks said that conventional ground detection, which required water for cooling, tended to wash away important clay content.
The latest move is one of many intended to shore up the territory's slopes in the wake of two killer slides in 1995.
At the height of Tropical Storm Helen a huge slope gave way in Chai Wan and buried alive Chow Wai-keung, 16.