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SCMP Reporter

Updated at 6.32pm:
 Victoria Harbour's mean sea level has risen by 0.12 metres over the last 50 years - an average rate of 2.3 millimetres a year - a Hong Kong Observatory study said on Monday.

But the study said the sea level rise was unlikely to threaten Hong Kong or its coastal building projects.

The observatory said global warming might be an important factor in the change in sea level.

The study used sea level data collected through tide gauge stations at North Point in 1954 and then at Quarry Bay in 1986.

 The study revealed that the inter-annual change in sea level of Victoria Harbour was prominent in the past 15 years. It found there was a steep rise in the annual mean sea level from 1987 to 1999 followed by a rapid fall. 

This period had matched the most rapid rise in global average temperatures, the observatory said. 

 The changes in coastline due to large-scale reclamation also affected sea currents and sea levels in parts of Hong Kong waters. 

Observatory assistant director Yeung Kai-hing said these changes had been taken into consideration in the design of coastal projects across the harbour. It was unlikely the sea level would endanger Hong Kong in the near future, he added. 

 Mr Yeung also said the rise in sea level recorded was consistent with global data. 

'While the sea levels and their inter-annual variations at various parts of Hong Kong waters are not all the same, the long-term sea level change in Victoria Harbour is consistent with the South China Sea,' he said.
 
'The observed sea level change of Victoria Harbour in the past 50 years is similar to that of the South China Sea measured by the State Oceanic Administration of China, and is consistent with the change of the South China Sea in the past decade measured by the remote sensing satellites jointly operated by the USA and France,' he added.

Mr Yeung said the observatory was developing satellite-based global positioning system technology to measure vertical ground and crustal movement. Such movement would also affect the sea level, he added. 



Mean sea level of Victoria Harbour rises 0.12m in last 50 years: study