Opinion | What Kansai airport flooding can teach Hong Kong about the perils of reclamation amid climate change

Shocking images from Japan have been much in the news of late, including the flooding of Osaka’s Kansai International Airport during the passage of Typhoon Jebi and a ship that had smashed into the bridge serving as the main link to the airport, fracturing a highway lane. The airport was built on an island of reclaimed land.

Less prominent were reports of the airport being evacuated the next day. Some 3,000 passengers and up to 2,000 staff had been trapped there overnight, and most had to be transported by boats, with others carried on buses navigating the bridge lanes that remained undamaged.

According to Japan Today, passengers complained the airport was underprepared for such a disaster. Kansai International Airport, one of the busiest in Asia, had been crippled by the storm, and it could take a week before international flights resume.

To anyone concerned about Hong Kong’s plans for the East Lantau Metropolis – which should be all of us, given the costs and ramifications – the clobbering of Kansai should give pause for thought as to whether the plans have merit, or are a really bad idea.

If you haven't seen plans for the East Lantau Metropolis, you can find them in a rather jaunty document from the Planning Department and the Development Bureau, titled Preliminary Concepts for the East Lantau Metropolis. This outlines ideas for creating one or two new islands in waters between Lantau and Victoria Harbour, and using these to create a new core business district and housing for up to 700,000 people.

In July, the Our Hong Kong Foundation released an even more grandiose plan, advocating an Enhanced East Lantau Metropolis to accommodate up to 1.1 million people.