South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
Hong Kong protests
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Protesters hold a lunchtime rally for a second day in Central on November 12. Real-time information on road, transport and other public service conditions would keep Hongkongers from becoming stranded. Photo: David Wong
OpinionLetters

Letters | As Hong Kong protests disrupt the workday, keeping the information flowing could help

  • An integrated “city dashboard” could keep everyone informed of blocked roads, suspended MTR stations, or closed public facilities, while an interdepartmental platform could help the government better manage crises
Hong Kong protests
Letters
Letters
Why you can trust SCMP
Last week, the entire city was brought to a standstill. As traffic was paralysed, schools had to suspend classes, emergency services were blocked, and the working class on hourly wages suffered. People find it hard to cope with changing situations without accurate and updated information.

Therefore, I suggest the following:

1. For the government, a “common operational picture” – a central platform that enables the exchange of information and facilitates coordination among departments.

Apart from the police, the platform should include the departments of transport (traffic situation), highways (road closures and repairs), fire services (emergency services update), information services (refute rumours), food and environmental hygiene (assuring food supplies, public cleaning), education (school arrangements), environmental protection (air quality), and leisure and cultural services (closures of facilities), as well as the Hospital Authority (updated clinic and hospital services availability).

The Geotechnical Engineering Office already has such a platform, which integrates information from various departments, including data from 90 rain gauges and landslide reports. Information is uploaded to the cloud server for integration, and the distribution of emergency events is displayed on a big screen for coordinating the response.
An argument breaks out between police and a paramedic from the Fire Services Department on November 8. Photo: RTHK

All we need now is to expand the platform to the entire government, so as to cope with the current crisis and make governance more efficient.

2. For citizens, a “city dashboard” for one-stop updates. Most people on news websites or social media which provide catchy headlines, but we cannot easily summarise all the information.

Through such a dashboard, the government could broadcast key information in real time, such as which roads are blocked, which MTR stations or public facilities are closed, and so on, and display all the information on a map, together with a mobile application for instant notification, to facilitate our travel plans.

Earlier this year, the government demonstrated a “city dashboard” at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council International ICT Expo, showing real-time average traffic speeds in several major districts and the three cross-harbour tunnels, as well as parking availability and the weather in major districts.

As the government already has a working platform, it only needs to extend its scope and implement at the earliest.

Dr Winnie Tang, adjunct professor, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong

Post