Cost of proposed artificial island in Hong Kong will more than double if extreme weather and rising sea levels are designed for, experts say

Proposed East Lantau Metropolis will have to be built higher to guard against rising sea levels and storm surges brought by super typhoons, environmental specialists say

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The government has proposed an artificial island off Lantau. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 11:00pm, 8 Sep 2018Updated: 11:12pm, 8 Sep 2018

The cost of a proposed 1,000-hectare artificial island in Hong Kong could at least double if it is to be properly designed to fend off extreme weather such as super typhoons and heatwaves, scholars and environmentalists warned.

There is no official estimate of the cost of building the so-called East Lantau Metropolis, off Hong Kong’s largest outlying island, but non-government groups have put the figure at between HK$400 billion (US$51.3 billion) and HK$500 billion, based on past reclamation projects.

But environmental specialists said at the launch of a climate change education programme on Saturday that extreme natural disasters could become worse in the future as a result of global warming, which meant the proposed island would have to be built higher to guard against rising sea levels and storm surges brought by super typhoons.

Reclaimed land would need to be built higher to thwart rising sea levels. Photo: SCMP

“If you want to minimise the chance of flooding, of course the higher [above sea level] the better,” said Gabriel Lau Ngar-cheung, director of Chinese University’s Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability. “But of course the cost will be far greater.”

Ringo Mak Wing-hoi, co-founder of climate change concern group 350 Hong Kong, cited a 2012 Dutch study as saying the cost of adapting infrastructure ranged from 9 billion euros (US$10.4 billion) to 46 billion euros if the sea level rose between 24 centimetres and 1.5 metres.