Initial Establishment of Four Digital Eco-channels Database Management System
in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Hong Kong experienced extensive urban development in the last century. To remedial flood
problems for residents along rivers, most of the lower courses of the natural rivers were
artificially modified as “drainage channels”. In the last two decades, academic and public are
paying more attention to ecological importance of the rivers, channels and their riparian habitats.
To achieve the goal of sustainable development, government has constantly added new elements
to enhance concepts for the conservation of existing river ecology, biodiversity promotion and
environmental protection for most of the drainage improvement works on design, construction
and management. This paper presents a project entitled ‘initial establishment of four
eco-channels database management system practiced in Hong Kong’. The project involved
three major steps: i), data collection through field ecological surveys of habitats, flora, fauna, and
plus photographic recording of the surveyed items; ii), website set up, integrating and entry
collected data and panoramic images to an existing web platform (Chinese Field Herbarium
Database owned and managed by Botanic Institute, Academy of China); iii), checking contents,
modifying formats of data sets, trial internet browsing; and iv), creating a web linkage to a local
website of the project management company employed by client (Drainage Service Department
of Hong Kong Special Administration Region). This digital database allow updated and served
for channel habitat management and free public access with certain limitations. The open website
allows public browsing species name and photos of flora, fauna, and as well panoramic view of
channel habitats and special distribution of major species.
1 Introduction
1.1 A city of 7 million people, Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan metropolis on a land mass of 1100
km² on the southern coast of China. Hong Kong experienced extensive urban development
in the last century. Currently, most of the buildable land including river valleys in Hong
Kong was developed for purposes of residential, infrastructure, commercial and industrial
users. To remedial flood problems for residents along rivers, most of the lower courses of
the natural rivers were artificially modified as “drainage channels”. In the last two decades,
academic and public are paying more attention to ecological importance of the rivers,
channels and their riparian habitats. To achieve the goal of sustainable development,
government has constantly added new elements to enhance concepts for the conservation of
river ecology, biodiversity promotion and environmental protection for most of the drainage
improvement works on design, construction and management.
1.2 Drainage Services Department of Hong Kong Special Administration Region of China
(DSD) committed a consultancy project to establish an "Eco-channels Database Information
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Management System" for the display and management of ecological data collected in four
selected rivers. This management system aims to record data of recorded species at different
time in different rivers. Through comparing cumulative records of river ecology, users can
acquire more comprehensive information on the change of river ecology, including changes
in the number of species and habitats. The system uses a global positioning system and a
panoramic digital photography technology to mark the position of the existing river habitats,
discovered species, status and their related information.
1.3 It is hoped that this ecological platform can provide more valuable information to users,
allowing the public free to enjoy the beautiful river habitat and learn more species. It is
intend to optimize this system leading to a more comprehensive, convenient and effective
river ecological database to monitor and record changes in river species with different
ecological characteristics, so as to facilitate the planning of river conservation work and
improve the public’s consciousness on the conservation of the river habitat.
1.4 This paper presents display structure and contents of the established Eco-channels Database
Management System (EcoDMS) which comprised of four drainage channels with designed
ecological elements.
2 EcoDMS
2.1 Website: http://dsd.ecology8.com/
Website contents including photos of fauna and flora species, panoramic virtual tour,
species classification tree, data management with access restrictions, and three version of
text, i.e., English, Traditional Chinese language and Simplified Chinese language.
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2.2 River 1: YUEN LONG BYPASS FLOODWAY
Photos of fauna and flora species (below left) and panoramic review (below right):
Species classification tree (partial shown below):
Summary of Background Ecological Data: The habitats recorded within the Study Area
included river channel, developed area, wasteland, pond and plantation woodland. A total
of 69 plant species were recorded during the survey in which 17 species are wetland
species. No rare or protected flora species were recorded. On the faunal group survey, 43
birds species, 1 herpetofauna species, 3 freshwater fish species and 10 aquatic invertebrate
species were recorded, in which 13 bird species are of conservation concern, no rare
species were recorded, in addition, an uncommon species Tringa ochropus was recorded in
the survey
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2.3 NGAU TAM MEI RIVER
Summary of Background Ecological Data: The habitats recorded within the Study Area
included river channel, developed area, pond and natural stream. A total of 78 plant
species were recorded during the survey in which 17 species are wetland species. No rare
or protected flora species were recorded. On the faunal group survey, 46 birds species, 3
dragonfly species, 4 herpetofauna species, 3 freshwater fish species and 12 aquatic
invertebrate species were recorded, in which 20 bird species are of conservation concern,
the bird species Anas platyrhynchos, Aythya fuligula, Corvus torquatus are uncommon
species, while Larus cachinnans is a scare winter visitor, no rare species were recorded.
2.4 TONG FUK RIVER
Summary of Background Ecological Data: The habitats recorded within the Study Area
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included river channel, developed area, shrubland and woodland. A total of 83 plant
species were recorded during the survey. No rare or protected flora species were
recorded during the survey. On the faunal group survey, 20 birds species, 7 dragonfly
species, 1 herpetofauna species, 9 freshwater fish species and 11 aquatic invertebrate
species were recorded , in which 1 bird species and 1 freshwater fish are of conservation
concern, in addition, an uncommon bird species Monticola solitarius was recorded during
the survey.
2.5 HO CHUNG RIVER
Summary of Background Ecological Data: The habitats recorded within the Study Area included
river channel, developed area, cultivation land and woodland. A total of 117 plant
species were recorded during the survey. No rare or protected flora species were
recorded during the survey. On the faunal group survey, 21 birds species, 7 dragonfly
species, 5 herpetofauna species, 7 freshwater fish species and 23 aquatic invertebrate
were recorded, in which 3 bird species, 1 Herpetofauna species are of conservation
concern. Moreover, an uncommon turtle species Ocadia sinensis was observed, it is
believed to be a released species from worshipper of nearby temple.
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