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The captioned webinar was organised by the CV Division on 3 March 2022. More than 110 members joined in.
The speaker, Ir Dr Tony Sze began by introducing the current global road safety situation. He stated that traffic safety is a major public health issue around the world, with more than 1.25 million people killed on road every year.
It is good to set long-term road safety targets which are achievable and rational. Traffic accidents can also be mitigated by improving the traffic system in terms of design, quality assurance and defense mechanisms.
Data collection and analysis of traffic accident records can play an important role in pinpointing locations where high numbers of accident occur. These data can be registered by police and transport departments either in paper reports or in Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
Driving simulator experiments have been applied to investigate driving behaviour. These can be on smaller scale desktop-based simulator in cities with limited space like Hong Kong. Also, naturalistic methods for example, unobtrusive sensor technology can provide important insights into driver’s natural behaviour including eye and head movements and the characteristics of the surrounding environment.
During the seminar, Ir Dr Sze mentioned that traffic accidents in Hong Kong usually involve commercial vehicles. It may due to the reason that commercial drivers are likely to suffer from long working hours which cause driver fatigue.
The webinar concluded with a question-and-answer session. On the behalf of CV Division, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Ir Dr Sze for his presentation.
The captioned webinar was co-organised by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the CV Division on 23 February 2022.
Dr Mark Hsu, an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the PolyU shared his insights on the life cycles in Urban Infrastructure Development, and especially on how to assess the environmental impact of infrastructure projects.
The life cycle of a construction project usually includes planning, design, operation, construction, and maintenance stages. Environmental impact will be created in each of these stages. Thus, to evaluate the overall impact from an environmental point of view, the entire life cycle should be taken into consideration.
In the webinar, Dr Hsu introduced a few case studies to demonstrate the application of life cycle assessment on construction projects. However, the concept of eco-efficiency is also important. The concept means that not only should environmental impact be considered, but also the economic feasibility of the project.
Life cycle assessment can facilitate decision making since it can highlight the best option or approach for the project. However, when evaluations are related to people’s behaviour, some modifications would need to be made. Environmental Assessment on Passenger Transportation is one of the case studies being presented by Dr Hsu. Life cycle assessment can identify the most eco-efficient transport option, but in reality, there are many types of transportation for the general public. Therefore, the assessment did not suggest the most eco-efficient transport, but simply recommend the optimal occupancy rate of different forms of transportation.
With a better understanding of life cycles in Urban Infrastructure Development, we are able to assess an infrastructure project from both the environmental and economical perspectives, while also rising the awareness of eco-efficient development.
The webinar concluded with a question-and-answer session. On behalf of the CV Division, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr Hsu for his insightful presentation.