Awarded entry of the HKIE 50th Anniversary Legacy Award - Grand Award (Innovation Category)

Hong Kong is one of the safest cities with robust prevention and mitigation strategy against landslide risks today—but this was not always the case. Before the late 1970s, tens of thousands potentially substandard man-made slopes were formed to accommodate demographic surge. Combined with urban development, hilly terrain and intense rainfall, devastating landslides repeatedly caused tragic loss of life and widespread destruction.

The Hong Kong Slope Safety System (HKS³) was pioneered by the Geotechnical Engineering Office in 1977 to holistically manage landslide risks arising from climate change under multi-pronged strategies. The HKS³ contains landslide risk from new developments through geotechnical control and land-use planning. Landslide risk faced by existing developments is also reduced through the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme and the subsequent Landslip Prevention and Mitigation Programme. These are supported by a risk-based priority ranking system and the Catalogue of Slopes, the world’s largest database of its kind maintaining information on over 61,000 man-made slopes. Various engineering measures, such as soil nailing and debris-resisting barriers, are continuously advanced technically and applied systematically. Moreover, landslide consequence is further minimised through the Landslip Warning System, 24-hour year-round emergency service and public education programmes.

The HKS³ was unprecedented worldwide and remains to this day a pioneering system by continuously integrating innovative technologies to advance engineering practices. A revolutionary example is the Geotechnical Information Infrastructure (GInfo), which enables fast online slope data retrieval and analysis by practitioners. Recently, it has evolved into Three-Dimensional Geotechnical Information Infrastructure (3DGInfo), which supports digital twin platforms and 3D visualisation. The Po Shan Drainage Tunnel, an award-winning cutting-edge solution to stabilise the Mid-levels area, was digitalised into digital twin to facilitate decision making under a dynamic environment. Countless innovative initiatives include AI-assisted rainfall-landslide correlation and landslide detection, robotic and UAV landslide inspections, and satellite remote sensing technologies.

Over the past five decades, the overall landslide risk in Hong Kong has been significantly reduced by the HKS³, which has safeguarded the lives and properties of Hong Kong residents and laid a solid foundation for the sustainable development of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Slope Safety System has safeguarded the lives and properties of Hong Kong residents