Transforming a City That Is Not Self-Sustainable

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Transforming a city that is not self-sustainable Hong Kong is a small city with an overwhelming population of 7 billion. It is a highly developed city and is able to support the lives of a huge population with only 120 km2 of built-up land. With the rapidly growing population, this small piece of land is also expected to be able to support the lives of an even larger population in the future. As amazing as it may sound though, Hong Kong actually relies on huge amounts of imports that are essential to meet the consumption demands of the local population. Be it energy, information or other daily necessities, our population depends on a continual supply of materials mainly from outside the geographical boundaries of Hong Kong. According to a report by World Wide Fund for Nature in 2010, it is also reported that the Ecological Footprint of an average Hong Kong citizen is 4.0 gha, which is more than double the 1.8 gha of biocapacity available to each person globally. Hong Kong alone has only 0.04 gha biocapacity available per person, meaning that its area available to produce renewable resources and absorb carbon dioxide is far below the amount we actually need. In light of the above, it is rather obvious that the resources provided by Hong Kong itself are much less than that demanded by the locals. Hong Kong is not a very self-sustained city, and for this, it is rather impossible for the city to survive as a city on its own whilst sticking to the current consumption pattern. If there was ever an intention for Hong Kong to depend on its own physical footprint to function as a city though, the first step to take would be to reduce the demand of resources, which is also to reduce the ecological footprint such that the city would be able to provide locals with what they need, with a lighter burden. The most direct way to reduce ecological footprint is to change the

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