Previous studies on the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003 that sought to determine the causes of SARS transmission assumed that the living environments of SARS patients were critical. This article tests the null hypothesis that the SARS incidents in a local housing estate were random, and hence unrelated to the built environment. This test was executed by: (a) using the chi-square method to evaluate eight empirical hypotheses about the relationship among the built environment variables of floor level, block location, and flat location; and (b) employing the Gini Coefficient and Lorenz Curve to measure SARS information aggregated by residential unit for analysis of inequalities and concentration of dates of SARS incidence. The results show the disparity of SARS incidence distribution is significantly large, i.e. the probability that the SARS incidents in the sample area occurred randomly was insignificantly low. Using the same data set that has been used to establish Yu's theory (2003), the results were not inconsistent with the theory that SARS was possibly transmitted by contaminated domestic moisture carried by air currents, so the limitations of the analysis will be discussed.
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