Hong Kong is a small but hyper dense city. More than 6.7 million people are living in 1000 sq. km. of land with 85% hilly terrain. The insufficient environmental consideration during early development of the city and the high demands on space for commerce, industry, housing, education, transportation and other uses within such a small developable area are no doubt placing a heavy burden on the acoustic environment. It is not an easy task to tackle the numerous environmental noise issues coming with the hyper dense development to maintain the quality of life in the metropolis. Increasing transportation demand, on-going commercial and other activities coupling with the pace of development in Hong Kong would inevitably aggravate the burden calling for a concerted and conscientious effort in order to provide and maintain an acceptable acoustic environment for the community. This paper summarizes the approaches adopted in Hong Kong through preemptive planning against noise, formulating and implementing noise abatement programmes and enforcing legislative control in tackling noise from various sources including land and air transport, industrial, commercial and construction activities. It also gives a brief account on the effectiveness and experience gained from the various approaches in dealing with environmental noise.
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