Comprehensive Evaluation Framework for Sustainable Land Use: Case Study of Hong Kong in 2000-2010

摘要

Land use is a key component to the sustainability of a city. Land-use planning policy should not be based solely on the hard figures, but also needs observational insights. Existing assessment methods and corresponding indexes may not provide comprehensive evaluation on sustainability practices. Therefore, a qualitative, comprehensive method is required to supplement sustainable land-use evaluation. This study developed a comprehensive evaluation framework embracing views from experts and the public for assessing land-use sustainability and applied it to the case of Hong Kong. Experts were interviewed to explain the relationship between land-use transition and impact factors, and through questionnaire survey, residents provided their ranking scores on the economic, environmental, and social performances to land-use change. A subsequent investigation was then conducted to understand/validate the different opinions given by experts and residents on sustainability. Finally, according to the questionnaire, survey, and supplementary investigation, the evaluation results were calculated and public evaluation criteria were formulated. The result also shows that Hong Kong's land-use change in 2000-2010 is only marginally sustainable, with Open space to the best and decreased Grassland to the worst. The primary criteria of public requirement in economic, environmental, and social aspects are promoted productivity and labor force, extended natural space, and available resources. The proposed qualitative evaluation framework could be used to obtain the public view on the whole city's land-use performance, providing new perspectives for planners and decision makers to move a city toward more sustainable land use by mitigating negative impacts, encouraging the most sustainable land-use, and balancing economic, environmental, and social effects. In addition, criteria for land-use assessment developed from a new perspective can be applied in China's urban systems for sustainability assessment.