Landslide disaster prevention and mitigation through works in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a high concentration of developments on hilly terrain in close proximity to man-made slopes and natural hillsides. Because of the high seasonal rainfall, these man-made slopes and natural hillsides would pose a risk to the public as manifested by a death toll of 470 people due to landslides since the late 1940s. In 1977, the Government of the Hong Kong SAR embarked on a systematic programme, known as the Landslip Preventive Measure (LPM) Programme, to retrofit substandard man-made slopes. From 1977 to 2010, about 4500 substandard government man-made slopes have been upgraded through engineering works. During the period, the Programme had evolved progressively in response to Governmentʹs internal demand for continuous improvement and rising public expectation for slope safety. In 2010, the Government implemented the Landslip Prevention and Mitigation (LPMit) Programme to dovetail with the LPM Programme, with the focus on retrofitting the remaining moderate-risk substandard man-made slopes and mitigating systematically the natural terrain landslide risk pursuant to the “react-to-known” hazard principle. This paper presents the evolution of the LPM and LPMit Programmes as well as the insight on landslide prevention and mitigation through engineering works.