Page 16 - URA Annual Report 2021-22

MANAGING DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
We will also continue to enhance the content of our Building Rehabilitation Platform, with the participation of various Government departments, law enforcement agencies, professional sectors and representatives from works contractors. Since its launch in 2019, the Platform has provided owners with a wide range of useful information, standard sample documents and data on the market reference rates for related work items. Complementing this, we launched the Building Rehabilitation Company Registration Scheme (BRCRS) in March this year to spur the establishment of a Service Providers Directory, aimed at helping owners assess whether service providers have a sound system in place for quality management.
Moreover, to assist the owners of single-block buildings which are deprived of any property or facility management service, we have partnered with The Hong Kong Institute of Housing to implement a ‘joint property management’ scheme on a trial basis. Through this scheme, we hope to raise the standards of property management in these buildings while lowering management expenses, owing to the economy of scale.
Expediting the pace of urban renewal work through data analysis
To address the increasing volume and complexity of urban renewal work, it is important to have an information system capable of processing and analysing vast amounts of data across complex domains, so as to enable the URA team to make a comprehensive assessment of the many different factors and parameters involved in making decisions on project selection.
To this end, in 2019, we developed the Urban Renewal Information System (URIS) which integrates geographic information and data on such parameters as land use, development density, building conditions, population and household distribution, as well as selected commercial and public facilities, and visualises the information on a map. By fully utilising the URIS, we can shorten from weeks to hours the processing time for collating district plans, the formulation of project reserve, and the analysis of design options.
The 3D Intelligent Map (iMap) in URIS enables the construction of ‘digital twin’ for the district-based projects in Kowloon City, and help consolidate and analyse data of various kinds such as property interests, statutory orders and others.
Last year, we completed the first phase of URIS development, equipping the system with primary functions such as data exploration, intelligent analysis of project options, and deepening of implementation details. These functions enable the planning team to further analyse and prioritise redevelopment projects based on factors such as planning objectives, financial viability and technical assessment.
In parallel, we have introduced smart technology elements to our projects. One good example is the inclusion of smart city infrastructure provision such as 5G networks during the detailed design work for our eight adjoining redevelopment projects in To Kwa Wan, paving the way for building a ‘smart community’ by applying more intelligent building and facility management elements. This is in line with one of the three principles set out by our Chairman, namely applying technology to build Hong Kong into a liveable and sustainable smart city.
No. of Building Blocks
No. of Units
No. of Interests
290
6,600
7,100
14