SYNOPSIS

Hong Kong is characterised by its hilly terrain and heavy rainfall during the summer.  Being a densely populated city, it has many of its developments built on the hillside and landslide risk has long been a serious problem in Hong Kong.  

Following the fatal landslides in 1976, the Hong Kong Government set up an organisation in 1977 to implement a slope safety system in Hong Kong, which is now called the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO).  With the work of the GEO over the years, the landslide risk in Hong Kong has been significantly reduced.  Useful knowledge and experience, both technical and administrative, has been established by the GEO in preventing and mitigating the effect of landslides.  

The major functions of GEO are:
Auditing the design and supervision of construction of geotechnical works of public and private projects.

Implementation of the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme and later the Landslip Prevention and Mitigation Programme to upgrade high priority, large substandard government man-made slopes and mitigate landslide risk of natural terrain catchments.

Safety-screening of old private man-made slopes and enforcing statutory action to require owners to investigate and carry out necessary upgrading works to substandard slopes.

Ensuring all government man-made slopes are properly maintained.

Promoting public awareness and response in slope safety through public education, publicity, information services and public warnings.

Providing geotechnical advice to government departments on projects involving tunnels, reclamation, river training, slopes, deep basement, foundations, ground investigations, etc.

The topics to be covered in this short course are:
Slope Safety System
Landslip Prevention and Mitigation Programme
Geotechnical Control
Emergency System and Public Education


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Ir. Terence Chan Chun Fai, formerly the Deputy Head (Island) of the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) of the Hong Kong Government. He graduated with a BSc. (Eng) in 1974 and a MSc. (Eng) in 1982, both from the University of Hong Kong. In 1982, he joined the GEO of the Hong Kong Government and settled down in his geotechnical profession until his retirement in 2012.  In GEO, he started off as a geotechnical engineer and rose in the hierarchy to Deputy Head through the ranks of Senior Geotechnical Engineer and Chief Geotechnical Engineer. As the Deputy Head, he was in charge of 3 Divisions namely Island Division, Geotechnical Projects Division and Slope Safety Division with some 100 staff comprising professional engineers, technical officers and general grade staff. His role was to set policies for, plan, direct and organise the work of the 3 Divisions and exercise suitable control and monitoring of their output.

In the 30 years of his professional career in geotechnical engineering, Ir. Terence Chan was involved in various functions of the GEO such as; auditing the design and supervision of construction of geotechnical works of public and private projects, implementation of the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme and later the Landslip Prevention and Mitigation Programme to upgrade high priority - large substandard government man-made slopes and mitigate landslide risk of natural terrain catchments, safety-screening of old private man-made slopes and enforcing statutory action to require owners to investigate and carry out necessary upgrading works to substandard slopes and ensuring all government man-made slopes are properly maintained. Ir. Terence Chan has authored and co-authored of a number of published technical papers on slope safety, cavern engineering, landslip preventive programme, slope greening and boulder treatment.