Led by Prof. Yi-Qing Ni, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Centre (Hong Kong Branch), the project entitled “INTACT: Intelligent Tropical-storm-resilient System for Coastal Cities” has been awarded HK$48.293 million funding by the Research Grants Council (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24 (Thirteenth Round) under the theme “Developing a Sustainable Environment”.
Coastal cities are increasingly vulnerable to tropical-storm-related hazards due to population growth and climate change. Hong Kong, being one of the most densely-populated and developed cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), suffered from economic loss and destruction of skyscrapers much significantly under tropical storms.
To address the challenges aroused by complex urban environments and to mitigate tropical storm risks systematically, Prof. Ni’s project aims to establish an intelligent tropical-storm-resilient system. The system will be able to provide real-time tropical storm risk early-warning and assess urban-resilience to ensure the sustainability of Hong Kong and other coastal cities in the long run. The ultimate goal of the project is to reduce the potential for irreversible damage, improve safety, quality of life, and maintain economic vitality through the development of a comprehensive system.
In 2023/24 TRS exercise, the RGC received 66 eligible preliminary proposals and shortlisted 29 submission of full proposals, of which 20 proposals were selected for interview. The RGC eventually supported 9 projects (including 6 projects with five-year budget and 3 exploratory projects one-year budget to yield preliminary results). Prof. Ni’s project is one of the two supported PolyU projects with five-year budget.
Congratulations to Prof. Ni and his team for their outstanding achievement and contributions to the field.
