Session No. 5 File name : cedb(cit)- doc
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- Examination of Estimates of Expenditure 2010-11
Question : It is mentioned in the Brief Description that the Department will “continue to enrich the contents of the Observatory’s website in response to the evolving needs of the public and further develop the delivery of weather services through the Internet”. Would the Administration inform this Committee of the details of the plan to enrich the contents of the website in the coming year (i.e. 2010-11)? Will technical enhancement be considered to further reduce the time lapse from real time in the dissemination of weather data? If not, what are the reasons? How to further develop the delivery of weather services through the internet? What are the expenditure involved and manpower required? Asked by : Hon. FUNG Kin-kee, Frederick Reply : To meet public aspirations for better weather information, the Hong Kong Observatory will in the coming year continue to enrich the contents of its website and further develop the delivery of weather services through the Internet. The improvements include: (a) using the Geographic Information System to provide the latest weather information, through the Internet, surrounding any location in Hong Kong as selected by the public. In addition, the tracks of tropical cyclones will be displayed on maps showing more details at a higher resolution to enable the public to better understand the movement of the cyclones; (b) providing more precise weather forecasts with the help of a high-resolution forecast model. For example, there would be weather forecasts for every hour in the coming day, with the forecast data covering more refined geographical areas. Related to this, the Observatory will also issue more weather forecast maps; and (c) releasing more weather photos about different regions in Hong Kong to help the public better understand the related weather conditions. As regards the idea of further reducing the time gap between data collection and dissemination of weather information, since it takes time to collect/process the data and upload the information onto the website, the present technology does not allow us to further compress the time so needed. The Observatory is making use of its existing resources to enhance the above services. No additional expenditure or manpower is needed.
Question : Under Brief Description, it is mentioned that the work of Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) includes “undertaking further research on the projections of future climate change in Hong Kong based on the latest data in respect of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC) and “conducting studies related to climate change in Hong Kong and promoting public understanding”. With regard to the climategate scandal that broke out in November last year and raised doubts about the authority of the United Nation’s IPCC reports, would the Administration please advise this Committee whether the past studies on climate change conducted by HKO were based on IPCC’s reports. Will the Administration re-examine the validity of HKO’s previous long-term forecasts for local climate warming of Hong Kong ? Asked by : Hon. FUNG Kin-kee, Frederick Reply : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme. Its main task is to carry out regular assessments on climate change. We take it that “the climategate scandal” refers to the incident whereby the computer systems of a group of scientists who had been involved in the IPCC assessments were illegally accessed by hackers late last year, resulting in the disclosure of some private emails and files. This had triggered questions from some quarters that raised doubts on climate change issues and assessments. IPCC has already issued statements in response to the incident (including the questions raised about a few areas in the IPCC’s latest assessment report released in 2007), clearly pointing out that this would not affect the key findings in the report. The Observatory’s assessments on long-term climate change in Hong Kong are based on the key findings of this assessment report and the related data. All these data are scientifically based. As such, despite the incident the Observatory does not consider it necessary to revise the projections accompanying the assessments it has already published on the long-term climate change in Hong Kong.
Directory: citb -> doc doc -> Replies to initial written questions raised by Finance Committee Members in examining the Estimates of Expenditure 2012-13 Director of Bureau : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Session No. 12 File name : cedb(cit)- doc Download 4.7 Mb. Share with your friends:
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