Abstract
Urban expansion leads to a large scale of terrestrial habitat loss in Hong Kong. Urban greening plays a crucial role in ecologically restoring the degraded landscapes by promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Slope greening occupies to a considerable proportion of greening works in Hong Kong due to the presence of hilly topography and highly urbanized landscapes and its performance draws our attention. A common greening strategy such as planting of herbaceous groundcovers is usually carried out on soil slopes while its effectiveness is seldom reviewed. Besides the capabilities of forming a dense green cover, the roles of planted groundcovers in proliferating plant diversity are also important in promoting a sustainable green cover. Moreover, unlike other urban landscapes, the slope features such as angle and orientation influence substantially the vegetative growth of soil slopes. Our study focuses on evaluating the greening performance of soil slopes in Hong Kong by investigating the current vegetation abundance and structure. Any special findings regarding to the distinct groundcovers dominating soil slopes will be disseminated. The relationships between vegetation and slope performance, which govern a healthy plant community on soil slopes, will also be discussed. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis regarding to the influences of soil properties on slope greening will be shown. All these provide useful information in reviewing the current greening strategy in promoting our environmentally sustainable city. Constructive suggestions based on our precise findings will be made to improve the greening works and any practical measures can be recommended to other cities.
Author Information
Ngai Lung Chau, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Paper Information
Conference: IICSEEHawaii2019
Stream: Terrestrial ecosystems
This paper is part of the IICSEEHawaii2019 Conference Proceedings (View)
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