Two trial projects for drone operations will concentrate on hillside and slope monitoring services, with relevant skills expected to be widely used by next year in an effort to prevent landslides and develop the low-altitude economy, Hong Kong authorities have said.
The Development Bureau said on Sunday that the Geotechnical Engineering Office had been using drones to help with its work, including inspecting landslide sites, sowing seeds for new vegetation in such areas and conducting research.
“The relevant technologies are expected to be widely applied by 2026, in scenarios including engineering management, slope monitoring and emergency response,” Marion Kan Ka-wing, a geotechnical engineer from the office, said in a bureau blog post.
Kan said two sandbox pilot projects had been launched, with the first one in Tai Mong Tsai in Sai Kung focusing on overcoming height restrictions and carrying out extensive natural hillside monitoring, with initial data collection successfully completed. A sandbox is a space where software or new technology can be tried out in a pilot scheme or test environment.
She said that the second project involved drones automatically flying along predetermined routes to monitor the condition of designated slopes.
The project had received flight approval and would begin trials for automatic monitoring along designated routes for artificial slopes and disaster mitigation measures in eastern Hong Kong Island, she said.
