Theme for this year: Smart City
Talking about Smart City (Smart City), a series of high-tech smart products springs to our mind. In fact, it also includes environmental protection facilities to create a sustainable development of a livable city. An efficient public transport network and a suitable pedestrian environment are indispensable. In terms of transport facilities, the existing railway system in Hong Kong has covered over 40% of residential area and 70% of commercial area. In recent years, Government has also actively set up green belts, flyovers and tunnels in various districts.
However, the survey of “Walking habits of Hong Kong people” released earlier by the World Green Organisation revealed that over half of the respondents (aged 18 or above from over 400 respondents) choose to take short-distance transport rather than walking due to weather conditions including too cold, too hot or rainy day. The shortest travel journey even does not exceed 5 minutes. It shows that there is not sufficient incentives for people to walk.
Moreover, in the light of evolving demographics, it is important for people to address the needs and challenges of the ageing population. It is expected the number of people with Alzheimer’s Disease will increase in the society with expanding ageing population. The development of smart city needs to take the needs of the elderly, a growing group in the community, into consideration across different areas such as housing, transportation, health care, community support and leisure facilities.
In view of this, WGO, through Social Innovation Inventor Competition, wants to invite students to design a Smart City with appropriate city walking support and at the same time, elderly friendly. American Nursing Health Research pointed out that 30 minutes’ walk per day will help reduce 20% chance of having breast cancer and 30% chance of having heart disease. In this competition, we hope to encourage citizens to walk more to reduce carbon emission, show care to the society and jointly practice a low-carbon green lifestyle to make positive impacts on the environment.
If you want to learn more about Alzheimer ’s disease, please refer to the following link.
- Motivate the younger generation to be concerned about social and environmental issues
- Encourage students to increase people’s living standard with creative designs, spread the concept of ‘walkable city’ and achieve a healthy and low-carbon lifestyle
- Allow students to learn about smart city development