• Land and Housing Review
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.53-56
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• 2014

Hong Kong, a well-known metropolis characterized by skyscrapers on both sides of the Victoria Harbour, consists mainly of 3 parts, namely the Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon peninsula and the New Territories (N.T.) which is the land area north of Kowloon plus a number of outlying islands. Located in the N.T. are all the new towns, market towns; and in the plains and valleys lie scattered village houses of not more than 3 storeys within the confines of well-defined village. These village houses are governed by a rural housing policy that could be traced back to the very beginning of the former British administration in the N.T. By the Convention of Peking of 1898, the N.T., comprising the massive land area north of Kowloon up to Shenzhen River and 235 islands, was leased to Britain by China for 99 years from 1st July 1898. Soon after occupation, the colonial government conducted a survey of this uncharted territory from 1899 to 1903, and set up a land court to facilitate all land registration work and to resolve disputed claims. By 1905, the Block Crown Leases with Schedule of Lessees and details of the lots, each with a copy of the lot index plan (Demarcation Plan) were executed. Based on the above, Crown rent rolls were prepared for record and rent collection purposes. All grants of land thereafter are known as New Grant lots. After completion and execution of the Block Crown Lease in 1905, N.T. villagers had to purchase village house lots by means of Restricted Village Auctions; and Building Licences were issued to convert private agricultural land for building purposes but gradually replaced by Land Exchanges (i.e. to surrender agricultural land for the re-grant of building land) from the early 1960's until introduction of the current Small House Policy in October 1972. It was not until the current New Territories Small House Policy came into effect in December 1972 that the Land Authority can make direct grant of government land or approve the conversion of self-owned agricultural land to allow indigenous villagers to build houses within the village environs under concessionary terms. Such houses are currently restricted to 700 square feet in area and three storeys with a maximum height of 27 feet. An indigenous villager is a male descendent of a villager who was the resident of a recognized village already existing in 1898. Each villager is only allowed one concessionary grant in his lifetime. Upon return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on July 1st, 1997, the traditional rights of indigenous villagers are protected under Article 40 of the Basic Law (a mini-constitution of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region). Also all N.T. leases have been extended for 50 years up to 2047. Owing to the escalating demand and spiral landed property prices in recent years, abuse of the N.T. Small House Policy has been reported in some areas and is a concern in some quarters. The Hong Kong Institute of Land Administration attempts to study the history that leads to the current rural housing policy in the New Territories with particular emphasis on the small house policy, hoping that some light can be shed on the "way forward" for such a controversial policy.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2016

Energy harvesting technique is to utilize energy that is always present but wasted. In this study, we have developed the energy harvester of the hybrid method utilizing both vibration and pressure of the vehicle traveling a road or parking lot. In the previous study, we have developed a prototype energy harvester, improved hybrid energy harvester, and developed a final product that offers improved performance in the hybrid module. The results were published in the previous paper. In this study, we installed the finally developed hybrid module in the actual parking lot. And we measured the power generation performance due to pressure and vibration, and the running speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling. And we compared the results with those obtained in laboratory conditions. In a previous study performed in laboratory conditions the maximum power of the energy block was 1.066W when one single time of vibration, and 1.830W when succession with 5 times. On the other hand, in this study, we obtained the average power output of 0.310W when the vehicle is running at an average 5 km/h, 0.670W when at an average 10 km/h, and 1.250W when at an average 20 km/h, and 2.160W when at an average 5 km/h. That is, the higher the running speed of the vehicle has increased power generation performance. However, when compared to laboratory conditions, the power generation performance of the energy block in driving speed by 20km/h was lower than those in laboratory conditions. In addition, when compared to one time of vibration of laboratory conditions, power generation performance was higher when the running speed 20km/h or more and when five consecutive times in laboratory conditions, it was higher when the running speed 30km/h or more. It could be caused by a difference of load conditions between the laboratory and the actual vehicle. Thus, applying the energy block on the road would be more effective than that on the parking lot.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.513-520
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• 2018

Since Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015, many policies to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas have been accelerating, which are mainly related to renewable energy resources and micro-grid. Presently, the technology development and demonstration projects are mostly focused on diversifying the power resources by adding wind turbine, photo-voltaic and battery storage system in the island-type small micro-grid. It is expected that the large-scaled micro-grid projects based on the regional district and town/complex city, e.g. the block type micro-grid project in Daegu national industrial complex will proceed in the near future. In this case, the economic cost or the carbon emission can be optimized by the efficient operation of energy mix and the appropriate construction of electric and heat supplying facilities such as cogeneration, renewable energy resources, BESS, thermal storage and the existing heat and electricity supplying networks. However, when planning a large residential town or city, the concrete plan of the energy infrastructure has not been established until the construction plan stage and provided by the individual energy suppliers of water, heat, electricity and gas. So, it is difficult to build the efficient energy portfolio considering the characteristics of town or city. This paper introduces an energy mix optimization(EMO) method to determine the optimal capacity of thermal and electric resources which can be applied in the design stage of the real large-scaled residential town or city, and examines the feasibility of the proposed method by applying the real heat and electricity demand data of large-scale residential towns with thousands of households and by comparing the result of HOMER simulation developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL).

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.549-559
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• 2014

The rapid expansion of cities led to the shortage of housing in urban areas. The government compensated for this shortage through large scale residential developments that increased the housing supply. The supply of condominium apartments remains above 83% of the entire housing supply, and the proportion of apartments are at a steady increase, at about 50%. Due to the increase, illegally parked cars resulting from the shortage of parking spaces within the apartment complex have become increasingly problematic as they block the transit of emergency vehicles, and heighten the tension among neighboring residents in obtaining a parking space. Especially, the future residents are considered to plan the parking based on the estimated demand for parking. However, the parking unit method utilized to estimate the parking demand accounts for the exclusive use of space, which is believed to be far from the parking demands in reality. The reason for this discrepancy is that, as the number of households decrease, and area of exclusive space is expanded, the planned parking increases. On the other hand, when the number of households increase, and the area of exclusive space is reduced, the planned parking decreases, thus methods to recalculate the parking units based on estimated parking demand is an urgent concern. To estimate the parking units based on condominium apartments, this study first examined the existing research literature, and appointed the field of investigation to collect the necessary data. In addition, field study data and surveys collected and analyzed, in order to identify the problems underlying parking units, and problems regarding the current traffic impact assessment parking unit calculation method were deduced. Through identifying the influential factors on parking demand estimates, and performing a factorial analysis based on the collected data, the variables were selected in relation to the parking demand estimates, to develop the parking unit estimate model. Finally, through comparing and verifying the existing traffic impact assessment parking unit estimate against the newly developed model using collected data, a far more realistic parking unite estimate was suggested, reflecting the characteristics of the residents. The parking unit estimate model developed in this study is anticipated to serve as the guidelines for future parking lot legislature, as wel as the basis to provide a more realistic estimate of parking demands based on the resident characteristics of an apartment complex.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.98-108
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of limited methods, economics and breeding appropriateness of native and imported ground cover plants in the methodology of a shallow soil rooftop garden. The new shallow soil rooftop gardening method uses a total of 13cm in soil thickness, including 4.5cm of top soil on a 7.5cm rock-wool-mat stacked onto a 1cm roll-type-draining plate. The total construction cost for each method of soil level within the design price standard for SEDUM BLOCK is 89,433won/$m^2$, and for DAKU is 92,550won/$m^2$. By comparing those two methods, the construction cost of the shallow soil artificial foundation methodology is 45,000won/$m^2$; this shows the new method is 50% less expensive than the existing method of shallow soil rooftop gardening. The experiment was executed on the rooftop of the Korean National Housing Corporation to ensure validity of the shallow soil artificial foundation planting, and the sample plants which were imported and grown now in native covering. A list investigating the growing plants was made of the cover rate in each plant class, both while alive and the dry plant weight. The native ground cover plants, Sedum kamtschaticum, Sedum middendorffianum, Allium senescens, Sedum sarmentosum, Aquilegia buergariana, and Caryopteris incana increased the cover rate, live weight and dry weight in the shallow soil artificial foundation method. Among the imported cover plants, Sedum sprium and Sedum reflexum, the cover rate increased and growth conditions improved. However, some species needed weed maintenance. After examination with the less expensive shallow soil artificial foundation method and growth analysis, it was found that rooftop gardens are a low-cost option and the growth of plants is great. This result shows the new method can contribute to the proliferation of rooftop gardens in urban settings.