Social impact assessment for Hong Kong's built heritage conservation : the case of PMQ in Hong Kong's revitalisation scheme

Abstract

Although the importance of communal support and opinion in heritage conservation has been increasingly prominent, Hong Kong is currently adopting a top-down approach that emphasizes on the evaluation by professionals and government officials. To exemplify, the use of Environmental Impact Assessment and Heritage Impact Assessment has depended mainly on the professional opinion based on government officials to evaluate heritage significance. Therefore, there is a need for Hong Kong to develop a methodology, which is truly originated from the local community that enables the local government understanding public expectations and taking the opinion into account. This study aims at developing the framework of Social Impact Assessment(SIA) that collects and analyzes communal opinion, while also applied desktop research to provide a broader vision of how SIA works and its significance towards heritage assessment. Recommendations will be made based on the analysis reflected in both interview findings and research data, while it adds on to the comprehensiveness of information that both subjective and objective results can be captured, thus resulting in a all-rounded analysis focusing on the heritage place. By applying PMQ into the framework of SIA, which is a cultural landmark highly propagated by the government, it is aimed to examine the overall effectiveness in terms of communal integration, quality of life and economic growth. Recommendations are also given to encourage greater cooperation between different parties, such as the community and the Hong Kong government. In this paper, both the individual and social perspective are encapsulated, and the economic growth in terms of property development is analyzed, providing readers with insight into the individual, social and economic impacts created by PMQ. It is hoped that through this study, an illustration of how to revitalize a heritage place based on the community’s opinion, with the Government’s support can be achieved, serving as an example for further enhancement of Hong Kong’s heritage evaluation system.