Hong Kong Observatory's 5-year Strategic Plan (2022 - 2026)
This Strategic Plan is formulated based on the Observatory's Vision, Mission and Values as well as the foreseeable challenges and opportunities. It sets out the work priorities as well as the overall direction and goals of the Observatory’s development for the five-year period 2022 – 2026. The plan includes four main strategies (WISE, standing for Weather, Innovation, Structure and Engagement), eight goals and the corresponding tasks.
Strategy 1 Diversified weather and climate services (Weather)
Goal 1 Provide more accurate and timely weather forecast and warning to reduce the risk of natural disasters.
Task: Research on and enhance the technologies in weather forecast and warning. Improve the accuracy and timeliness of forecast. Continue to improve the nowcasting systems and the numerical prediction models. Launch more services related to natural disaster impact, probabilistic forecast and risk assessment. Develop multi-hazard warning services.
Goal 2 Increase the society’s awareness and resilience to climate change.
Task: Actively monitor and study topics related to climate change. Provide the latest information and assessment of climate change and its impact, including the update of climate projections for Hong Kong based on the computer climate model data provided in the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Continue to promote public education on climate change.
Strategy 2 Development and application of innovative technologies (Innovation)
Goal 3 Employ innovative technologies to enhance the Observatory’s operational efficiency and develop new public services.
Task: Apply artificial intelligence to automate the work of the Observatory, and enhance the operational efficiency and service quality. Employ Big Data analytics and cloud computing, in combination with new generation communication and virtual reality technologies, to enhance and develop new public services as well as smart-city weather and climate services for the Greater Bay Area.
Goal 4 Apply new technologies to enhance monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
Task: Explore the application of drone and robotic technologies in meteorological, marine, geophysical and radiological monitoring. Incorporate machine learning in strengthening the techniques in monitoring and forecasting. Publish scientific papers on the achievements in research and application.
Strategy 3 Facilities and talent structure (Structure)
Goal 5 Strengthen the Observatory’s systems and facilities to cope with new developments in the future.
Task: Implement the construction of Annex Building designed to support the future development of the Observatory. Continue to enhance the Observatory’s systems and facilities for the development of more diversified services. Continue to implement relevant aviation meteorological facilities for the Three-Runway System project at the Hong Kong International Airport. Further enhance the computational power of the Observatory’s computer systems to handle the ever-increasing data volume and support the numerical prediction models in providing more days of automatic weather forecasts to the public.
Goal 6 Enhance the team’s professionalism and service quality.
Task: Strengthen the professional training and knowledge transfer of the Observatory team. Continue to extend the scope of quality management of the Observatory’s operations. Strive to set higher quality objectives for providing better services. Offer internships and training opportunities to students of tertiary institutions to aid intake of talents required by the Observatory.
Strategy 4 Partner engagement and public communication (Engagement)
Goal 7 Develop new services through diversified partnership.
Task: Collaborate with different government departments as well as public and private organisations. Open and integrate more weather related data for development of new public and personalised weather services. Actively participate in international cooperation and related development of scientific research. Broaden and deepen cooperation with tertiary institutions in scientific research.
Goal 8 Enhance public communication to raise awareness of disaster prevention and reduction.
Task: Promote public education on an ongoing basis in schools and communities, and open up more outreach activities. Enhance social media services, and improve message delivery and communication in weather forecast and warning.