Bridges, tunnels, and ferries: connectivity, transport, and the future of Hong Kong’s outlying islands

Abstract

Hong Kong has numerous outlying islands that are relatively underdeveloped due to isolation from the urban core and are dependent on ferries. Concurrently, the Hong Kong Government has expressed a desire for outlying islands to be places for urban expansion and has proposed building more bridges, tunnels, and reclaimed land. Development of these fixed links may transform the outlying island communities' current ways of life. Ferry operators struggle to maintain efficient operation, fleet investments, improved services, and attract passengers while competing with fixed link transport modes. Urban ferry transport has been resurgent in parts of Europe, North America, and Australia, but not Hong Kong. This paper identifies a new typology of island communities according to connectivity based on available transport links. Using census and ferry statistics, the socioeconomic development of island communities is analysed. The transport problems faced by outlying islands are further conceptualised, and possible scenarios for socially sustainable island futures are proposed.

Islands of connectivity: Archipelago relationality and transport infrastructure in Venice Lagoon

“…Fixed links are often justified to islanders as a means of improving their economy and quality of life, thereby retaining residents who might otherwise be tempted to move away. Analysing ferry, bridge and tunnel connectivity for the small islands of Hong Kong, Leung et al (2017) show that fixed links have been conducive to explosive population growth, whereas islands that lack fixed links but possess ferries have featured much less dramatic (and potentially less socially disruptive) population growth. Such new residents may not be universally welcomed by the local community, and their presence could risk diluting the distinctive island culture that depopulation put at risk in the first place (Cottrell, 2017).…”

“…Such new residents may not be universally welcomed by the local community, and their presence could risk diluting the distinctive island culture that depopulation put at risk in the first place (Cottrell, 2017). Analysing ferry, bridge and tunnel connectivity for the small islands of Hong Kong, Leung et al (2017) show that fixed links have been conducive to explosive population growth, whereas islands that lack fixed links but possess ferries have featured much less dramatic (and potentially less socially disruptive) population growth. Considering the case of the UK's Isles of Scilly, Grydehøj and Hayward (2014) hypothesise that poor intra-archipelagic and archipelago-mainland connectivity has had a preservative effect on the archipelago's smallest communities by preventing their residents from regularly travelling elsewhere for work and shopping.…”

Urban morphology and urban fragmentation in Macau, China: island city development in the Pearl River Delta megacity region

“…There is evidence to support various contradictory conclusions regarding the extent to which island-to-mainland and island-to-island connective infrastructure is harmful or beneficial to islanders and their conceptions of living on islands (Baldacchino, 2007;Baldacchino & Pleijel, 2010;Brophy, 2017;Gillis, 2004, p. 154;Raadik Cottrell, 2017). Regardless of the lessons from remote and sparsely populated island communities, however, more knowledge is needed concerning the effects of fixed links on island cities (Leung et al, 2017). As we shall see below, the Macau Peninsula has long been connected to mainland China, yet its spatial development has continued to be influenced by recognisably insular factors.…”

Relational geography of a border island: local development and compensatory destruction on Lieyu, Taiwan

“…(Interviewee 2) Some researchers argue that when mobility improves and transport becomes convenient, people are deterritorialised and disembedded from place (Appadurai, 1996;Hannerz, 1996). Leung et al (2017) show how the impetus toward fixed transport links in an archipelago can sweep away legitimate concerns about what kinds of mobility are actually best for island communities. Currently, Lieyu islanders' positive expectations toward Kinmen Bridge outweigh their concerns:…”

“…Development-oriented improvements to mobility and communication often reveal the values of island communities or set dividing lines within such communities (e.g., Baum, 1997;Brophy, 2017;Gillis, 2004;Grydehøj & Hayward, 2011;Raadik Cottrell, 2017;Stratford, 2008). If nothing else, the combination of island population growth and lessened importance of maritime transport that typically accompanies fixed transport links represents a fundamental change in island life (Leung et al, 2017). Grydehøj and Hayward (2014) find evidence not just that convenient transport can negatively affect peripheral communities within archipelagic networks but also that specifically inconvenient transport can have a protective effect on the smallest of island communities.…”