Organizer: The Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects
Co-organizer: The Conservancy Association
Date: 6 November 2025
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Registration starts at 6:20pm)
Venue: Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub, 26 Yen Chow Street West, Sham Shui Po
CPD points: 1.5 (Activity type 2 & 4, Level 2)
Language: Cantonese, supplemented with English
Fee (HKD): $30 (HKILA members); $60 (non-members)
Quota: 40 (physical); 100 (online)
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/P3WvBNW6xUGjxJqo9
Synopsis:
Artificial seawalls and breakwaters play a vital role in safeguarding our shorelines against waves, erosion, and flooding. However, their simplified and smooth surfaces often lack shading, refuge, and water retention capabilities, posing challenges for marine organisms to inhabit and thrive. To tackle this issue, Professor Kenneth Leung and his team from the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Health at City University of Hong Kong has successfully integrated fundamental ecological principles and introduced innovative eco-friendly structures for enhancing habitat complexity and boosting marine biodiversity along the seawall. This innovative technology ultimately creates a vibrant and biodiverse living shoreline in urbanised coastal cities.
About the Speaker:
Professor Leung received his PhD in Marine Ecotoxicology from University of Glasgow in Scotland. He is currently Chair Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Health at City University of Hong Kong where he also serves as Associate Dean (Outreach & Internationalisation) of College of Science. His research spans marine pollution, ecotoxicology, marine conservation, and ecosystem restoration.
Professor Leung has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 70. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to aquatic ecology in the Asia-Pacific region, he was awarded the 19th Biwako Prize for Ecology by the Ecological Society of Japan. He is a Fellow of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), the Royal Society of Biology, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Since June 2022, he has been leading the Global Estuaries Monitoring Programme, which is endorsed by the United Nations as an official Decade Action under the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Owing to his professional achievements and dedicated community services, he was selected as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons” for Hong Kong by Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 2010, appointed as a Justice of the Peace in 2018, and conferred with the Bronze Bauhinia Star by the HKSAR Government in 2025.