HKO signs cooperation framework agreement with Guangdong Earthquake Agency

29 September 2023

The Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), Ms Sandy Song, and the Deputy Director of the Guangdong Earthquake Agency (GEA), Mr Huang Shengwu, signed the "Cooperation Framework Agreement between the GEA and the HKO" at the opening ceremony of the "9th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Earthquake Science and Technology Seminar" in Guangzhou on 27 September 2023. The newly signed agreement as supported by the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) further deepens the collaboration content and expands the scope of cooperation between the two parties. The new scope includes strengthening the earthquake monitoring network, enhancing capabilities and public services for earthquake disaster risk reduction, research study on geomagnetic measurements, joint conference meetings, technical exchanges and public education on earthquakes, etc.

Through the implementation of the expanded cooperation framework, the Observatory can receive simultaneously from the GEA the earthquake information and quick messages of earthquake intensity which are useful to enhancement of locally felt earthquake information service. Further improvement to the earthquake monitoring network and strengthening of the earthquake disaster reduction capabilities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are expected as a result of this cooperation.

Apart from the Observatory, participants of the seminar from Hong Kong included the Geotechnical Engineering Office of the Civil Engineering and Development Department and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The Observatory shared at the seminar two reports respectively entitled "Statistical analysis of locally felt earthquakes in Hong Kong" and "Assessment of tsunamis in Hong Kong triggered by earthquakes at Littoral Fault Zone”.

The HKO and the CEA signed the "Earthquake Science and Technology Cooperation Arrangement" in Hong Kong in March 2000. Later in April 2001, the GEA confirmed some details in the Earthquake Science and Technology Cooperation Arrangement including the cooperation in the exchange of seismic data and the transmission of earthquake parameters. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Earthquake Science and Technology Seminar is held alternately every two years by the GEA, the HKO and the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau since 2004. The next seminar will be held in Hong Kong in 2025.

Assistant Director of the HKO, Ms Sandy Song (left), and Deputy Director of the GEA, Mr Huang Shengwu, signing the "Cooperation Framework Agreement between the GEA and the HKO".

Group photo of the participants of the 9th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Seminar on Earthquake Science and Technology. The sixth left in the first row is Ms Sandy Song, Assistant Director of the HKO, while the fifth and sixth from the right are respectively Mr Sun Peiqing, Director of the GEA, and Dr Chen Xiaofei, Chair Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.