Beached yachts, torn up pavements, and devastated coastlines – Typhoon Mangkhut once again demonstrated how vulnerable Hong Kong is against climate change. The city receives around 2,400 mm of rainfall yearly, 80 percent of which occurs during the typhoon season. As a subtropical coastal megacity with long coastlines and low-lying areas, Hong Kong is frequently subjected to floods and storms. Typhoon Hato in 2017 caused HK$8 billion in losses; Mangkhut is expected to exceed that.

Cities around the world are adopting flood protection standards against 100-year events. The Netherlands can even withstand 10,000-year floods. To become a resilient city, we must be able to answer the following questions: How will the city be impacted by floods in the coming century? How can we properly communicate flood risk to city planners and property developers to mitigate and minimise losses? Can we rely on natural ecosystems to make us more resilient against coastal floods? Do we have response plans against flood disasters in place when they strike? And the most important question of all – can we design and build a city that can respond to 100-year or even 1,000-year floods?