A framework for stakeholder engagement to formulate the proposed Green Deck Project at Cross Harbour Tunnel : final report

Abstract

The successful implementation of any sustainable design projects should be achieved through a cooperative effort from government, business sectors and public sectors. The Green Deck project proposal is the first of its kind that has involved community participation of the general public at the very early planning stage. As such, no specific client is available and it is a tremendous challenge to develop a design brief for further implementation of the project. Thus, this research study aims to gather the sentiments of the different stakeholders on the planning and design of the Green Deck Project proposal. The results of this research study do not only provide a solid reflection of the strong support of the project among the different stakeholders groups, it also identifies the underlying sustainable urban design criteria for planners and designers' consideration. Most importantly, it highlights the importance of the different stakeholders group and the level of influential power in the planning process. Accordingly, the study suggests potential public participation strategies that can actively engage and empower the important stakeholders group which only have relatively low level of influential power on the project. This research consists of five stages: 1) Major stakeholders’ surveys, 2) Round table meeting, 3) Data analysis and interim report, 4) Public Forum, 5) Final Report. Pilot and community on-street surveys and online surveys were conducted randomly among local pedestrians, residents within the vicinity of the study area, as well as the PolyU students and staffs in November 2013 and January 2014. The results show that the general public perception about the Green Deck project is highly favorable. The major supportive reasons include ‘appreciate the green space’, ‘enhance better quality’, and ‘provide more public space’. However, major issues to be considered are ‘impact on the overall environment’, ‘construction cost and time’, ‘traffic, noise and air pollution problem’ and ‘social integration’. These issues are valuable contributions for the design and planning brief of the project. Most importantly, a stakeholder matrix (see figure 1) was developed to distinguish the level of influence, importance, legitimacy of each stakeholder group and be able to decide the best public engagement strategies to engage them over different stage of the project. Through this matrix, most of the stakeholders identified, have high level of importance but have low level of influence, thus potential public engagement activities for these stakeholder groups are discerned in order to advance the stakeholders level of influence to the project. (For the figure in the executive summary, please see the full text of the document.)