Young people are concerned about underprivileged

Dr. Winnie Tang July 29, 2024 22:13

The annual Esri Young Scholars Award allows young people to explore different social issues, analyse them with geographic information systems (GIS), and propose solutions.

This year, CHEN Zhang, a student from the Department of Geography of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), won the individual championship with Socio-Economic Inequality below Floods.

By 2050, more than 10% of Hong Kong's population is expected to be affected by flooding, mainly in the northern New Territories and on both sides of Victoria Harbour. Referring to the census data, Chen found that the impact of flooding on different groups is not the same, and those living below the poverty line may be more affected. Therefore, the authorities should adopt proactive measures in disaster risk management to better protect these vulnerable groups.

The first runner-up in the group category was won by five students from the Department of Urban Planning and Design of the Faculty of Architecture of HKU: CHEN Sirui, CHEN Zhining, GONG Pinglu, TONG Yufan, ZHU Yingying.

More than 14 tonnes of food are disposed of every day in Hong Kong's wet markets. The award-winning work Fresh Pick “ATM” hopes to create a sustainable 24-hour fully automatic system to sell the leftover vegetables sold in the market every day to the underprivileged at a discounted price, and at the same time to reduce food waste and enhance residents' well-being.

First of all, hawkers supply vegetables to the Fresh Pick "ATM" at a lower price, so that members of the public can buy them anytime even after the market closes. Fresh vegetables will be sold at regular price, and the profits can subsidise operation costs. In particular, there are "blind boxes" where slightly imperfect but non-perished vegetables are sold at low prices, benefiting the disadvantaged and reducing food waste. The realisation of this vegetable box requires the collaboration of many parties, such as the government, non-profit organisations and the business community, which need to help in the early stages of creating the system, providing low-rent premises and machinery.

Another group from the same department of HKU won third place in the group category with another food-related topic. The work Unveiling Food Swamp in Hong Kong from DENG Wenqian, LI Zhihao, PEI Chenya, QIU Sizhe, YE Shuhan, ZHENG Jiacheng is about the nutritional value of popular foods such as siu mai and fish balls in Hong Kong, a well-known foodie paradise.

The award-winning piece uses a large language model (LLM) to rate food health, including the content of sugar and salt content, saturated and trans fats, use of additives, vitamins and minerals, as well as the production process, to identify the city's food swamp – i.e. an area full of fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and eateries that provide high-calorie and low-nutrient food.
Students had expected that food swamps would only be concentrated in low-income areas, but the result shows that food swamps were also found in traditionally more affluent areas such as Hong Kong Island West and Kowloon Tong. Also, there was no shortage of food swamps on the Island side with a high population with university degree holders. Through this research, students hope to make people more aware of restaurants that provide healthy food.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the jury for their efforts. The 17 members, including 11 professors from 9 tertiary institutions, 4 professional bodies and 2 heads of public organisations, made the results more representative.

Dr. Winnie Tang

Adjunct Professor, School of Computing and Data Science;Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong