A research project by Professor Kenneth Leung, Associate Dean (Outreach and Internationalisation) of the College of Science (CSCI), Chair Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, and Director of CityUHK’s State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Health (SKLMEH), has been selected as one of the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society’s major technological advancements for 2024.

Nominated by Pearl River Water Resources Research Institute, Professor Leung’s project “Key Technologies and Applications for Enhancing Urban Seawall’s Defence Capability and Ecological Function in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” was selected by scientists in the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society as one of the nine major technological advancements for 2024.

The research was also awarded the “2024 Dayu Water Conservancy Science and Technology Progress Award (2nd Class)” earlier in March 2025. The CityUHK team was responsible for the research task of enhancing the ecological functions and applications of urban seawalls in the project. The research team has established ecological theories that enhance habitat complexity and marine biodiversity and has developed various ecologically engineered features suitable for vertical and sloping artificial seawalls. Field tests have demonstrated that these ecologically engineered features can effectively and significantly enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions on seawalls.