Building on the interactive open-access (GIS-based database) on Hong Kong’s major rivers and multi-media materials, such as drone video of whole river catchment, JC-WISE organised professional “train-the-trainer” workshops and guided field trips to 7 selected river catchments to nurture river ambassadors, to enhance public knowledge and emotional connection with our city’s river, in turn, leading students and public on guide field trips in future in order to appreciate our rivers. The Project has successfully organized a series of guided field trips to Shan Pui, Lam Tsuen, Sheung Yue, Kam Tin and Tung Chung Rivers and trained more than 100 secondary school teachers, green group practitioners as well as press to help reconnecting public with our lovely rivers.
Our “train-the-trainer” workshops and field trips provide participants with an up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of Hong Kong’s rivers. Participants, upon completion of this training programme, will be able to, design and lead their own field trips to river in the future. Some former participants have already taken their fellow community members on their own field trips, making good use of the recommended routes shown in our project’s Rivers@HK Database (http://www.jcwise.hk/gis/), field trip manuals and on-site exercise booklets, shared at the training workshop. They were able to enhance the public’s recognition of the multiple values of freshwater by reconnecting the community with our city’s rivers.
