5. ECOLOGY MONITORING 

5.1 Monitoring Locations

5.1.1 The ecological monitoring works for the Contract are covered by Contract No. HY/2013/01 “Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao-Bridge HKBCF – Passenger Clearance Building”. The ET of the Contract or another ET of the HZMB project is required to conduct dolphin monitoring at 24 transects as part of EM&A programme if these transects are no longer covered under Contract No. HY/2013/01.  The ecological monitoring should adopt line-transect vessel survey method.  The survey follows pre-set and fixed transect lines in the two areas defined by AFCD as: Northeast Lantau survey area; and Northwest Lantau survey area. Figure 4 shows the co-ordinates for the transect lines and layout map.

Remarks:

The ET of this Contract should conduct impact ecological monitoring as part of EM&A programme according to latest notification from ENPO when the monitoring transect(s) is/are no longer covered by another ET of the HZMB project.

5.2 Monitoring Requirements

5.2.1 The monitoring requirements, monitoring equipment, monitoring parameters, frequency and duration, monitoring methodology, monitoring schedule, meteorological information are detailed in the monthly EM&A Reports prepared by Contract No. HY/2013/01.

5.2.2 The event and action plan is provided in Appendix D.

5.2.3 The Action and Limit Levels for Chinese White Dolphin Monitoring are provided in Table 5.1(a) & Table 5.1(b).

Table 5.1(a) Action and Limit Levels for Chinese White Dolphin Monitoring - Approach to Define Action Level (AL) and Limit Level (LL)

	North Lantau Social Cluster
	NEL	NWL
Action Level	(STG < 70% of baseline) & (ANI < 70% of baseline)	(STG < 70% of baseline) & (ANI < 70% of baseline)
Limit Level	[(STG < 40% of baseline) & (ANI < 40% of baseline)] AND [ (STG < 40% of baseline) & (ANI < 40% of baseline)]

For North Lantau Social Cluster, action level will be trigger if either NEL or NWL fall below the criteria; limit level will be triggered if both NEL and NWL fall below the criteria.

Table 5.2(b) Derived Value of Action Level (AL) and Limit Level (LL) for Chinese White Dolphin Monitoring

	North Lantau Social Cluster
	NEL	NWL
Action Level	(STG < 4.2) & (ANI < 15.5 )	(STG < 6.9) & (ANI < 31.3)
Limit Level	[(STG < 2.4) & (ANI <8.9)] AND [ (STG < 3.9) & (ANI < 17.9)]

5.2.4 If exceedance(s) at these transects is/are recorded by the ET of the Contract or referred by the other ET under the HZMB project to the Contract, the ET of the Contract will carry out an investigation and findings will be reported in the monthly EM&A Report.

5.3 Monitoring Result

5.3.1 The dolphin survey results for all transects are reported in the monthly EM&A Reports prepared by Contract No. HY/2013/01.