Finding Fire Hydrants in GeoInfo Map
[Sources for this page]Sources for this page
- Google | Google Maps (Street View) | https://www.google.com/maps/
- Lands Department (HKSAR Government) | GeoInfo Map | https://www.map.gov.hk/gm/map/ | I learnt about this source from snowshine12345 https://www.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=29167296&page=1#pid520626555
Link to GeoInfo Map: https://www.map.gov.hk/
GeoInfo Map is an online map service provided by the Lands Department of the HKSAR government. While I am not sure how useful it is as a general purpose map, it is useful for us fire hydrant enthusiasts, because we can search for specific fire hydrants using the map, and just look for hydrants on the map (indicated by a blue dot, but you have to zoom in for the blue dots to show so unfortunately you can't just zoom out and see every single fire hydrant in Hong Kong). You can also look for lamp posts and geodetic survey stations if you are an enthusiast of those. I will list out some things you should know about using GeoInfo Map as a fire hydrant enthusiast, speaking from my experience.
To be able to use it
I am not sure about the exact requirements, but you need to disable "resist fingerprinting" if your browser has Resist Fingerprinting on by default. You also have to allow the page to create WebGL content for the map to be able to load. This might raise some questions about privacy and security but it is for the greate good of fire hydrant research. Alternatively, just use GeoInfo Map at a public library.
Search by fire hydrant number
While being able to search for specific hydrants with their numbers might seem handy, the usefulness of this feature is somewhat limited. As discussed in this page, hydrant numbers can be shared by multiple hydrants. Some hydrants have been renumbered, but GeoInfo Map have not updated all the numbers. The downside is that you might not be able to find a hydrant by their current number, but the upside is that you might be able to find out a hydrant's old number without having to look for that hydrant in Google Maps street view.
In rare cases, a hydrant can be marked with a wrong prefix in a number in the GeoInfo Map, making a hydrant hard to find. For example, some hydrants on the North Lantau Highway are given PH prefix in GeoInfo Map even though the PH prefix is not painted on the hydrant body (example: PH258 in GeoInfo Map only has 258 painted on its body in real life). Another example is FH3 in Queen's Hill Estate, which is incorrectly marked as FH1 in GeoInfo Map, resulting in two FH1 being close to each other.
GeoInfo does not show hydrant type nor the water they use
It probably wouldn't be hard for them to add the feature to search for specific types of hydrants because they should have a record of all the existing hydrants out there, but I guess they didn't expect the general public to want to look for specific types of hydrants. Because of this, it doesn't matter what type of hydrant it is, they all just show up as blue dots, regardless of whether it is a huge Heavy Draw-off hydrant, a tiny "viaduct hydrant", or a bizzare custom hydrant at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Likewise, you can't tell whether a hydrant uses fresh water or seawater just by looking at GeoInfo Map, you have to check Google Maps street view or visit the hydrant in person.
GeoInfo do not show all hydrants
Yeah...for some reason not all hydrants are shown. Of course, newly installed hydrants might take a while to show up, but I am not just talking about new hydrants. Even hydrants that have existed for years may not show up. In other words, even if you somehow managed to check the entire GeoInfo Map for hydrants in Hong Kong, you still wouldn't find every hydrant in Hong Kong.