SETTLING ALONG, WITH, AND ON WATER IN THUA THIEN HUE, VIETNAM: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Abstract

This paper develops a water-based spatial biography of the Thua Thien Hue Province in Vietnam's Central Highlands and critically interprets the territory's intertwined contemporary challenges - a growing population, greater demands on agriculture, fisheries, and aquaculture, tourism and changes in annual rainwater, and sea level regimes. It is structured by four sections (typical geography and exceptional ecology, diverse settlement typologies, curse and perils of water, contemporary challenges) which interpretatively read the context. Historical analysis and mapping of present-day projects in the pipeline are complemented by extensive fieldwork in an attempt to reveal (and later build upon) the logics of the territory. It concludes with a series of projective design strategies developed by Research Urbanism and Architecture for the Thua Thien Hue Province Peoples' Committee and the Hanoi-based investor Van Phu, which attempt to balance ecology with economy with a focus on lagoon restoration and new city and settlement types (for the living and the dead) which respond to the predicted consequences of climate change (particularly severe flooding). The project is premised on policy shifts from hard-engineering to approaches that work as much as possible with natural means to simultaneously restore ecologies and generates opportunities to embed new sustainable economies. Not surprisingly, water urbanism strategies are key to this envisioned future development of the province.