Protecting Hoi An Heritage against the challenge of climate change

A corner of the World Cultural Heritage Hoi An Ancient Town seen from above, November 2025.

...It is noteworthy that the weather and climate, floods and rains are becoming more and more complicated and in October and November alone, continuous floods and rains have directly affected dozens of relics in Hoi An.

What to do to protect Hoi An heritage?

During the particularly severe flood in October 2025, the new flood peak exceeded the historical level of 1964 by about 0.12m, causing Hoi An ancient town to be flooded by 1-2m, some places even submerged the roofs. Hoi An Bridge Pagoda - the symbol of the World Cultural Heritage of Hoi An ancient town, was flooded for the first time, exceeding the most recent flood peak in 2007 by about 0.2m, the highest level in the past few decades.

According to a report by the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Conservation Center, out of more than 1,155 inspected relics, most are still safe. 30 relics are degraded, of which 9 are seriously degraded, 14 are heavily degraded, and seven are slightly degraded.

Faced with this situation, the Hoi An World Heritage Conservation Center provided emergency support for a relic (house number 23 Tieu La), and mobilized 19 relic owners to reinforce and support the construction themselves. With 10 relics that were seriously degraded, the Hoi An World Heritage Conservation Center proposed urgent restoration or temporary demolition due to the inability to ensure safety.

In Hoi An Ancient Town alone, more than 83% of the relics are private houses, playing an important role in the spatial structure of the heritage and the lives of local residents. However, many buildings lack clear legal documents on ownership, while the cost of restoration exceeds the capacity of the people, especially households living in small alleys with few business conditions.

In order to ensure the safety of people, tourists and preserve the originality of the heritage, the representative of the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Conservation Center proposed the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to submit to the People's Committee of Da Nang City to consider a number of solutions: Invest in urgent restoration of relics at risk of collapse, with a mechanism to support 100% of the cost for works of special value; issue a mechanism to support funding for restoration and embellishment (support level from 40 to 100%) for relics inside and outside the old town; establish the Hoi An Ancient Town World Cultural Heritage Conservation Fund to promptly rescue degraded relics; allow the establishment of projects to urgently restore relics at risk of collapse; contract with consulting units and research institutes to assess the impact of climate change and natural disasters on the heritage site, thereby building sustainable conservation solutions.

Chairman of the People's Committee of Da Nang City Pham Duc An and the city's interdisciplinary working group have just conducted a field inspection at a number of relics in Hoi An ancient town after the historic flood. Mr. An requested the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to preside over and coordinate with relevant departments, branches and localities to continue reviewing, making statistics and specifically assessing the current status and functions of each relic, on that basis proposing feasible conservation and restoration plans suitable to actual conditions. The goal is to preserve and promote the cultural and historical values of the relics, while effectively exploiting the tourism potential.

World Heritage facing the challenge of climate change

Hoi An - a World Cultural Heritage recognized by UNESCO since 1999 - is a living testament to the golden age of a bustling international commercial port city in the 16th - 18th centuries. After more than 400 years of ups and downs, Hoi An ancient town still preserves intact its traditional architectural structure, intangible cultural values, customs, practices and community lifestyle. This is not only the pride of Hoi An people, Da Nang city and the whole country, but also a common asset of humanity.

Hoi An’s special values converge in many aspects with its history and culture and thousands of ancient architectural relics; its humanistic values with its gentle and kind community of residents. Up to now, hundreds of relics have been restored and embellished; many traditional festivals have been restored and maintained.

Many works have special architectural and historical values such as: Japanese Covered Bridge, Cam Pho Communal House, Cam Nam Communal House, An Hoi Communal House, Tran Clan Church, Le Clan Church, Phuc Kien, Trieu Chau, Quang Trieu Assembly Halls, ancient houses on Tran Phu, Nguyen Thai Hoc, Bach Dang streets...

Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh, Party Secretary, Chairman of Hoi An Ward People's Council said: In addition to the above outstanding results, Hoi An is facing many challenges, pressure from the rapidly increasing number of tourists, the risk of commercialization of heritage, the harsh impacts of climate change, limited conservation resources and sometimes unsynchronized regional coordination. Therefore, there must be fundamental, synchronous and sustainable solutions.

The government has identified the 2025-2030 period as preserving the outstanding global value of Hoi An heritage; linking conservation with sustainable development, comprehensively protecting the heritage space and strengthening links with neighboring wards and communes to expand tourism space and products.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh proposed the need to issue a specific financial mechanism for the preservation of Hoi An heritage, specifically: Establishing the Hoi An Heritage Conservation Fund under the City People's Committee, with revenue from ancient town entrance tickets, voluntary contributions from organizations and individuals, support from businesses, international aid and the state budget.

Supporting investment in transport infrastructure, parking lots and environmental treatment is a key solution to ensure harmony between heritage conservation and meeting the needs of sustainable tourism development in Hoi An.

In addition, it is necessary to strengthen decentralization and authorization for Hoi An ward in heritage management. Especially in the process of approving, supervising and implementing restoration and repair activities of small and medium-scale relics on the basis of compliance with conservation planning and professional guidance of competent authorities.

Strengthen regular and unscheduled inspections and supervision of works in heritage areas and buffer zones; require restoration of original state in cases of violations.

Applying digital technology in monitoring changes in heritage space and issuing detailed regulations on architecture and landscape management, including building height, color, materials, signs, etc. to ensure consistency with heritage space.

The World Cultural Heritage of Hoi An Ancient Town is a living heritage. This is considered a core and key value in the tourism development of Da Nang city today. Therefore, every decision issued for Hoi An must be based on actual conditions and carefully calculated in the current harsh climate change conditions.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/bao-ve-di-san-hoi-an-truoc-thach-thuc-bien-doi-khi-hau-post925574.html