Solving challenges in building and developing smart heritage cities

Many favorable factors

In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, developed countries have shifted to the strategy of building smart cities (SMCUs) towards green growth and sustainable development.

In our country, the policy of building and developing smart cities has been determined in the Party's resolutions such as: Resolution No. 52, dated September 27, 2019 of the Politburo on a number of policies and strategies to proactively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; Resolution No. 06, dated January 24, 2022 of the Politburo on Planning, construction, management and sustainable development of Vietnamese urban areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

In our province, the Ninh Binh Provincial Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, has determined: "By 2035, Ninh Binh province will become a centrally-run city with the characteristics of a Millennium Heritage City, a creative city; a large center with high brand value in tourism, cultural industry, and heritage economy of the whole country and the Asia- Pacific region".

In fact, Ninh Binh currently possesses the conditions and opportunities to build a smart heritage urban model; first of all, it must be mentioned that it has a long history. According to historical records, Hoa Lu city, although only built for more than 4 decades, has affirmed its appearance as an urban area with a large non -agricultural population and has completely shifted to production, exchange of goods and service activities.

Water and land transport and trade routes were expanded and exploited synchronously and effectively. Non-agricultural residential areas appeared simultaneously along rivers and wharves. Urban infrastructure, markets, ports, river ports, sea ports, etc. were increasingly dense, with merchant ships from China, Champa and some countries in the Southeast Asian region coming and going busily.

Hoa Lu truly became a bustling trading and exchange city in the sub-region, in the entire Giao and Ai regions, domestically and with other countries in the region, marking an unprecedented development of medieval Vietnamese urban areas in the last decades of the 10th and early 11th centuries.

Throughout thousands of years of building and defending the nation, Ninh Binh has always been a strategic location, marking the long marches from the South to the North to protect independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ninh Binh is also the place where economic and cultural exchanges continue between the Red River basin and the Ma River basin, between the Northern Delta and the Northwestern mountainous region of the Fatherland.

In addition to its great cultural values, Ninh Binh also has rich, unique and attractive natural landscapes such as: Trang An Scenic Area, Tam Coc-Bich Dong, Cuc Phuong National Park, Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve, etc.

Compared to the provinces of the Red River Delta, Ninh Binh is a province with a large forest area, especially Cuc Phuong primeval forest, a typical tropical forest with diverse and rich flora and fauna. Building Ninh Binh into a smart heritage city is entirely based on its important strategic location and diverse natural resources.

Challenges and "solutions"

In fact, up to now, although there has been the participation of ministries and branches in perfecting institutions, mechanisms and policies for smart urban development, in general, the system of legal documents and the system of related standards and regulations of our country are still not synchronized. Meanwhile, the construction and development of smart heritage cities must be based on a synchronous and effective legal corridor.

On the other hand, building and developing smart urban areas, especially smart heritage cities like Ninh Binh, must be based on a guaranteed urban technical infrastructure system, especially the planning issue. Most localities across the country are facing a situation where they are focusing too much on smart urban services without paying attention to the development of urban technical infrastructure such as planning, traffic infrastructure, digital infrastructure, etc. Building and developing heritage cities requires a complete, integrated, synchronous and shared information data infrastructure system.

In addition to applying information technology and artificial intelligence to the management, preservation and promotion of heritage, attention should be paid to data development strategies and the construction of identification and positioning systems. Data sharing, especially in urban population management, needs to be given attention.

From the above issues, it can be seen that the "solution" here is to focus on developing infrastructure for e-government, synchronizing urban data information infrastructure, digital infrastructure; technology is the most important factor in building smart heritage cities. According to experts in the urban field, smart heritage cities connect technical infrastructure, information technology, and social infrastructure so that the government can perform its management and operation functions effectively and consistently in all areas.

The information infrastructure system of smart heritage cities needs to be connected and shared between all levels of government, between sectors and fields in the locality to serve the goal of developing smart urban areas. In addition, propaganda work and raising awareness of people and businesses about the benefits must go hand in hand with the development of smart heritage cities, and must improve the information technology level of the people.

Even if the IT infrastructure is modern but people do not know and are not capable of exploiting it, the construction and development of smart heritage cities cannot be carried out. Each citizen is both a participant in the construction and a beneficiary of the results after the successful construction of a smart city, therefore, each citizen needs to be clearly aware of their role in this process.

The construction and development of smart heritage cities must be reflected in construction planning projects and urban development programs, projects and schemes. Issues arising from urban development include population growth, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, flooding, etc.

This puts pressure on the locality itself, how to both develop the urban area and protect the heritage, so there needs to be regulations and standards for sustainable smart heritage urban development, in which special attention is paid to infrastructure for transportation, urban architecture, etc. Building and developing smart heritage urban areas also requires that the urban area needs to have a smart economy, in which the digital economy must be prioritized for development.

At the same time, the construction and development of smart heritage cities need to go hand in hand with regional and area linkages to develop the advantages of Ninh Binh and the Red River Delta.

Article and photos: Nguyen Thom

Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/-hoa-giai-thach-thuc-trong-xay-dung-phat-trien-do-thi-di-san/d20240628081430731.htm