Hanoi's Urban Transformation in the 19th and 20th Centuries: An Area Informatics Approach

Abstract

The project Development of Area Informatics: With Emphasis on Southeast Asia (FY2005-09)[Shibayama 2005: 1] aims to create a new discipline called "area informatics, " an approach that integrates the interdisciplinary field of informatics with area studies, which encompasses all academic disciplines, including natural ecology, environmental studies, human ecology, sociology, history, cultural studies, economics and political science. One of the core research topics of this project is the process of urban formation in Hanoi in the 19th and 20th centuries. This research aims to explain the history of urban development in Hanoi, which has been the capital of Vietnam for 1, 000 years, and to digitize the research process and its results for publication. To explain the process of Hanoi's urban development and transformation based on the hypothesis "Through the continual filling in of lakes and ponds formed by the riverbed of the old Red River, Hanoi achieved significant urban development and transformation during the Nguyen Dynasty period" generated by Sakurai [Sakurai and Shibayama 2007: 37], research into this process was furthered through spatial analyses of various data gathered during the project, including maps, satellite images, cadastral maps and historic ruins and vestiges, carried out using GIS(Geographical Information Systems) and RS (Remote Sensing) technologies. This paper discusses the analyses of urban transformation in the 19th and 20th centuries with the main emphasis on the urbanized city, water areas, and pre-colonial villages.