Southeast Asian Cities Research Articles

Digitalising endangered cultural heritage in Southeast Asian cities: preserving or replacing?

ABSTRACT In the last decade, the dramatic developments in digitalisation have reached cultural heritage. Digital archiving and reconstruction, virtual reality, and 3D laser scanning, modelling and printing, are influencing the way we consume, manage, and preserve it. As part of the latter, detailed virtual records of endangered urban cultural heritage, through digital archiving, capturing, and reconstruction techniques, can help preserve its memories and lengthen its life; particularly, once decision-makers resolve to end its tangibility. However, the application of digitalisation to cultural heritage is not always easy, faced with issues such as cost, lack of sources and skills, sustainability, and intellectual property limitations. This paper illustrates the challenges encountered by land-deprived and fast-growing Southeast Asian cities in amalgamating urban cultural heritage preservation with pressing development needs. Ultimately, it discusses the introduction of digitalisation in this debate by examining the broader consequences of the association.

The Role of Tourism in Urban Conservation: The Case of Manila, The Philippines

Different types of physical assets of historical origin such as structures, monuments, and squares are conserved by improving them through various restoration techniques, enabling them to have a touristic function. We witness an increasing number of district-scale or structure-scale restorations and conservations where structures throughout the world, particularly in the inner-city areas of the old city, eventually gain economic value in terms of recreational and touristic activities. The concept of “conservation” has started to play a vital role in most of the colonial capital cities in Southeast Asia, especially those connected to the coast. The role of conservation action in revitalizing the old cities in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony in Southeast Asia, earns them touristic-recreational functions. Most of the historical coastal cities, even in the pre-colonial period, such as Manila, which is a focal centre of the country in terms of cultural, political and economic activities, form the basis of the cultural heritage tourism of the country. The objective of this study concerns the restoration of the structures located in the historical inner-city area of Manila to take them under conservation and use them for touristic purposes.

Historical Evolution of Placemaking in Historic City of Palembang, Indonesia

Because of the rapid transformation of Southeast Asian cities with modernization and westernization, this paper aims to present the historical evolution of Palembang's city into clear morphological phases of the city. Palembang is essential because it represents one of the earliest and historical cities in Southeast Asia and could serve as a good case study to the morphological changes in Southeast Asia. Studies selected for this paper are historical maps on the 17th century, a combination and sets of the early 19th century, and post Indonesia's independence maps that include the latest map of the modern Palembang city. A framework of the historical and interpretive study was conducted and implementing the maps using GIS and OSM as the newest data source and analysis. Using Placemaking theory and utilizing Street pattern, Land use, and landmark as an approach tool to clarify the city's spatial form. Analysis of street patterns, land use, and landmarks was carried out on the three different morphological phases, and we founded out that there have been changes in the quality of place over time. The city form has shifted more complex from a linear settlement and transform into a co-centric form city and later on morphed into a multiple-centered metropolis. The land use had also changed over time due to political, economic conditions, and dwelling pattern. Palembang city's landmarks have also evolved or multiplied over time, and it has given the evolution of meaning to the city. From the changes in the quality of place and geographical model transformations, future studies will need to focus on increasing the quality of place by classifying the city's spatial configuration from its integration, betweenness, and choice that could define the city's network and systems. Future studies will also need to compare the research findings with other cities in the Southeast Asia regions with similar conditions to create a comparison between the results and a better understanding of Historic Southeast Asian cities.

Public acceptance of drone applications in a highly urbanized environment

Human societies are constantly affected by advancement in technologies. Could drone application be the next game changer? Building on the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) model, we conducted a study to examine public perceptions of drone application in a South East Asian city state. While there are a number of common findings with past research, we were able to extend the understanding of drone application in urban areas with the following findings. First, using two knowledge tests, we were able to confirm that the majority of the public seems to have a good understanding of what a drone is. Second, acceptance levels towards drones did significantly differ depending on the context of use. Industrial areas had the highest acceptance level, followed by recreational areas and commercial areas while residential areas had the lowest acceptance level. Finally, different factors may be responsible for the varying levels of acceptance across the different contexts. We provided preliminary evidence that two factors – fears and concerns, and perceived potential benefits – affected the public acceptance levels differently depending on the contexts of drone applications. We concluded with implications for future research and policy makers.

The Implementation of the Kampung Improvement Program in Semarang: Some Obstacles and Impacts

This study analyzes Kampung Improvement Program (KIP) implementation and its impact on social life in Semarang between 1978-1988 periods. The KIP program is considered successful in building and managing slum settlements in Semarang. The success of Semarang in implementing this program makes it as a pilot project for the arrangement of two cities in Southeast Asia, namely Manila and Bangkok in 1987. This study emphasizes the use of government documents and newspapers to analyze KIP implementation progress in Semarang in the period of 1978 and ended at 1988. The program implementation was divided into two major stages, KIP Urban III and KIP Urban V. From KIP program, various physical infrastructure to support basic needs, such as toilets, clean water networks, sanitation, and road paving have been built. In its development, the KIP implementation brings a new face to Semarang towards slum villages, decreases the social pathology of the communities, and develops social groups, such as empowering Integrated Health Service Port (Posyandu) and Family Welfare Program (PKK). KIP Urban III was able to complete the construction of 21 villages, while in KIP Urban V there were 35 villages, bringing the total number of 56 villages developed.

Dengue geography in Vientiane Capital, 2012–2019: Combining multiple datasets to understand virus spread in an endemic city

Background: Dengue is a vector borne disease transmitted by Aedes mosquito species. The disease affects all major cities in South-east Asia. Urbanization of the world is a clear factor that led to Aedes and dengue spread during the past decades. In Lao PDR, two epidemics hit the country in 2010 and in 2013, affecting respectively more than 22,890 and 44,171 individuals. However, if some researches were conducted in some localities of Vientiane (Vallée and al, 2011), the overall dengue context and its geography are little known. This presentation has two aims: 1° to present dengue epidemiology and its geography in Vientiane Capital using surveillance system implemented by Institut Pasteur du Laos 2° to uncover what drives the dengue force of infection among built up, socio-economic, local temperature and more innovative data which allow to describe commuting pattern of millions of individuals. Methods and materials: To study the link between environmental disparities and incidence rate of cases, we rely on several data: (i) Global Human settlement, which allows to quantify the sprawl of built-up areas, (ii) surface temperature detected trough Landsat 8, (iii) census data which will help us to qualify the social economic disparities (iv) commuting patterns of Facebook users to understand the migration flow in the city and its link with dengue spread. Results: A total of 2699 cases were recorded and could be located at village level. The effect of village typology (i.e. urban core, 1st, 2nd peripheries and rural areas) on dengue incidence was investigated using a Poisson regression. We could underline that the main risk factors in Vientiane Capital are not linked with poverty but are associated with the percentage of individuals that recently migrated to the city. The second risk factor stands precisely in the degree of urban centrality of a village. Conclusion: This research suggest that risk factors do not only depend on the local context but are also impacted by the structure and intensity of connectivity between villages composing Vientiane Capital. This results underline that dengue could be better model by introducing mobility of individuals at city level.

TRANSFORMATION TO SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT URBAN FUTURES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Abstract. The fast pace of urbanisation in Southeast Asia has undermined the sustainability of the social, economic and environmental infrastructure of many cities across the region. Urban resilience in Southeast Asian cities is being further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. While cities and national governments across the region have developed policies, strategies and programs to re-orient their cities towards more sustainable and resilient development pathways, many cities continue to struggle with the uncontrolled nature of urban development and compounding impacts of crisis events. This article provides an overview of major trends and challenges with urbanisation in Southeast Asia, focusing in particular on Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the regional, national and sub-national policies and strategies established to address these trends and challenges. Given the current policy implementation gaps and ongoing challenges of urbanisation in Cambodia and Vietnam, the article makes the case for trans-disciplinary research to understand the potential for strengthening urban governance capacities for urban sustainability transformations.

Motorcyclists have much higher exposure to black carbon compared to other commuters in traffic of Hanoi, Vietnam

Exposure to air pollutants, including black carbon (BC), during transportation is an important contribution to the total daily respiratory exposure for humans. Exposure to BC is especially relevant in crowded cities of developing countries. Specifically, in Hanoi (Vietnam), air pollution including BC is of concern, particularly near traffic. Despite public interest, no studies have been undertaken to understand the levels of respiratory exposure of BC to commuters in Hanoi, who predominantly use motorcyles. In this study, we simultaneously measured BC concentrations using microAeth AE51 portable devices on motorcycles, and in the cabins of cars and buses. The mean BC concentration on motorcycles was 29.4 μg/m3 compared to 10.1 μg/m3 in the buses. BC concentrations were also shown to be influenced by traffic density. Measurements during peak traffic showed BC concentrations of 34.7 μg/m3 and 12.1 μg/m3 for motorcyclists and bus passengers, respectively. For non-rush hour periods (on weekdays), the corresponding BC levels were 27.7 and 8.4 μg/m3, respectively. BC levels inside of a passenger car with different ventilation modes was also examined. The concentrations of BC inside the cabin of a passenger car were 18.1 μg/m3 and 11.7 μg/m3, with the windows open and closed, respectively. It is estimated that motorcyclists are exposed to a significantly higher level of BC than users of buses and cars. Our findings are evidence for promoting the use of public transportation to protect public health in Hanoi, which may also be applicable to other cities in South-East Asia with similar traffic characteristics.

Epistemic Mobilities: Following Sea-Level Change Adaptation Practices in Southeast Asian Cities

A rich corpus of literature exists on traveling knowledges, their carriers, and connectivities. Yet there is less emphasis on how trajectories of mobility themselves, and the knowledges that circulate coevolve in the process of travel. In this article, we propose “epistemic mobilities” as a conceptual lens with which to empirically trace the transfer and translation of knowledges and practices as they come to be embedded in existing and new social realities. We draw inspiration from technological and policy interventions for living with sea-level change across two cases studies on Jakarta and Manila, and ask how these policies and practices constantly morph when being translated into specific sociopolitical and ecological contexts. We argue that the translocal transforming of adaptation practices and policies, within their contexts of arrival and negotiation, are key to conceptualizing “epistemic mobilities” via local systems and processes of socioinstitutional change.

The Study of Brick and Stone Arch Technology of Traditional Temples in Myanmar

With the advancement of the Belt and Road, more deep study of Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries is becoming urgent and necessary. Under this background, Myanmar, the essential historical area, is also the hub connecting the Belt and Road, as well as the window of the Southeast Asian cities and architectures that we shall study. Its traditional architecture technology is different from masonry structure of India and other Southeast Asian countries. Large space buildings are covered with arch system, which takes brick most and is supplemented by stone. It is original and widely used in Myanmar’s religious buildings.

The Serendipitious City in South East Asia—Urban Archetypal Design Principles from the Morphological ‘Vernacular’

<p align="justify">‘Serendipitious’ has been defined as occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way. “A serendipitous encounter” thus generally means one or a series of unexpected but pleasant encounters. A city, which is serendipitious, is a physical form, which has configuration and features which allows such encounters to happen. This paper highlights vernacular-based principles which are needed to counter the modernisation and urbanisation trends in South East Asia, throughout studying the typological and morphological character of ‘littoral maritime’ cities which grew in the 15th century onwards across littoral or coastal straits of maritime Asia represent pre-modern vernacular-rooted forms from which contain patterns that are urban, yet naturally-balanced with the environment. As these grew as a result of maritime trade, it is highly densed yet still reflect ecological features and conditions are still intact. The paper reconstructs some of these patterns and identify four central character as a result of their urban which resonate with ‘ecological themes’: 1) accretion qualities; 2) river-gravitation; 3) fractality and 4) centricity. The paper argues that although these patterns emerge from medieval times, these maritime cities constitute a ‘gentle’ and ecologically-sound approach to development which can unite the co-existence of urbanisation and nature. In such conditions, the tropical jungle exists side by side with densed urbanisation. The paper uses the reconstruction of the former (pre-colonial) morphologies in South East Asia to demonstrate the character of these centers, which are organic and informal evolvements having certain morphologies, configurations, architectural structures and their similarities and common principles in terms of urban patterns and principles are discussed. The pursuit of the optimal balance between ‘man’ and ‘nature’ must reflect in a city which consider living beings as both animal, vegetation and man, and which are, at present, in danger of critical depletion, and eventually extinction. Cases of built language, topography, ecology, landscape forms and urban configuration patterns and parameters across the region are presented and the paper argues that the rise of sustainability in city planning favors the compact and densed formal patterns which are reflective of these centers across the coastline of the straits historically and these constitutes principles that can sustain ecology, climatic balance yet an active cultural conduit of the place.</p>

Everyday geographies\xa0in the changing city: subjective photo-routes in Mandalay, Myanmar

This work upholds the importance of questioning young people to find out their point of view on urban transformation and grasp their perception and representation of the changes. Hence, the paper presents the methodology and results of an autophotography activity, and more specifically photo-routing organized in March 2018 with a group of young undergraduates at Mandalay University, Myanmar. In the sphere of this activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their relationship with the urban space and to use a camera to capture significant places and situations in their everyday experience of the city, with the goal of exploring their personal point of view on the changes occurring in it, both from a tangible and intangible perspective, in addition to how they are reflected in the everyday practice of the city. The idea at the basis of the research-intervention is that the focus on everyday life through qualitative and visual investigation techniques enables the emergence of some of the—both conscious and not—more-than-representational ways in which people—a group of young adults in this specific case—perceive and live the processual nature of the city. Results show that the photo-route tool proved to be particularly effective in stimulating a critical gaze on the city and the changes underway, to acquire awareness of the constantly in-becoming nature of the places and reflect in an introspective manner on their own life course in relation to the city. Thus, the paper provides a contribution “from below” to the reflections on urban transformations going on in Southeast Asian cities and, more precisely, in Myanmar.

URBAN LIVABILITY INDICATORS FOR SECONDARY CITIES IN ASEAN REGION

Urban livability indicators have tremendous influence on policies and growth trajectories of cities or metropolises to the benefit of their communities. Livability is a threshold for measuring the social dimension of people wrought by exogenous factors like infrastructure, environment, social cohesion, transportation, health and education, among others. This research is aimed to generate prototype urban livability indicators for secondary cities in Southeast Asia, benchmarked on the livability indicators of Iskandar Malaysia, Davao City in the Philippines and Makassar in Indonesia. A three-round iterative Delphi survey (scoping, convergence, and consensus) was conducted to pre-qualified 60 experts with equal representations from the three metropolises. The significant phase was the scoping where experts have to supplement the given framework for their aspired urban livability sub-indicators under specific domain indicators. In the convergence phase, reconsideration of sub-indicators and preliminary ranking of domain indicators using the 5-point Likert Scale’s degree of agreement and Kendall’s W coefficient of concordance were performed. In the consensus phase, both domain indicators and sub-indicators were ranked separately and assigned corresponding weightings. With the total of 108 framework-based and supplementary sub-indicators categorized under the 11 domain indicators, the study conclusively yielded 75 common, comparative, interconnected, and consistent urban livability indicators ranked according to the aspiration of stakeholders in three ASEAN secondary cities. This research, through the employ of robust methodology, has generated comprehensive composite urban livability indicators for secondary metropolitan settlements in Southeast Asia; thus, the resulting final indicators can be potentially engaged to determine a comparative urban livability index of cities in the ASEAN region.

Climate analogue and future appearance of novel climate in Southeast Asia

AbstractThis study identified the analogue locations of five big cities and the future appearance of novel climate in Southeast Asia (SEA) at the end of the 21st century under the Representative Concentration Pathways 8.5 (RCP8.5) and 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenarios. A modified version of an existing formulation to estimate climate distance is introduced, using the monthly means of temperature and precipitation from six regional climate experiments and from six global climate models (GCMs). Results showed that regional downscaling allowed a more accurate representation of temperature but displayed a higher variability in rainfall over SEA compared to the GCM performance. The ensemble mean (ENS) experiment had a relatively better performance compared to each individual experiment in representing the monthly time series of temperature and precipitation. The common tendency of climatic relocation towards warmer regions for the five big cities in SEA (Hanoi, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta) was prominent with the regional ENS experiment. At the end of the 21st century, the ratio of novel climate areas over SEA, mainly located in low elevation, coastal, equatorial regions, and islands, was less than 2% under RCP4.5, but increased to 24 and 21% under RCP8.5 for the ensemble regional and global experiments, respectively.

Chinese Temple Networks in Southeast Asia: A WebGIS Digital Humanities Platform for the Collaborative Study of the Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia

This article introduces a digital platform for collaborative research on the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, focusing on networks of Chinese temples and associations extending from Southeast China to the various port cities of Southeast Asia. The Singapore Historical Geographic Information System (SHGIS) and the Singapore Biographical Database (SBDB) are expandable WebGIS platforms gathering and linking data on cultural and religious networks across Southeast Asia. This inter-connected platform can be expanded to cover not only Singapore but all of Southeast Asia. We have added layers of data that go beyond Chinese Taoist, Buddhist, and popular god temples to also display the distributions of a wide range of other religious networks, including Christian churches, Islamic mosques, Hindu temples, and Theravadin, which are the Taiwanese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries found across the region. This digital platform covers a larger area than the Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space (THCTS) historical GIS platform but is more regionally focused than the ECAI (Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative) By incorporating Chinese inscriptions, extensive surveys of Chinese temples and associations, as well as archival and historical sources, this platform provides new materials and new perspectives on the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. This paper: (1) outlines key research questions underlying these digital humanities platforms; (2) describes the overall architecture and the kinds of data included in the SHGIS and the SBDB; (3) reviews past research on historical GIS; and provides (4) a discussion of how incorporating Chinese epigraphy of Southeast Asia into these websites can help scholars trace networks across the entire region, potentially enabling comparative work on a wide range of religious networks in the region. Part 5 of the paper outlines technical aspects of the WebGIS platform.

Urban development in the margins of a world heritage site: In the shadows of Angkor. By Adèle Esposito. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018. 337 pp. Price: €105 (Hardcover) and €104.99 (eBook PDF).

In this monograph review, I examine how Esposito contextualizes, conceptualizes, problematizes, and operationalizes her work and present herkey arguments, as well asmy reflections. Thisbook walks us through the emergence of the ‘heritage and non-heritage space’conceptsthat havebeen promoted inmany cities in Southeast Asia and internationally. The dominant trend in Cambodia is for urban studies scholarship to focus on the capital city of Phnom Penh;including key issues such asland conflicts (Springer, 2015), real estate development(Fauveaud, 2014), and the eviction of the urban poor (McGinn, 2013)to makeway for the development of modern high-rise buildingsand satellite cities (Tom, 2016; Nam, 2017;and Yamada, 2018). However, in this book the authorproblematizes rapid urban transformation in Siem Reap. She shifts our attention towards thesecond largest city inCambodia,whichattractsmore than two million foreign tourists eachyear (Esposito 2018:48).

Evaluation of glazing retrofitting solution for the tropics

With the increase in the stock of old buildings in urban cities, there is an imperative demand to retrofit the old buildings to reduce their energy consumption and also maximize the use of natural daylight to enhance the well-being of the occupants in the buildings. For old commercial buildings, one of the solutions to reduce energy consumption is to reduce the heat transfer through the building envelope to the air-conditioned interior spaces. However, there are very limited solutions to alter the building envelope without the involvement of major construction works. The glass is usually an indispensable part of the building envelope for commercial buildings. Many old commercial buildings in Singapore and several other South-East Asian countries near the equator are fitted with monolithic glass as the window facade due to small variation in outdoor air temperature in the region throughout the year. By converting the monolithic glass facade into a double glazing unit, some energy savings will result, but it is unclear if the benefit is substantial.A new retrofitting solution known as the “ATTOCH Inner Window” or AIW in short, was developed by AGC recently. The retrofitting solution, AIW, basically converts an existing single pane glass facade into a double glazing unit by adding a secondary glass from the interior of the building. With a low-emissivity coated glass as the secondary glass, the effective g-value (solar transmittance) and U-value (thermal transmittance) of the double glazing unit are both reduced. Thus, the aim of this manuscript is to evaluate the performance of AIW when subjected to the tropical climate in selected Southeast Asian cities.

Deciphering the Development of Smart and Sustainable Tourism Cities in Southeast Asia: A Call for Research

A recognized desire is noticeable within ASEAN nations to develop more sustainable approaches to urban development and tourism. One solution has been to promote the expansion of both smart cities and smart tourism practices. Recently, these smart approaches have been implemented across a variety of different cities and locales. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential for further research in developing relation- ships between ‘smart cities’ and ‘smart tourism’ practices in Southeast Asia. Rather than present a review of the entire region, three potential case studies located in Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Thailand are discussed. These include Yangon as a case of smart approaches in a primary city, Vientiane as a case of smart approaches in a smaller city, and Phuket as a case of smart approaches in an area which suffers from overtourism. The authors maintain that this type of case study research within ASEAN states can provide critical insights and local solutions to the advancement of smart and sustainable tourism destinations.

Calibration of a physical functioning item bank for measurement of health-related quality of life in Singapore.

We aimed to develop and calibrate an item bank to measure physical function (PF) in Singapore, a multi-ethnic city in Southeast Asia. We recruited participants from community and hospital settings stratified for age and gender, with and without medical conditions to administer candidate pool of 61-items derived from the people's perspectives. We calibrated their responses using Samejima's graded response model of item response theory (IRT), including model assumptions, model fit, differential item functioning (DIF), and concurrent and known-groups validity. 496 participants (50% male; 41% above 50years old; 33.3% Chinese, 32.7% Malay and 34.1% Indian; 35% without chronic illness) were included in the calibration of item bank. 6 items were excluded due to mis-fit and local dependence. Redundancies in the response level was collapsed and re-scoring, while preserving the 5-level response structure. We found the final 55-item PF bank had adequate fit to IRT assumptions of unidimensionality, local independence and monotonicity. Items generally showed discernible ceiling effects with latent scores between - 3.5 to + 1.5. We found no DIF with gender, ethnicity or education. The PF scores correlated in the hypothesized direction with self-reported global health (Spearman's rho = - 0.35, 95% confidence intervals - 0.43 to - 0.27) and discriminated between groups stratified by age, gender and medical conditions. The 55-item Singapore PF item bank provides an adequate tool for measuring the lower end of PF, with greatest potential utility in healthcare settings where restoration to normal physical functioning is the goal of intervention.

Study of Cultural Landscape Character in Gampong Lubuk Sukon, Aceh

Banda Aceh is one of the oldest Islamic cities in South East Asia that still highly value Islamic culture both in their landscape structure and community activities. In order to maintain the cultural values, in 2012 Aceh Government established Gampong Lubuk Sukon as a cultural tourism village. After being designated as a cultural tourism village, there are no preservation guidelines regarding the cultural landscape. This research is conducted to identify the landscape elements that formed the landscape character so it can be used to determine conservation actions. The method of this study is Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). LCA are the process of identifying and describing the elements and unique characteristics that formed the landscape and a tool which can make a significant contribution to the objectives that relate to ‘environmental protection’ of sustainable development. As a result, the character of Lubuk Sukon cultural landscape is the traditional settlement that depends on local natural resources (agriculture) with centralized spatial planning (tumpok). Based on the landscape character integrity, this study proposes a zoning for conservation management, namely the core zone for strict conservation to safeguard the character of cultural landscape, the development zone as an areas that can be developed to support cultural tourism, and the buffer zone to protect and barrier between inside and outside the village.