emplement! - Forschungs- & Entwicklungsphase

Empowering Urban Regions for Implementation of Sustainability and Resilience Strategies Considering the Urban-Rural Nexus applying the example of Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province, Vietnam

Research- and Development Phase (R&D-phase)

Initial situation

The coastal cities and regions of Central Vietnam are currently characterised by a strong urbanisation trend. In order to be able to adequately meet the associated challenges for sustainable development, the cities and their surrounding areas must understand themselves as spatial and socio-economic units and act in a joint effort. This includes for example the development of common strategies and plans as well as their implementation.

The project area of emplement! comprises of Da Nang City (2015; 1,0 million; 2030: 2,5 million inhabitants) and the neighbouring Quang Nam Province (2015: 1,5 million.; 2025: 1,7 million inhabitants).

The cities in the study area (e.g. Da Nang, but also Tam Ky and Hoi An) are - across administrative boundaries - closely connected with their surrounding areas through flows of people, goods, commodities, finance and information. The growth of cities, increasing levels of urbanisation and surface sealing, the change in settlement, consumption and production patterns as well as the increase in resource consumption intensify the already existing challenges for sustainable development and for supply and disposal infrastructures. In the study area, these challenges includes for instance

the aggravation of resource scarity
the increasing destruction of the environment
the change in vulnerability to climate change impacts and
the increase in spatial, social and economic disparities

Actively dealing with these challenges and ensuring future-oriented, sustainable and resource-efficient development in the study area forward-looking, integrated or trans-sectoral planning that takes into account the dynamics of urban and regional development and that avoids wrong decisions with regard to supply and disposal infrastructures.

Overall objective of the emplement! project

The emplement! project addresses the main challenges associated with the implementation of spatial, socio-economic and sectoral development strategies and plans in the study area. The project does not only focus on strengthening and harmonising the contents of the planning instruments, but also on empowering the stakeholders with regard to the implementation and on improving cooperation across administrative boundaries.

The main objective of the emplement! project is to develop transferable implementation tools to support municipal stakeholders with regard to the transformation of ambitious development goals, strategies and plans into viable measures and with regard to their implementation. The reasearch activities focus on four fields of action, namely tourism, agriculture and forestry, industry and built environment, and consider the rural-urban nexus.

Work programme of the sub-project "Administrative Structures, Policy & Cooperation" of the IZES gGmbH

In the R&D-phase, the reseach activities of the Department IKE focus on sustainble material flow management in the study area, on the analysis on the contents of current planning instruments at different levels of action, on the analyses and description of administrative structures and planning processes as well as on stakeholder management and on the improvement of cooperation mechanisms.

In order to achieve the project's envisaged objectives, the following works are carried out during the R&D-phase:

Evaluation of current strategies and plans relevant for the study area
Support of practical pilot projects (focus: management and monitoring of consumption and generation patterns in buildings) as well as analysis and evaluation of their technical and economic performance
Analysis of cooperation activities in the study area as well as development of recommendations for the promotion of urban-rural exchange and for the improvement of the cooperation between stakeholders across administrative boundaries and levels of action
Development of adequate planning and implementation instruments (focus: support for regional and urban-rural cooperation, capacity development)
Support of public relations work, organisation of conferences and workshops events

Impressions of the study area: the port of Cham Island, an agricultural enterprise, a local recycling company,
the "pained village" of Tam Thank (Tam Ky)