Università Università UNIVERSITÀ Degli Studi Ca’ Foscari DEGLI STUDI Venezia DI PADOVA di Verona Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento discienze storiche, geografiche e dell’antichità CORSO DI DOTTORATO IN STUDI STORICI, GEOGRAFICI, ANTROPOLOGICI Curriculum: Studi geografici CICLO XXXIII YUNNAN-VIETNAM RAILWAY HERITAGE CORRIDOR: CONSTRUCTION, EVALUATION AND APPLICATION Coordinatrice del Corso: Ch.ma Prof.ssa Maria Cristina La Rocca Supervisore: Ch.ma Prof.ssa Silvia Elena Piovan Supervisore: Ch.mo Prof. Giovanni Luigi Fontana Dottorando: Kun Sang Università degli Studi di Padova, PhD Thesis Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Heritage Corridor: Construction, Evaluation and Application Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to appreciate the guidance from my supervisors during these years. Prof. Silvia Piovan and prof. Giovanni Luigi Fontana from the University of Padova are responsible, patient and learned scholars who helped me a lot, not only during my research but also in many other aspects of my life. Their profound academic skills and innovative ideas have benefited me greatly. They also offered me chances to participate in various academic activities, international and national conferences and some teaching activities. Especially, when I encountered some difficulties or obstructions, they could listen to me patiently and gave me some useful and valuable suggestions, as well as the confidence to continue my study. On the completion of my thesis, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to them. During my three-year-research in Italy, I need to appreciate the financial fund from the China Scholarship Council (CSC), who helped millions of Chinese students to study out of China to broaden their horizons and obtain international perspectives in their life. Because of this opportunity, I am fortunate to live and study independently in Italy, to make friends with the students with various cultural backgrounds, and to gain the knowledge, friendship, hobbies and skills useful for my future. I believe that, thanks to these experiences of independence in Italy, I learned how to face all the known and unknown challenges, at the same time, to be a better person in society. Next, I am grateful to University of Padova and all the teaching staff in the Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Ancient World (DiSSGeA), and three partner departments: Department of Humanities (DSU) and Department of Linguistic and Comparative Cultural Studies (DSLCC) at the Ca' Foscari University, and Department of Culture and Civilization (DCUCI) at the University of Verona. They offered lots of practical courses and seminars to improve my academic skills, including academic writing, reading, presenting and useful methods for doing research. The Sector of Geography in Padova provides us with spaces for studying as well as the opportunities to communicate with other scholars , Università degli Studi di Padova, PhD Thesis Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Heritage Corridor: Construction, Evaluation and Application from different universities. All the research colleagues from the department are friendly, well-educated and with nice personalities, especially the PhD colleagues from the XXXIII circle in Padova, with whom I passed a memorable and happy period in Italy. I will always keep their kindness, helps and companies in mind. There are also other organizations that helped me during my research. I would like to express my gratitude to them: Department of History at Bordeaux Montaigne University (prof. Christophe Bouneau), Department of Architecture at University of Yunnan (prof. Saying), Department of Tourism at University of Social Science and Humanity in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (prof. Hanh Nguyen Thi Van and Dr. Le Hai Nguyen), Archives Nationales d'Orere-mer in Provence, Archive of Mulhouse, Cite du train in Mulhouse, Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Yunnan Railway Museum and the railway workers in Shuitang station. Particularly, the students from the Department of Tourism in Hanoi were very active to participate in my research. Furthermore, I am obliged to all the other scholars and professors who helped me in my research, gave me valuable suggestions and responded to my questionnaires/interviews. They are prof. Castiglioni Benedetta from University of Padova, prof. Giuliana Biagioli from University of Pisa, Dr. Luo Jing from University of Cologne, prof. Wu Xiaoliang from University of Yunnan, prof. David Del Testa from Bucknell University, Dr. Maren Viol from British University of Vietnam, as well as many other wonderful people whom I have met in my life. Finally, I need to appreciate all the supports from my family: my parents, my sister and my brother. Without them, I would not have the determination to study abroad and to start my academic career. No matter how far away we are in distance, I will always be with them. ,, Università degli Studi di Padova, PhD Thesis Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Heritage Corridor: Construction, Evaluation and Application Abstract In the current period of rapid development in China and Vietnam, the pressure from urbanization has posed considerable threats to historical railways and other kinds of industrial heritage, especially those heritages with large scales and extents. As a representative historical narrow-gauge railway in Southeast Asia, Yunnan-Vietnam Railway related to China, France and Vietnam, is selected as the research object in this study from an international perspective. From the literature review of Chinese railway heritage and site survey on Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, it is known that this old railway is of historical, technological, social-cultural, ecological, landscape and tourism values. But some of its sections have already been closed or destroyed, waiting for further protective solutions, along with crises, challenges and opportunities. With an increasing perception of railway heritage and railway tourism, a comprehensive and cooperative protection strategy is in need to document all the related relics along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, to assess its heritage value quantitatively and to support the tourism activities for its future redevelopment. Meanwhile, spatial technologies have been evolved rapidly since their birth, connected more closely with history and archaeology, and applied to more practical cases and fields. GIS combined with RS and GPS is proved to have adequate supports in the protection for both cultural and natural heritage, for its advantages in spatial processing, analyzing, managing and information interpreting and sharing. This research, from a geo-historical perspective, mainly utilizes Historical-GIS as methodology based on the historical and geographical backgrounds of CFY, which integrates spatial technologies with multiple disciplines, especially the concept of heritage corridor. It discusses a solution for the protection and management of large-scale heritage through multi-level geo-analysis and applications. The original historical documents conserved in archives (historical photos, maps, etc.), along with other open spatial data, big data and fieldwork data were collected, systemized and used to build a heritage database. These movable documents are considered as a part ,,, Università degli Studi di Padova, PhD Thesis Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Heritage Corridor: Construction, Evaluation and Application of the CFY heritage, and the application of historical images into CFY study makes it groundbreaking. After building a geodatabase in form of GeoPackage, GIS is combined with Analytic Hierarchy Process, Delphi Expert Method and Minimum Cumulative Resistance Model as a spatial integrated method for the construction and evaluation of CFY heritage corridor. Some objectives are fulfilled, including effective heritage management, regional coordination under various authorities, data shareability with other users and researchers and the supports for heritage tourism. Besides, an assessment tool for railway heritage corridor is introduced and updated based on previous research, discussing the indicators influencing heritage value of historical railway from five aspects: technology, social-culture, ecology, landscape and tourism. In this built heritage corridor, all the dedicated heritage resources are classified, and a spatial pattern of the corridor is also analyzed. As a result, more spatial applications are fulfilled on basis of the built heritage corridor and the calculated heritage value of the whole railway area, which refers to basic mapping of the heritage area, heritage visualization with WebGIS, geo-historical changes along the railway and data sharing through the ArcGIS server. At last, some suggestions based upon the study of CFY heritage are discussed and proposed for the future research on the protection and management of railway heritage in China. Keywords: Yunnan-Vietnam Railway; Railway heritage; Spatial technologies; Historical GIS; Railway tourism ,9 Università degli Studi di Padova, PhD Thesis Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Heritage Corridor: Construction, Evaluation and Application Abbreviations 3S: GIS, RS and GPS AIA: The Association for Industrial Archaeology AMS: Army Map Service ANOM: Archives nationales d'outre-mer AR/VR: Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality ARIH: Asian Route of Industrial Heritage ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations BIM: Building Information Modelling CCI: Chambre de commerce et d'industrie CEPF: The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund CER: Chinese Eastern Railway CFY: Chemins de fer de l'Indochine et du Yunnan