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| Le Quang Tue |
In the digital age, the concept of heritage conservation is undergoing a profound transformation. It is no longer limited to physical restoration or displaying artifacts in glass cases; conservation is now a race in data storage and processing technologies. One project in this wave is the Vietnam Map Archive (VMA), an initiative launched by Le Quang Tue to build a digital knowledge infrastructure for Vietnamese heritage.
Approaching heritage through data science
The Vietnam Map Archive was built as a digital infrastructure solution to address the fragmentation of historical data in Vietnam. This is a highly practical direction, as the demand for spatial data in urban planning, tourism, and education is immense, while the supply remains unsystematic.
“We approach heritage not from nostalgia, but from the perspective of data science,” Le Quang Tue shared the project’s vision.
Starting with data on Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City based on available local knowledge, the project's expansion into Hue happened almost by chance when Tue participated in a TROY (The Roundtable discussion of Youth) discussion in Hue City, themed “Continuing and developing Hue's heritage”. The urban structure and multi-layered heritage data system of Hue provide an ideal environment to test the effectiveness of a digital heritage management model.
“As a heritage city, Hue’s dense cultural layers are found not only in the complex of Ancient Capital’s monuments, but also throughout its urban space, arts and culture, such as the Diem Phung Thi Art Center, and the Le Ba Dang Memory Space... This vast heritage system is both an opportunity and a challenge for Hue,” shared Tue. It is a challenge because, according to Tue, understanding and appreciating heritage requires specific knowledge and sufficient time. Meanwhile, most visitors experience heritage through tightly scheduled cultural tours with limited time. As a result, many visitors leave Hue remembering only general impressions of the Ancient Capital's monuments and the image of a dreamy land.
“But, is that feeling enough for us to truly connect with heritage? Or is it merely distant admiration, a surface-level encounter with a world we do not truly understand yet?” wondered Tue. From these concerns, he began his project with ancient maps. He explained: “Heritage exists in two dimensions: Time and Space. Ancient maps are the most accurate backbone to reconstruct that context. When we place a location or a street on a map, we not only see its position; but also understand its organic relationship with the hydrology, transportation, and planning of the people in the past.”
Co-creation
“As someone working with data and interested in digital transformation in heritage, I am impressed by Hue's efforts to create cultural touchpoints for visitors. As a user and a visitor, I am provided with a lot of information, but it is often fragmented and lacks systematization. This makes learning about and understanding heritage within specific historical and cultural contexts incomplete,” shared Tue. This also presents a challenge for Tue in his effort to piece together “fragments of history” into a living ecosystem, where the community can use, contribute to, and engage in dialogue about heritage.
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| Map of Hue Imperial City (Plan de la citadelle de Hue, 1885), scale 1/7,000, digitized by Tue’s team |
To enrich the database and gain the fullest understanding, Tue and his collaborators have to integrate many other data layers, including texts, photos, drawings, and even oral histories. “When we gather enough of these materials, we can recreate an area at a specific moment in history, including the people and the stories that shaped it. Ambitiously speaking, we can recreate almost the entire culture of that area in a vivid and accessible way. I believe that only then can the public fully understand and love heritage,” affirmed Tue.
The most distinctive feature of VMA lies in the mindset of co-creation. Instead of building a one-way archive (where users only view), the project aims to integrate participatory and gamification elements. Residents and visitors can directly contribute their materials and stories, as well as engage in meaningful exchanges on the digital platform. People in Hue can upload oral histories from their grandparents, old photos of familiar landmarks, or even audio recordings of local cultural rituals. When the community is empowered to take the ownership of data, a sense of conservation will be formed naturally and sustainably.
Infrastructure ambitions
Tue revealed that the raw database of over 200 ancient maps across Vietnam, which is currently held by VMA, of which nearly 50 key maps of Hue and Saigon having been technically processed and published, is just the beginning of a three-stage technological roadmap: from image processing (Raster) to data digitization (Vector), and ultimately to artificial intelligence (AI). The team’s vision is to transform VMA into an open knowledge infrastructure, providing clean and standardized data for researchers, tourism businesses, and game developers to use in their own products.
Looking further ahead, VMA is researching the application of computer vision to automate the recognition of architecture from old photos, aiming to build a 3D Digital Twin of heritage cities. This step anticipates the trend of bringing heritage into the metaverse and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR).
The model of combining history with geographic information system (GIS) technology has long been implemented by prestigious universities such as Harvard and Stanford. With VMA, young Vietnamese like Le Quang Tue and his collaborators are proving they are fully capable of mastering technology to build living “digital museums” for future generations.
Currently, VMA has completed the technical processing and published nearly 50 key maps of Hue and Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City on its digital platform, including 10 maps of Hue spanning from 1819 to 1968. The initial maps focus on describing Hue Imperial City area, later expanding to the surrounding areas, covering the entire city. The maps are sourced from the digital libraries of the National Library of France, the US Library of Congress, Côte d’Azur University Library, and the University of Texas at Austin Library.