Da Nang used the 15th Asian-Pacific City Summit in Fukuoka, Japan, to describe how it plans for floods and to ask for technical help, Da Nang Online reported on October 21. The summit ran October 19 to 21.
Vice Chairman Tran Nam Hung, who led the delegation, told a session on October 20 that the city now administers most of the Vu Gia–Thu Bon river basin and that its 2050 general plan limits urbanisation where flood depths exceed 1.5 metres. Da Nang's approach, he said, is to reserve space for water before allocating land for development, combine drainage and lakes with sponge-city features and real-time flood warnings, and coordinate reservoir releases with early warnings. "Safe cities are not necessarily those with the most infrastructure," he said.
He asked partner cities for help with data sharing, risk mapping, hydraulic modelling and coordinated reservoir operation, and offered to pilot Da Nang's methods within the network.
On the sidelines, Hung met Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima on October 19 and agreed to deepen cooperation on sustainable development, startups and smart cities. He also met Gwangyang Mayor Park Sung-hyeon, with whom Da Nang renewed a friendship agreement on August 7, and asked for more Korean investment.
Why it matters: the same flood questions drive the city's planning and its project timetables. Still unknown: no funding or specific projects came out of the meetings.
Sources
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