Events
Research Dissemination Workshop "The Quantitative and Qualitative Studies on the Sonic Environment of the World Heritage Site in Luang-Prabang, Lao PDR: Toward Its Soundscape Design"
Date: August 26, 2011
Venue: Meeting room in the governor’s office, Luang-Prabang, Lao PDR
Organized by:
- National University of Laos
- Kyoto University
Co-organized by:
Kyoto University Global COE Program "Global Center for Education and Research on Human Security Engineering for Asian Megacities"
Number of attendants: 15
Report 170
Outline
This workshop is aimed to disseminate the obtained results of the collaborated studies between Laos National University and Kyoto University with a support of local authorities to the officers in the province of Luang-Pranang, Lao PDR.
Luang-Prabang is a jewel of Southeast Asia. It is a town with about 100,000 population located in north central part of Lao PDR being the capital of Luang Prabang Province. The traditional part of the town is located a peninsula forming a beautiful landscape and famous for numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries. Every day in the early morning after wooden bells are rung, hundreds of monks from the monasteries walk through the streets in the town collecting alms which local people donate on their knees. Luang Prabang is a magnificent example of the fusion of traditional Lao architecture and French provincial style houses.
The town came to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The town has attracted a large number of tourists from overseas who love tranquillity and peaceful atmosphere of Luang Prabang. However, tourism provides the site with on top of economic development threat that it might damage what tourists expect in the site they visit. The steep increase in number of vehicles resulted in raising the level of noise due to traffic every year.
Report
The number of participants in the workshop is fifteen including deputy governor and the directors concerning the studies and researchers.
Firstly, Prof. Dexanourath Seneduangdeth indicated the motivation to keep the soundscape of the city based on its history and the results of interviews to residents. Secondly, Prof. Kozo Hiramatsu proposed a countermeasure to reduce the sound level in the city based on the simulated calculation by introducing electric vehicles. The presentation by Prof. Hiramatsu was interpreted into Lao language.
After the presentations active questions and admiring comments were given by the officers in the province.
