Promoting peace and collaboration through research was the mission given to UNESCO when it was first founded in 1945. And it is within this framework that Shin Koseki, Director and Holder of the UNESCO Chair in Urban Landscape at the University of Montreal , traveled to Paris during the week of September 25th to meet several diplomats and collaborators of this International Organization. With the support of the Delegation of Canada to UNESCO and its representative of the Government of Quebec, Shin Koseki met with ambassadors of Vietnam and Cambodia. The aim of this exchange being the WAT UNESCO, an international research and teaching activity implemented by the UNESCO Chair since 2003. The next editions will take place in Hanoi in 2023 and in Phnom Penh in 2024.
The WAT UNESCO, developed in collaboration with local and international universities, proposes to rethink the way we inhabit the urban space. It is now part of a research-action and research-creation project called Fluvialités on the urban planning of rivers. Vietnam and Cambodia’s rapid urban development, intimately linked to the Red and Mekong rivers respectively, have been chosen to become the hosts of the next two editions of WAT UNESCO. These Southeast Asian countries, whose economies are also experiencing rapid growth, are facing strong urban pressure in the context of climate change. Such issues, as well as many others faced by the very inhabitants of these cities, are at the heart of the research proposed by WAT UNESCO.
The management of rivers, from an economic, ecological and political perspectives, is a major challenge for sustainable development. These bodies of water play a major role in climate regulation, in addition to being the cradles of agricultural activities in several countries. Continental in scope, the rivers often cross several countries, also leading to conflicts between nations. Conversely, WAT UNESCO and the Fluvialities project propose the use of rivers as vectors of countries and collaboration.