SUA KICK-OFF Conference
On November 18, RIM and Wilo hosted the kick-off event of the research project "SMART URBAN AREAS (SUA)" at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Hanoi. Prestigious representatives from science, politics and industry participated on the ceremony. VTV1 recorded the conference for Vietnamese television.
In his inaugural speech, the Director of the Department of Climate Change at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Mr. Nguyen Tuan Quang, admonished about the pressure on critical infrastructures caused by rapid urbanization processes in Hanoi. Uncontrolled urban sprawl has caused a severe harms on the environment, transportation, public health, and food safety, which requires a new understanding of spatial planning. He considers smart cities as a promising solution path toward sustainability and climate adaptation.
Vinhomes Deputy General Director Tran Minh Trung underpinned that Vingroup has deployed many smart solutions in urban areas in the past. Through the SUA project, Vingroup hopes to co-develop a green solution that is also smart so that it can be applied to other urban areas in the future.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thinh outlined the main project ideas. The core object of the project is a 39-storey residential building within the Vinhomes Smart City in western part of Hanoi. Demonstrable energy-saving potential is to be created for the building by installing new pump technologies from the cooperation partner Wilo SE. Likewise, building greening is planned to reduce heat stress inside and outside the building. For ongoing monitoring purposes, microclimatic measuring devices will be installed on the building facades. A digital twin will be replicated for real-time documentation and data collection.
SUA is supported for three years by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and is part of the funding program "Export Initiative Environmental Technologies" (EXI). Detailed information and news about SUA can be retrieved on our project homepage.
After the introduction of all project partners (TU Dortmund, Wilo, Vingroup/Vinhomes), the project ideas were further substantiated by international presentations. The conference finished with a joint discussion and Q&A session with the audience. Overall, the project gained great interest due to its novelty and received compliments for the climate and sustainability-oriented science-industry-cooperation.