The application of GIS in railway heritage management: the case of Yunnan-Vietnam Railway eISSN 2570-2092

Railways were a key mode of transporting goods and peoplefor industrial and urban development in the latemodern age. Their special part in economic growth comeswith their role in the development of cultural heritage alongtheir pathways.However, because of competingurban construction, manyrailway heritages are in danger, such as the Yunnan-VietnamRailway (YVR) in China,an important international narrow-gauge railwaybuilt in 1901, acknowledged as a railway heritage in 2018.As a typical linear heritage, the railway integrates both the natural and cultural landscapes, related to the largespatial extent and complex composition of single heritage elements. Geographic Information Systems(GIS) offer a greatsupport in the investigation, assessment, and management of railwayheritage.In this research, the huge cultural heritage related to theYVRwasstudied using a combined geo-historical and GIS approach.This paperaims to 1) give a brief review of the current status of the application of GIS on linear railway heritagesstudies, including heritage resources surveys, spatial analysis, thematic mapping and public service, 2) introducethe case study of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and3)presentageodatabase design for the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway heritage management.