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Can Tho University, Vietnam

About the speaker

Dr. Nigel K. Downes studied geography in the UK and environmental management in Germany. He is currently an integrated expert at the College of Environment and Natural Resources, Can Tho University, in a position supported by German development cooperation. He has over 15 years urban research experience in Vietnam, first in developing an adaptation planning framework for Ho Chi Minh City (2008–2013) and secondary analysis of the urban development of Da Nang, for improved spatial and environmental planning towards sustainable infrastructure, environmental and resource management (2014–2019). His work continues to be focused on urban environmental planning, the development of urban monitoring and indicator assessments, and embedding adaptation solutions into urban planning frameworks.

Presentation highlights

  • Outline the rapidity of Ho Chi Minh City’s urbanization.
  • Characterization of recent urbanization processes.
  • Understand the main flows and drivers of change and their importance for informing adaptation.

Paper Abstract

Informing urban climate change adaptation through understanding recent settlement patterns and Population Dynamics in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The coastal cities in Southeast Asia, such as Ho Chi Minh City, have a significant vulnerability to natural hazards. With formidable growth dynamics, policymakers and planning increasingly face pressure to adapt the city to current and future risks. It is expected that risks for the city will intensify because of the
interaction of climate change, continued urbanization and peri-urbanization, and creeping environmental changes. Peri-urbanization is understood as the physical expansion process of built-up areas and socio-economic transformation beyond the existing urban area. This paper addresses the question of how recent scattered and dispersive patterns of peri-urbanisation have developed spatially at both the local scale
and in relation to the wider urban area, creating a hybrid structure of fragmented urban and rural characteristics. Through a block-level scale analysis of Ho Chi Minh City’s urban development for the dynamic period 2010–2020, the structures, scales, processes, and changes in land use of recent urbanization are identified. The results visually show the predominant growth challenges of planned urbanization into peri-urban areas and multiple risk generations. Finally, the paper provides a view of the loss of multifunctional adaptation space and the spatial planning constraints of managing future risks in such a dynamic context.

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