ADAPTATION

PLANNING IN HCMC (Vietnam)

ACTION BRIEF
CLIMATE ADAPTED LAND-USE PLANNING

CODE: HCM-AB7

CHALLENGE
Improved land-use management and integrated
planning strategies, which encompass all levels of
urban governance, are regarded as essential for
increasing both the current and future resilience
and overall adaptive capacity of vulnerable urban
areas within Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). As
integrated land-use planning is accepted as a
critical component for land-use decisions and
zoning extensions, increasing resilience to climate
change must be mainstreamed within the
preparing and revision of land-use plans, the

TOPICS:
PLANNING
CAPACITIES

reviewing of urban development goals and the

decision making procedures regarding future
urban infrastructure and services. In addition to
the sounder preparedness of urban areas to the
potential impacts associated with climate change,
there are often unrealised or undervalued
opportunities for benefiting from optimised land-
use planning strategies that improve climate
resilience, but also have significant overall
environmental, social and economic benefits for
local neighbourhoods.

ACTION
Land-use planning is considered a key element in
developing efficient and tailored strategies to
climate-proof HCMC. As such, our research has
not been carried out in isolation but with the
intention to assist the Planning Division of the
Department of Natural Resources and
Environment (DONRE) in HCMC with
administrative policy making and in making
informed decisions underpinned by the latest
assessment techniques. To be ultimately climate
resilient, urban development planning needs to
reconcile and use the already existing ecological
services at their disposal in adaptation planning.
Supported by environmental planning methods
and tools, land-use planning can protect these
environmental services in a systematic manner.
The
basic
incorporation
of
Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) methods to core
climate-related environmental impacts under the
thematic areas of urban climate, urban flooding
and storm water retention highlighted the
valuable ecological services of open spaces and
agricultural land for climate-related risk mitigation
.

The consideration of multiple types of climate-
related hazards can reduce the likelihood that
adaptation planning and risk reduction efforts,
which target one type of climate-related hazards,
will increase exposure and vulnerability to other
climate impacts. For high-dense urban patterns, a
larger share of blue and green infrastructure is in
general beneficial for adaptation, as it provides
space for retention and detention of storm and
flood water management. Additionally, it provides
areas for the generation and transition of cool and
fresh air.
The developed integrated assessments and
planning recommendation maps can be used to
assist the application of zoning guidelines for
climate-adapted land-use planning.











Cooperation with DONRE in the development and implementation of planning recommendations for adapting HCMCs land-use plan

RESULTS
SATE OF IMPLEMENTATION:
Two handbooks entitled Land-use Planning
Recommendations - Adaptation Strategies to
a Changing Climate in Ho Chi Minh City were
distributed to the administrative and planning
stakeholders. The handbooks summarise on
over 100 pages the environmental
assessments of urban surface runoff, exposure
to tidal flooding and future sea-level rise and
the urban climate situation. Furthermore,
they explain the applied methods for urban
structure type mapping, urban growth
monitoring
and
plan
conformance
assessment.
LOCAL USERS / TARGET GROUPS:
Administrative Departments for Urban and
Environmental Planning.
Steering Committee for Urban Flood Control
Environmental Assessment Consultants
Universities
Urban Development Agencies
IMPACTS:

The main and visible impact is the integration

of our assessment results and core planning
recommendations maps for all selected focus
areas into DONREs official report for
submission of the Land-use Plan 2020 to the
Peoples Committee of HCMC. This report is
entitled Draft report of land-use planning
toward 2020, land use plan for the 5 years
(2011-2015) for Ho Chi Minh City (DONRE-
HCMC 2013).
MULTIPLICATION:
The
handbooks
Land-use
Planning
Recommendations were translated into
Vietnamese language, reproduced 500 times
and distributed to administrative stakeholders
and planning institutions.
LONG-TERM CONSOLIDATION:
The joint development of the planning
recommendations has strongly enhanced the
capacity for climate assessments of urban
land-use and urban development planning
within the DONREs Planning Division and the
Consultant Institution.

CONTACT
Project:
Megacity Research Project TP. Ho Chi Minh
Web: www.megacity-hcmc.de

Harry Storch , Nigel Downes

Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus
Department of Environmental Planning
Email: storch@tu-cottbus.de, downes@tu-
cottbus.de

www.future-megacities.org