- Exploring the Spatial-Temporal Linkages of Climate Response and Rapid Urban Growth in Ho Chi Minh City   979 kb by    Storch, Harry | storch@tu-cottbus.de    Short Outline Planning assessment study to investigate how climate change is likely to influence HCMC’s exposure to coastal inundation up to the year 2100, alongside rapid urban and demographic growth. Abstract In general, Asian cities located in deltaic regions, tend to exhibit higher exposure levels to flood risk primary as a result of their location, close to the coast and their low elevations and if located in tropical regions, the significant annual variations of climatic and weather extremes they incur. The challenge of a changing climate influences both the nature of these urban spaces and profoundly how they can function. According to the redefined role of urban environmental planning in times of climate change, spatial planning concerns the impact assessment of space and place as a basis for action or intervention. In general, there is a methodological void between regional climate change models and urban development scenarios, which is limiting effective impact assessments. To assess and illustrate the inter-linkages between dynamic urban development processes and the feedback on the urban climate itself, our research strategy is strongly focused on urban planning scenarios linking urban development and climate change which explore the main driving forces of future risk. This planning assessment study, linking urban development and sea level rise scenarios, formulates a first estimation of the exposure of HCMC to potential flooding due to different high tide levels. The scenarios also investigate how climate change is likely to influence HCMC’s exposure to coastal inundation due to rising sea levels up to the year 2100, alongside rapid urbanisation and demographic growth. This risk assessment at the urban level, focussing on the projected land-use changes extracted from the official land-use plan up to the year 2010 and the draft version for the years up to 2025/30, provides a much more detailed analysis than earlier studies carried out on the global or national level. Our initial research results document that the spatiotemporal processes of urban development, alongside climate change, are the central driving forces for future climate-related risks. Keywords Climate Change, Urban Growth, Coastal Megacities, South-East Asia, Climate Risk Assessment, Adaptation Planning Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2011: LIVEABLE CITIES: URBANISING WORLD, Meeting the Challenge   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper