- Urban Sustainability in Times of Changing Climate: The Case of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam    403 kb by    Downes, Nigel & Storch, Harry & Moon, Kiduk | downes@tu-cottbus.de    Short Outline This contribution is based on initial research experiences in the development of a planning framework for adaptation to climate change for increasing the adaptive and sustainability potentials of the emerging megacity Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Abstract With more than half of its population residing in inter-tropical low elevation coastal zones, if left unaddressed, the effects of climate change will present significant threats and adversely compromise Vietnam’s sustainable development. The rapidly emerging megacity of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) has historically exhibited sensitivities to natural hazards. The city´s metropolitan area is currently affected by an extensive urban heat island (UHI) and flood prone, surrounded by low-lying marshes and embedded on the lower reaches of a complex tidal fluvial system, 50 kilometres from the South China Sea. However, for HCMC, the exacerbated vulnerabilities of lives and livelihoods to present and future climate related processes are primarily the result of inadequate and unsustainable urban planning practices. HCMC´s high demographic growth, expansion and its urban structures of both planned and informal nature are both degrading valuable environmentally multifunctional hinterlands and increasing the vulnerability of existing structures to climate associated impacts. Domain specific GIS applications, analytical models and thematic assessment methods, including resilience and exposure indicators, will be used to generate spatial sector-specific risk and vulnerability analyses. Through the utilisation of planning recommendation maps, the comprehensive aim is to develop, designate, and incorporate mitigation and non-structural adaptation potentials into the urban decision-making and planning processes. The integration of climate change adaptation measures and instruments will be achieved based on a common spatial framework using an Urban Structure Type approach. The research is envisaged to contribute to and promote an increase in HCMC´s resilience to climate-related vulnerabilities and the sustainability of structures. The main objective of the integrated adaptation planning framework is to advance and disseminate knowledge and inform decision-makers and the general public about the climate change risks, increasing capacities to respond to climatic stress, to implement necessary adaptation measures and to strengthen the sustainable responsive capacity of the urban system. Keywords Adaptation, Climate Change; Spatial Planning; Urban Structure Types Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper