Principles and Practice of Ecologically Sensitive Urban Planning and Design : An Application to the City of Hai Phong, Vietnam

Urbanization, which is almost completed now in developed countries and even in Latin America, is now proceeding in much of Asia at an unprecedented rate. Many of the countries in the region have up to half their population now living urban lifestyles and increasingly also living in urban regions. The forms that urbanization is taking in the developing countries, however, are problematic. Towns and cities that were never planned to have large populations are suffering from overloaded infrastructure. Development of the fringes is proceeding with little or no planning, resulting in even worse problems. Scattered developments, gradually increasing in density, are producing intense land-use conflicts and environmental pollution. Once development has occurred, these areas are difficult to service with efficient infrastructure. This paper builds on a study that was carried out with the aim of providing an ecologically sound planning method to overcome some of these problems and promote the sustainability of urban development, especially in new urban development areas. The method was then applied to an extensive area south of the existing center of Hai Phong city in Vietnam that has been suffering from random development in recent years. The objective was to provide an ecologically sensitive urban planning and design framework for the further development of this area. An outline plan was produced and then a number of planning mechanisms were presented that should help the authorities to implement the plan. This is, furthermore, seen as a model with potential application to fringe areas of other cities in Vietnam and, suitably adapted, to cities in other countries of the East Asia region. Lessons from this exercise as summarized in recommendations at the end of the paper.