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.