The mega-urban region of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is one of the world’s regions most affected by climate change. It is argued that inclusive and effective urban planning holds the key for a climate change adapted urban development. The basic motivation of the Megacity Project is to increase the response capacity of HCMC by strengthening the urban planning system and mainstreaming climate change action.
The roundtable aimed to discuss and clarify formal top-down oriented approaches and instruments for a readjustment of the legal framework that frames lower order decisions and processes as well as informal and non-binding approaches to improve local climate change response capacity in the urban planning and construction sector. The significance of urban planning as mandated discipline to manage a sustainable and climate change adapted urban development was stressed by all presentations and during the discussion.
The morning workshop at the Architecture Research Centre (ARC) was focussed on recent findings of DPA’s study on living pattern and housing typologies in HCMC’s rural areas and on first results of the exemplary urban design studies by the Megacity Project. The afternoon session started with the signing procedure of a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the DPA and Megacity Project. The roundtable gave information on Design Guidelines/ Design Coding, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Land Use Planning as formal planning instruments and subsequently on design handbooks as informal and communicative approaches for mainstreaming climate change knowledge into planning.
The exchange of views, strategies, and experiences concerning climate change response reached a common understanding on how better urban planning can contribute to climate change adaptation and how urban planners and related professionals can equipped best to deal with these issues.
The roundtable aimed primarily to strengthen administrational capacity in the DPA, subordinated departments (e.g. Urban Management Divisions at district-level) and other relevant authorities (HCMC Institute for Development Studies, Urban Planning Institute, Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, of Transport, of Planning and Investment, etc.). Therefore, it was intended to assemble experts from these institutions. Additionally, the audience was broadening to representatives from local academia (HCMC University of Architecture) and to private stakeholders engaged in the fields of planning and building (planners, architects, representatives from developers, etc.).