Visit. Prof. Frank Schwartze (BTU Cottbus, Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Design)
Huynh Le Hai Chau, M.Sc. (BTU Cottbus, Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Design)

The inclusion of planning strategies for future urban areas into the adaptation framework for a highly vulnerable city like HCMC is fundamental, not only due to the ongoing population growth and rising housing demand. It can also narrow the land consumption in a region with limited flood-safe land. The analysis of HCMC’s neighbourhoods verified the initial hypothesis, that the current housing practice hardly considers climate-related risks for the built environment and its inhabitants.

WP 7 bases on the hypothesis, that adapted settlement types linked with the regulation of the spatial settlement distribution can minimize negative environmental impacts, can reduce urban green house gases emissions and will still meet the housing demand in the HCMC Metropolitan Region.

This background results in three overall research questions:

• Which measures and strategies are required and feasible to adapt HCMCs settlement types?
• Which tools and methods facilitate their implementation into Vietnamese planning processes?
• And how do they shape the urban form and structure of neighbourhoods?

Therefore, WP 7 aims for:

• the elaboration of measures and strategies (Toolkit: Urban Planning & Design Strategies) to adapt selected settlement types and the current urban design practice in HCMC,
• their testing and evaluation by means of exemplary design studies (Planning Studies),
• and the identification of tools and methods (Planning and Design Guidelines) for their implementation into the legal framework and informal planning processes in Vietnam.

According to the three main objectives, WP 7’s working program matches AF 2’s overall research and implementation concept. These activities can be grouped into three components: Knowledge & Solutions, Application, and Guidelines. “Knowledge & Solutions” stands for the identification and generation of strategies, concepts and solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Here, WP 7 compiled Urban Planning & Design Strategies at the neighbourhood level, which were contributed to the overall “Toolkit of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation”. In terms of “Application”, the Toolkit provides the basis for the design of exemplary neighbourhoods and housing typologies. According to WP 6’s “Strategic Climate Change Response Areas” WP 7 identified three study sites and elaborated exemplary Planning Studies. If strategies prove applicable they will form part of the “Guidelines”, which stand for the legal implementation and mainstreaming of climate change response measures on all three spatial levels. Planning and Design Guidelines aim to address the lack of effective regulation for planning and construction regarding environmental concerns, and shall be integrated into those laws and directives that frame planning and construction in Vietnam and HCMC.

These research activities are accompanied and facilitated by an integrative capacity building concept, striving for the dissemination and implementation of project know-how, tools and concepts among three key target groups – scientific, public, and private stakeholders. Among others, WP 7 provided several contributions to AF 2’s Roundtable Series in 2010 and held the Workshop on “Precaution and Adaptation Strategies on the Regional- and City-Level” in cooperation with WP 6 in March 2009 as well as the 1. DPA – Megacity Project Roundtable on “Links between Climate Change and Urban Planning” in March 2011.