Sustainable Ho Chi Minh City - Climate Policies for Emerging Megacities

Climate change and urban development are closely interlinked and often interact negatively. This edited volume takes the example of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam's first mega-urban region, as a case study to analyse its vulnerability to climate change and to suggest measures to promote a more sustainable urban development. The edited volume offers an overview of land use planning regarding the aspects of urban flooding, urban climate, urban energy and urban mobility, as well as spatial views from the perspective of urban planning such as the metropolitan level, the city, the neighbourhood and building level. It shows that to a significant degree, measures dealing with climate change can be taken from the toolbox of sustainable urban development, and demonstrates how institutional structures need to change so as to enhance the chances of implementation in light of socio-cultural and economic constraints. These insights are subsequently merged and integrated into a holistic perspective of planning recommendations, supporting the municipal government to increase its adaptive capacity. The authors are members of a German government-funded research project on how to help HCMC's municipal government to adapt to risks related to climate change.