Monitoring Urban Growth Patterns and Associated Environmental Risks in Ho Chi Minh City from 2010–2020

Due to the multi hazard and escalating effects of climate change and rapid urbanization, there has been growing concern in Ho Chi Minh City about the consequences of climate change. Both the state and local governments have expressed concern that the city would suffer increased intensity and frequency of pluvial and river floods, increase urban heat island formation, as well as sea level rise and coastal storm surges, while already handling environmental pressures such as land subsidence. The persistent growth of the city heightens its flood dangers by increasing into low-lying floodplains and diminishing flood detention and retention capacity through urban rehabilitation, condensation and surface sealing. In the face of rising hazards, authorities have failed to design effective adaptation solutions that allow for basic risk reduction while still supporting robust urban growth pathways. This contribution employs an urban structure type method to examine ten years of current urban growth (2010–2020), highlighting changes to the city's urban morphology and its socioeconomic fabric. Resilience is contingent on the decisions of how to make use of land and the choices that are made about which structures to build and their placements. The exposure and sensitivity of each development consequently, decides the eventual risk to climatic hazards for the whole city. Our results aid the unification of people-centered and place specific decentralized adaptation options into formal urban planning frameworks, permitting the re-evaluation of development processes and pathways.