New Sustainable Development Strategies in the Provincial Planning of Khanh Hoa

Khanh Hoa is perhaps one of the most attractive provinces of central Vietnam, with historic landmarks, beautiful natural landscapes and beaches, especially great development potentials of its three-bay areas, including Van Phong Bay, Nha Phu Bay, Nha Trang Bay, and Cam Ranh Bay. Still, recent hasty developments during the recent decades have put many serious threats to the sustainability of those areas. Examined using an interdisciplinary qualitative method, focusing on analyzing and synthesizing information sources, to answer the questions of What, Why, and How to promote sustainable development in the urban areas of Van Phong Bay, Nha Trang Bay, and Cam Ranh Bay, this paper has synthesized five strategic directions for sustainable development, to be integrated into the General Planning of Khanh Hoa Province for the period 2021 - 2030, vision to 2050, specifically: (1) Developing green zones in separation with brown zones; (2) Promoting Transit-Oriented-Development Model to boost motivations and feasibilities for new urban projects; (3) Enhancing regional connection and socio-economic cooperation; (4) Preserving natural and urban heritage, while promoting new urban development with new identity of the 21st Century; (5) Applying interdisciplinary approach to planning and management to enhance the sustainability and feasibility of infrastructure projects. The integration of the five strategic directions for sustainable development into the General Planning of Khanh Hoa Province for the period 2021 - 2030, vision to 2050, has been useful to reduce environmental issues and to create many new development opportunities for the province, “without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. These directions would unlock the potentials to explore many new forms of management and development in Khanh Hoa, such as Environmental Zoning, Transit Oriented Development, Airport city, regional cooperation programs, … These experiences could become good references for the goals of promoting sustainable developments in many other seaside provinces in Vietnam.