Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Planning—Southern Urban Area of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Southern Urban Area of Ho Chi Minh City is one of the fastest-growing urban areas in Vietnam, with a rapidly increasing population. On the other hand, this area faces risks of flooding due to low-lying terrain conditions and rising sea levels due to Climate Changes (CC). Flood risks in Nha Be District are forecasted to cause significant damage to many residential areas and technical infrastructure systems and hinder urban development. For those reasons, urban planning can be considered as one of the practical solutions to reduce risks and damages from natural disasters in urban areas by integrating planning solutions, for example, integrated planning process, orientation and development of measures to reduce disaster risks. This study presents the following contents: (1) An assessment of the flooding situation caused by natural disasters and the risk of damage caused by flooding in Nha Be district; (2) A brief description of the planning system in Vietnam and the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in urban planning; (3) Propose integrated solutions to reduce flood risks caused by natural disasters in the urban planning of Nha Be district.