Administrative requirements for the integration of environmental concerns and demands of climate change into the planning process

Abstract

Ho Chi Minh City is faced with a multitude of development challenges and environmental concerns. Against this background, the city’s administration plays a key role for an effective urban and environmental planning. Our chapter focuses on the integration of environmental information into land-use planning, the analysis of the planning system and the responsibilities and administrative decisionmaking processes. It can be determined that the legal situation is quite conductive, but effective environmental planning was seen to be non-existent. We describe the multifarious reasons for this. As the most important deficit, we highlight that the (planning) administration is not able to act and react at the same level to the international and national counterparts. Especially the strongly hierarchical system as it hampers the local authorities in operating more autonomous. Important demands are the improvement of administrative capacity building and enforcement as well as public participation and the decrease of direct political and economic influence on the planning process. Another aspect is the ‘data situation’. In order to successfully integrate environmental considerations in the planning, data describing the urban and environmental condition must be actual, reliable and available. A catalogue of necessary databases for a climate change orientated assessment of land-use plans in Ho Chi Minh City is suggested and illustrated. Handled in an information system and connected with planning guidelines and recommendations, this data would facilitate the integration of environmental considerations in the planning process in order to qualify and enrich the land-use plan of Ho Chi Minh City with environmental aspects.