GREEN STRUCTURES FOR A RESILIENT CA MAU (VIETNAM) José Fernando Higuera Osorio KULeuven- MAHS ABSTRACT This paper is part of the master thesis made as part of the Master in Human Settlements undertaken in the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven- KULeuven. This document is a support of the studio presentation CA MAU, VIETNAM. Back from Planning to Planting made in June 10th 2013 in KU Leuven, Belgium; which was a design studio focused in landscape urbanism in the Ca Mau peninsula in Vietnam. The aim of this paper is to give a deeper elucidation of the related aspects of the peninsular scale regarding with green structures, as a frame to the future develop of the entire region. The first part is an introduction of several aspects in the region, placing it at the present context of growing population, changes in urbanization patterns, pollution, sea level rise, free market economy, etc. Secondly it will take place a short explanation of the evolution of the Ca Mau peninsula and the shaping forces that keep structuring it and to the whole landscape. The third part is about the most challenging aspect that Ca Mau faces, as is the climate change with the expected sea level rise, due to the high vulnerability of the peninsula to deal with this alteration. The next part considers the Acid Sulphate Soils (ASS), which is a natural condition of the whole peninsula that has been disturbed due to the land use changes and cultural practices related with agricultural and aquacultural activities with severe implications in the peninsular environment. The fifth section concerns about the local flora present in Ca Mau peninsula, its ecology, uses, distribution, cultural and economical aspects and main characteristics in order to frame the strategy of Planning/Planting. The sixth part examine the strategic project proposed to deal with the different conditions explained previously, the possible repercussions and implications that can bring to the whole landscape. Finally the conclusions can give a hint of how this strategic project can reshape the peninsular landscape with the proposed growing planting strategy. Although many aspects from the peninsula and the project are not be considered in this paper, it can be a start for further investigations regarding with local flora planting strategies in order to deal with the different challenges that the future brings to the human civilization.
INTRODUCTION The Asian continent has been through gigantic demographic changes in the last 50 years, being one of the most drastic rates of displacement of people from villages to cities. The United Nations estimates that urbanization in Asia between 2005 and 2010 will increase at rates of about 2.5% each year. With these rates, more than half of Asia’s total population will live in urban areas by the year 2025, and by 2030, it is expected that 54.5% of Asia’s population will be urbanized. This means that by 2030, one out of every two urban residents in the world will be living in Asia (Un HABITAT et al, 2008).
the overall Asian rate. In the Vietnam case, the percentage of urban population in the country was 30.4% in 2010, being 44.1% for the south eastern of Asia. While the overall urban population of this region will grow by 2.38% per year between 2010 and 2015, the urban population in Vietnam will grow 3.26% in the same period of time (UN, 2011).
After the implementation of the Doi Moi1 policy, which was officially adopted in December 1986 at the Party’s sixth national congress and which was primarily designed to turn Vietnam’s centrally-planned economy into a market-based one (Hong, 2012), this Although Asia’s least-developed countries country has become the second economy have considerably lower levels of urbanization, in the region; leaded by the People’s these countries are urbanizing faster than 1 Renovation. 1