Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

Yes, the demand of public UGAs in inner Hanoi will grow in the mid-term and increase
strongly in the long-term!
Justification:
As shown in chapters 5.1 and 5.2.2, the quantitative increase of more people on one
hand, and the changing demographic structure of the local population in inner-city
Hanoi on the other hand will push the demand to a greater extent.
“Going to parks” is a habit of Vietnamese people, thus it will not change in future.
Increasing environmental awareness will also strengthen the demand.
Moreover, it is to be expected that the fast-changing lifestyle of (young) urban
inhabitants of Hanoi will continue these positive habits, resulting in a greater
demand for the provision of urban green area for leisure activities as well as for
relaxation and communication.
The idea (or hope of some urban planners) that changing lifestyles will lead to more
indoor activities is not realistic. Indeed, indoor activities will rise. But as the
absolute amount of free time will also increase, so will the variety of activities.
Thus, indoor activities alone will not be enough to fulfill the demand of the people.
Hypothesis-2 concerns the whether inhabitants will demand more parks or not. This
hypothesis can also be confirmed:
Yes, the residents of Hanoi will have a stronger demand for more parks in the future!
Justification:
The people’s consciousness on civil rights will grow quickly.
With globalization, awareness regarding livable cities has been enhanced by many
information channels. There will be a rise in activity of vanguard groups promoting
good habits among residents and NGOs advocacy groups.
Social media enables people to communicate on a new level, very quickly and
effectively. In turn, social media also changes the political behavior of the park
users.
Participation is a must of any public planning.
As the population will test and train their new rights and possibilities in fields in
which they are directly affected and the results (success) of intervention can be seen
in the short-term, urban planning will become the main field of public discussion
and public participation.
Hypothesis-3 is about potential conflicts and the management of UGAs. As written in
chapter 4.5, the level of disturbance inside parks seems to be at a very low level – although
when compared with survey results from city parks throughout the world, Hanoi parks
already have a high level of dissatisfaction. This is the current situation. When quantitative
usage increases, a higher level of disturbance can be expected and so the potential of
possible conflicts will also grow. Observations verify that nowadays there are already
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