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

According to the Vietnamese standard of construction - TCXDVN 362 (2005), the per
capita area for parks and flower gardens is about 7–9 and 3–3.3 m 2 , respectively -
equivalent to a total of 2500 – 3075 ha. However, in reality, the per capita area for parks
and gardens in the inner city is very low (see Figure 2). In general the per capita area for
UGA is very low compared with developed cities, e.g., London: 26.9 m 2 /person, Berlin:
27.4 m 2 /person, New York: 29.3 m 2 /person (HAIDEP 2007: 45/132).
When comparing with the density map (Map 3), it is notable that, Ba Dinh district has the
lowest density but is the greenest district.
1.2.1.7 The future vision of Hanoi
The capital construction master plan to 2030 and the vision to 2050 was signed in 2011
(HAI 2011: 8-15). The Ministry of Construction then promulgated the Regulation on the
general plan and published the detailed plans.
The Hanoi Master plan (2011), covers an area of 3,344.6 km 2 with more than 6.5 million
inhabitants and deals with a number of complicated issues including urban spatial structure,
transport and environment (see STEINGRUBE 2010:146). The model chosen for the urban
structure involves a multi-node and multi-level linking net which includes a nuclear urban
centre, five ‘satellite’ functional towns, ecological towns and the inclusion of other already
existed towns. A new 30 km-long axis, Thang Long, begins in Hoang Quoc Viet street and
runs to Ba Vi mountain. This is also a landscape-architecture axis of the city, in which
parks and monuments will be constructed. At the end of the axis is an area set aside for the
national administrative center which will be constructed after 2050.
Green area occupies 70 % of the total area of the new Hanoi in the plan, leaving 30 % of
total area for all other uses. The plan has been designed for 9 – 9.2 million inhabitations in
2030 and 10.8 million inhabitations in 2050. The plan envisages that in 2030
the inner city will have 3.7 million people at a density of 60-65m 2 /person;
the outskirts will have 4.6 million people; density in the expanding area towards the
south of the Red river will be 90-95m 2 /person, and towards the north of the river 75-
90m 2 .
Rural green areas are preserved and are connected closely with agriculture areas and craftvillages.
Other elements are green corridors, which include rural areas, natural areas (mountains,
forest and agriculture areas). Those corridors run along Day river, Tich river, Ba Vi and the
Huong Tich mountain ranges, following the fourth belt road, over the Red river and
connecting with green areas surrounding Den Soc, in Son Tay town.
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