Urban issues in Vietnam

With my placement growing ever nearer, I’ve been very into Vietnamese culture lately… especially the language! So I wanted to educate myself more on Vietnam’s urban issues, and figured I’d share my findings! I don’t claim to have the solutions to any of these issues, I just thought I should learn about some of the development challenges I can look forward to when I get to Hanoi. They’re also the kinds of challenges I hope to take on as a carrier.

Right now, Vietnam is urbanizing faster than it ever has before… and faster than most of the rest of the world too. Hanoi is considered one of the most dense and crowded cities in the world. This urbanization has been both planned and unplanned, with the unplanned happening mainly on the peripheries of large cities like Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi. Since 2000, the central state has embarked on large-scale urbanization planning in order to foster economic development. This has meant developing agricultural land into urban (such as building industries as well as housing for migrant workers) and revitalization in slum areas (which has displaced slum dwellers into public housing complexes). Vietnam is still developing ways in which they can ensure growth is sustainable, and this is one way they are trying to do so. This is especially important as Vietnam is one of the top 10 countries that will be impacted by climate change and needs to mitigate the impacts that climate change will have on the economy and health (which is also why I think my placement organization is so important for the country)!

I also found out that Vietnam, in Hanoi especially, is very focused on preserving it’s architectural heritage. Architecture in the city ranges from traditional merchant quarters to the French-planned administrative district of the city. The built heritage of the area has of course changed over time due to war and poor economic times. Despite the city’s effort, Hanoi’s built heritage is at risk of disappearing if nothing is done to curb degradation, inappropriate renovations, and rapid demolitions.

Public space is another issue in Hanoi. With few parks and clear sidewalks, people have little social space to interact. Planning standards do indicate minimum green space requirements, however, these aren’t meet in reality. This also ties into the issue of traffic in the city. With growing private vehicle use (due to increasing incomes) and narrow roads, Hanoi is a very congested and polluted city. The city does have plans to significantly improve public transit and increase ridership, seeing as it is very underused currently.

The future...

The past few days have had some real emotional highs and lows for me, so I thought I’d try something different for this blog post and talk about how I’m feeling about my placement and the future.

When I finally found out where I’d be working, I was of course really excited. My last blog post explains that. But I have to be honest, starting my last “academic” term of my undergrad and hearing the experiences of graduating INDEV students made me nervous. Although I know I’m going to love my placement, the sudden realization that I’m leaving in less than 4 months really hit me hard this week. There’s just so much to think about and so much to do before I go! And I think the part I’m most nervous for is those first few weeks once I get to Vietnam. Culture and language shock is definitely going to be a reality. I guess all I can do is embrace the fear and have the confidence in myself. Talking to students who just got back from placement was a bit of information overload, but what I really took away from them is that my experience will be what I make it out to be. So I’ve decided to stay positive and take advantage of every opportunity I have while on placement.

Another thing that’s got me thinking about my future is an assignment in one of my classes to write a “personal mandate”, which is basically a statement about your values/beliefs that’s supposed to help guide your decision making. It’s such a weird exercise to try and analyze what you think you believe in and your personal goals! So far, I’ve determined that I value constant learning and sustainability… which comes in handy in the dynamic field of development. I also determined that a goal of mine is to contribute to my placement organization’s research on their climate change projects. My other goal is to get into grad school at Waterloo for Planning… which is a something I’m going to have to start working on now (another one of the reality checks I got this week).

So as scary as the future might be, I’m excited to see what it has in store for me. Bring it on world, cause I’m ready for you!