Vietnam Rural and Urban ChangeLearning intention: To comprehend the changes occurring both in Vietnam’s cities and its countryside. To look at how growth affects the lives of the people and the landscape.

Rural Change - Human Rural areas continue to become more densely populated, especially in the delta regions where land is fertile and water easily accessible. Increasing numbers living in the small towns and no longer working in agriculture – in ways, like Bannockburn.

Like in the Yarra Valley, farming practices change over time and intensify, along with this, creating more income for the poorer rural areas as well as the demand for more service based industry.

Rural Change - Physical Physical change is marked by the battle between the two waters:

• Traditionally the deposition from the Mekong and its distributaries in the delta region created more land each year for farming

• Mekong is now being dammed upriver (in Vietnam and other countries) and therefore outflow has slowed

• Slowing of deposition and increasing erosion caused by intensity of storms and rising sea levels has started depleting land in places.

Urban Population

Change Over Time – The Old DaysHanoi has an old urban CBD with narrow streets characterized by small-scale commerce and the movement of people, but struggles to accommodate the modern aspects of movement in the cities.

French influence during the colonial years (1887-1954) brought European architecture and grander street design.

Change Over Time – Post Independence Population Growth: 1954 – 400,000

2010 – Urban area roughly 3 million with expanded metropolitan area at around 6.5-7 million

Urban Population Increase Rural to urban migration was held in check by government policy pre-1986.

Why would the government want to restrict the movement of people to urban areas?

‘Doi Moi’ eased these restrictions and meant a huge bump in population growth in cities – especially Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Why would more people be drawn to cities under the ‘Doi Moi’ economic shift?

The Planning of Modern Hanoi – like Melbourne? There is a great deal of greenfield growth occurring in newly expanded (2008) city boundaries – allows for the planning of a modern city.

Multi-nuclei planning model:•Transit hub on outskirts of city with new airport

•Tertiary hub sub-CBD with university and high tech sector

Areas with open spaces, modern high-rise buildings and a variety of housing.

Google Earth Rural Go to figure 7.17 on p.135 and find the name of one of the major towns listed. Search it on Google Earth. What do you see? Is what you see similar to what the figure in the text represents?

Urban Search for Lang Hoa-Lac Hi-tech City. Though it is marked there is nothing really there.

Look at the surrounding area: What do you see? How would you describe it?