Hanoi needs effective planning to develop urban green spaces

Hanoi needs effective planning to develop urban green spaces, creating a high-quality living and entertainment environment for the city’s residents, according to local media.

In order to effectively deal with unbalanced development (favoring housing and office constructions over open spaces), in recent years, Hanoi’s leaders have made efforts to expand green areas in the capital. Since 2014, Hanoi has approved the planning for greenery, parks, flower gardens and lakes in the city until 2030, with a vision to 2050.

Hanoi’s target building 18 new parks in the downtown by 2030, raising the number of parks to 60, of which, the 42 existing parks and flower gardens will be renovated and upgraded.

Since 2016, besides the existing green spaces, the city has started to build a series of large-scale parks such as Thanh Xuan park, CXCV1 and Me Tri amusement parks, and CV1 Cau Giay park, among others.

“As Thanh Xuan park was put into operation on September 10, 2018, we have a place to relax and do exercises and our children to play on hot summer days,” said Nguyen Thi Hang, who lives at CT 24T1 building, Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh urban area, Thanh Xuan district.  

“Renovating or building a lake in Hanoi’s urban areas is a good idea, which needs to be done in more places to improve the current stifling situation, as well as contribute to creating a healthy living environment for the city’s residents,” Hang added.

Besides, Hanoi’s authority has focused on improving water environment in existing lakes. According to statistics of the Hanoi Drainage Company, the company has so far dredged and renovated 140 lakes in both urban and suburban areas. The lakes in Hanoi have really become "green lungs" for air conditioning the whole city, creating clean and green environment and beautiful landscapes, according to urban experts.

Especially, after more than two years of implementing program of planting one million trees, Hanoi has accomplished its goal. Many greened roads not only improve the air quality but also bring the city a new facelift. In the next two years, Hanoi will continue to plant other 600,000 trees, striving to achieve the goal of growing trees and building inner-city parks by 2030.

Expert Nguyen Thi Hien from Health Bridge Vietnam said that Hanoi is doing very well the urban greenery development program.

“Hanoi should closely integrate development planning on greenery, flower garden and playground in order to expand and manage them. Planning on greenery should take into consideration flower gardens and playgrounds,” Hien stressed.

Many planning experts believe that Hanoi needs to have effective and clear legal regulations, specifically for green space from planning to management.