Monitoring urban green space for climate-resilient development in the face of rapid urbanization
A tale of two Vietnamese cities
Abstract
Urban green space (UGS) contributes to sustainable and climate-resilient urban development by providing ecosystem services and enhancing public health. In rapidly urbanizing cities, UGS is compromised by expanding built infrastructure, leading to loss and fragmentation of green areas. This study employs a resource-efficient remote sensing approach for monitoring UGS dynamics in two examples of rapid urbanization, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in Vietnam. The approach identifies UGS by applying a ground-truthed threshold to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index quartile maps (NDVI–P75) from nine years of open-access Sentinel-2 imagery before blending it with national census data. The results indicate a pronounced spatial heterogeneity in UGS distributions, with low densities in urban cores and greater availability in the peripheral districts of both metropolises. The temporal analysis shows diverging trends: while UGS areas in Hanoi are relatively stable overall but declining per capita due to ongoing urbanization, HCMC experiences a general decline in both UGS indicators. The findings emphasize the urgent need for implementing integrated UGS strategies that account for the diverse socio-economic drivers of UGS loss. By offering a robust and reproducible methodology for monitoring UGS, this research highlights the potential of remote sensing tools to inform urban planning and policy development. This approach is highly transferable to other urban contexts globally, demonstrating an effective and transparent pathway to foster climate-justice and “sustainable cities and communities” in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No. 11.
Details
- Organisationseinheit(en)
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Ludwig-Franzius-Institut für Wasserbau, Ästuar- und Küsteningenieurwesen
- Externe Organisation(en)
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Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Zentrum für Material- und Küstenforschung GmbH
Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology
Can Tho University
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
Technische Universität München (TUM)
- Typ
- Artikel
- Journal
- Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment
- Band
- 41
- Publikationsdatum
- 01.2026
- Publikationsstatus
- Veröffentlicht
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- Geografie, Planung und Entwicklung, Computer in den Geowissenschaften
- Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung
- SDG 3 - Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen, SDG 11 - Nachhaltige Städte und Gemeinschaften, SDG 13 - Klimaschutzmaßnahmen
- Elektronische Version(en)
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2025.101820 (Zugang:
Offen
)
