Remote Sensing for Sustainable Urban Development – Case study in Ha Tinh, Vietnam

Ha Tinh is a 6000 km2 province located in Central Vietnam, with a coastal plain in the east and a mountainous area in the west that occupies almost 80% of the province. The coastal plain is affected by many flash floods during the rainy season. Forest degradation and deforestation are portrayed as major causes. The urbanization brings a certain pressure on the land use and land cover change in Ha Tinh. Consequently, agricultural or cultivated lands have been transferring to build-up or industrial area. It means a large area of permeable soil have been transferred to impervious surface. This may be considered as a reason amplifying the impacts of flooding in Ha Tinh in recent years. In this PhD research first a land use and tree cover change study at province level will be carried out to support a hydrological assessment. The potential of high resolution remote sensing imagery will be used to map small landscape elements that have an impact as buffer, filter or highway for water flows. The heat island effect will be investigated through a mapping and characterization of local climate zones in the urban and peri-urban zone of Ha Tinh city using high resolution satellite imagery. A scenario analysis will be carried out to assess a. o. the impact of urban green and blue on the local climate.