Rethinking urban streams : opportunities for the Nhieu Loc -- Thi Nghe River

Abstract

In the process of rapid expansion, many cities have turned their backs on the rivers that helped form and nurture them. Due to the perceived low cost of their existing infrastructure, many rivers have become open or enclosed sewerage and drainage channels. In the past few decades, better scientific understanding and improved management practices have spurred a global river restoration and conservation movement. This thesis studies the paradigm shift from controlling urban streams as landscape features and liabilities to managing whole watersheds as ecosystems and assets. It examines examples of successful river restoration and conservation projects, and uses the lessons learned from these examples to suggest improvements to the management of the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe River in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh City River Environmental Sanitation project of the late 1990s in the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe Basin was the first of its kind in Ho Chi Minh City. The project has been hailed as a successful urban regeneration project which exemplifies good practice. This thesis analyses the merits and missed opportunities of these projects and suggests ways to incorporate other ecological and cultural functions into the Nhieu Loc Thi Nghe River, drawing on lessons from successful river restorations in the United States and South Korea.