Ho Chi Minh city

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh đang xây dựng hệ thống giao thông công cộng (GTCC) quy mô lớn, gồm các tuyến tàu điện ngầm và xe buýt chạy trên làn đường riêng. Sau khi trình bày hiện
trạng phát triển mạng lưới GTCC, bài viết này sẽ phân tích việc triển khai thực hiện, vốn đặt ra những khó khăn lớn cho chính quyền trong việc tìm kiếm nguồn tài trợ, giải phóng mặt bằng,
quản lý mạng lưới trong quá trình xây dựng và khai thác.

Bài viết chuyên đề (Working papers) thứ 3 của PADDI hướng tới phân tích những biến đổi đô thị đương đại đang diễn ra trong những con hẻm, yếu tố cấu thành phần lớn mạng lưới đường giao thông tại TP.HCM.

Mặc dù vắng mặt trong phần lớn đồ án quy hoạch của Thành phố, những con hẻm lại là cốt lõi của khung đô thị TP.HCM và tạo nên không gian sống của gần 85% dân số. Mật độ dân số trong hẻm phố rất cao, có thể lên tới 80.000 người/km2, khiến công tác hiện đại hóa và mở rộng lộ giới hẻm trở nên vô cùng phức tạp. Mục tiêu của bài viết này là tìm hiểu những biến đổi đô thị đương đại đang diễn ra trong những “góc khuất của siêu đô thị” tại TP.HCM: những hẻm phố, còn rất ít được nhắc tới trong các công trình nghiên cứu.

Để làm được điều đó, cần xem xét những giai đoạn hiện đại hóa khác nhau của trung tâm đô thị lịch sử, vốn đã trải qua một giai đoạn tăng trưởng liên tục và không nằm trong khuôn khổ của các dự án quy hoạch. Về phương diện quản trị đô thị, việc nghiên cứu khía cạnh này có thể giúp nhấn mạnh vai trò ngày càng quan trọng của cơ quan quản lý cấp quận/huyện – đơn vị có trách nhiệm bảo trì – và hiện nay được giao thêm trách nhiệm hiện đại hóa – mạng lưới đường hẻm. Thông qua việc đối chiếu, so sánh trường hợp của 6 phường tại TP.HCM, bài viết cho thấy mức độ đa dạng rất cao về không gian-xã hội của các hẻm phố và lộ trình phát triển rất riêng của mỗi khu phố trong bối cảnh hiện đại hóa đương đại.

Bài viết chuyên ngành này được Marie Gibert tổng hợp từ luận án tiến sỹ về địa lý của bà: « Những con hẻm tại TP.HCM, Việt Nam. Mạng lưới giao thông và yếu tố cấu thành không gian công cộng », bảo vệ tại ĐH Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, dưới sự hướng dẫn của Thierry SANJUAN.

sous la direction de Thierry SANJUAN

Collection Grafigéo n° 36 - 2017

La production de quartiers chinois dans les grandes villes mondiales est un phénomène très ancien, qui a historiquement touché les villes d’Asie du Sud-Est, puis les grandes villes occidentales aux xixe et xxe siècles. Il concerne aujourd’hui tous les continents et va de pair avec la réussite économique de la République populaire, les liens renoués entre Pékin et sa diaspora, et la revalorisation mondiale de la sinité. La majorité des Chinois outre-mer est aujourd’hui de nationalité continentale et vient, outre les foyers historiques de la Chine du Sud, du Nord-Est chinois, de la Chine intérieure et de ses périphéries. Revendiqué sous le terme de chinatowns, ces quartiers chinois font souvent l’objet d’une forte promotion de la part des villes qui les accueillent. Ils ne se réduisent plus à des quartiers d’immigration, de travail et d’habitation pour des populations d’origine chinoise, au point même de perdre jusqu’à leurs caractéristiques démographiques premières. Les chinatowns déclinent désormais une identité « ethnique » revendiquée dans leurs décorations et leurs fonctions pour devenir des hauts lieux touristiques, participant pleinement à la construction des villes globales. Cet ouvrage collectif explore les trajectoires de différents avatars du chinatown, du foyer originel sud-est asiatique, jusqu’aux villes d’Europe et des États-Unis en passant par l’Asie du Sud et de l’Est.

To provide a global context in understanding the persistence of media piracy in emerging economies such as the Philippines and Vietnam, this chapter broadly describes the ongoing politics of hegemony and resistance in the global intellectual property (IP) trade between the United States (U.S.) and China and economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Primarily relying on documentary evidence and applying the hegemony, relational, and social resistance theories, it investigates briefly how the U.S gains hegemonic power in the field of IP through the cultural mechanism of law in multilateral, regional and bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the aid of U.S.-dominated multilateral institutions. It paints a global economic order with the U.S. occupying a privileged position at one end as the leading producer and exporter of IP goods and services in the emerging global creative economy, particularly in the fastest-growing Asia-Pacific region, and China and some members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) emerging economies with trading ties with China such as the Philippines and Vietnam opposing this hegemony through piracy and resistance strategies on the other end. Contrary to the popular assessment of Jurisprudence and industry-led enforcement debates which paint the piracy problem as simply a case of theft and criminality or " cracks in law enforcement system " , this chapter argues otherwise and views piracy, particularly media piracy as a form of social resistance or the " Weapons of the Weak " (Scott, 1985) of IP-consuming countries against the U.S. control of the global IP trade. For resisting countries, stricter IPR regime stifles technology transfer and harms their informal economy which generates national income and employment for the poor, unemployed, and migrants. Seen from this perspective, media piracy in the Asia-Pacific region and the ASEAN, particularly in the Philippines and Vietnam, is more than just a theft of intellectual creation but a manifestation of an ongoing resistance against the U.S. hegemony in the global copyright trade in the world.

Combining historiography, sociology of labor, migration, and urban studies, Antonella Ceccagno provides readers with a unique perspective on the dense fabric of global links within which the Chinese-run fast fashion industry is enmeshed. At the same time, she effectively demonstrates the role of migration and migrants’ entrepreneurial activities in processes of ‘rescaling’ of the city, analyzing the “ethnicization” of the workforce within this framework. This is a book that makes crucial contributionS to the understanding of migration, transnationalism, and labor regimes well beyond the case of Prato.
—Sandro Mezzadra, University of Bologna, Italy; Co-author of Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor with Brett Neilson


Based on in-depth field research, this book reveals how Chinese migration to Prato and Chinese businesses are integral parts of broader global changes. Apart from being a major contribution to scholarly research on migration, globalization, and urban studies, this book makes urgently needed interventions in public debates on social integration.
—Biao Xiang, Oxford University, UK; Author of Global Bodyshopping

Informal-Moto-Taxis are a common feature of many ‘emerging’ Asian cities. The following proposes that perhaps potential exists to formalise and integrate these services to act as a feeder to BRT systems. Several BRT systems have considered bicycle integration and others the integration of informal-modes, though currently no BRT systems in the world demonstrate BRT integration with motorcycle-taxis. The outcome of this research provides new ways of thinking about informal-transport integration, which could be useful for other cities with informal-motorcycle-taxis that are planning for BRT.

Using ‘XeÔm’ an informal-motorcycle-taxi service in Ho Chi Minh City as a case study, the research explores ways the service could be professionalised, innovated and re-branded using the planned HCM-BRT as a catalyst. The following premises that if planned appropriately, this could extend the influence of the BRT beyond the traditional 400m walking distance and enable more inter-modal trip-chaining in a way that is better adapted to the local culture, especially in a context where pedestrian accessibility is limited, hazardous and inefficient. It is argued this could encourage the much-needed modal shift towards public transport, whilst improving the working-quality for XeÔm and simultaneously making privatised mobility optional and not necessary.
To understand the viability of this concept the research is conducted in 3 steps.  (1) The proposed HCM-BRT corridor and its station precincts are analysed,  The findings revealed accessibility to the HCM-BRT has not been given enough thought which is likely to act as a deterrent to its up-take. (2) 32 XeÔm users and 16 operators were surveyed to provide an understanding of XeÔm characteristics, features and perceptions. The findings revealed that they play an important role in HCMCs transport ecosystem, however also revealed issues of pricing, safety and accountability, it is concluded that in their current disorganised form, they have a collectively damaging behaviour. The final section, attempts to test the viability of the ‘concept’ from a public and policy perspective, revealing that both XeÔm users and operators see value in the idea, 60% of users living within <1-5km of a HCM-BRT corridors would consider using the service, and >75% of operators approved of joining a service, with 68.7% willing to upgrade to a new pricing mechanism. Furthermore, two digitisation platforms ‘GrabBike’ and ‘World-Moto’ have shown themselves to be interested in the market, and the UCCI has described it as an ‘interesting idea’. The research concludes by evaluating the ‘concepts’ applicability and long-term viability, and by putting forward potential steps for further research.

Cette communication interroge la trajectoire des espaces publics vietnamiens dans le processus contemporain de modernisation urbaine. L’appropriation de la rue constitue un trait saillant des pratiques urbaines à Hồ Chí Minh Ville. Cette culture spatiale s’explique notamment par les liens historiques entre urbanisation et commerce au Vietnam, et à la figure dominante de la « maison-tube », interprétation contemporaine du compartiment, directement ouverte sur la rue. Fonctionnant en étroite articulation avec le bâti riverain qu’elles desservent, les rues de Hồ Chí Minh Ville sont éminemment polyfonctionnelles et ne sauraient être réduites à une fonction circulatoire. Cette culture de rue semble toutefois remise en cause par les projets urbains les plus récents, associant la modernité urbaine à la figure de la tour, déconnectant ainsi l’habitat de la rue, et les pratiques commerciales et de loisirs aux malls et centres commerciaux fermés.

Cette communication propose alors de décrypter les modalités d’appropriation de ces objets urbains d’origine exogène par les citadins. Mobilisant l’idée de « tactic » de Michel de Certeau, nous analyserons les continuités d’ordre anthropologique, en montrant comment les citadins continuent de constituer un vecteur d’urbanité dans les lieux de la modernité. L’étude de leurs pratiques et détournements révèle en effet des hybridations originales. Loin de disparaître, la culture de rue de Hồ Chí Minh Ville se trouve alors recomposée et les espaces publics réinventés.

Hồ Chí Minh City is characterized by an important hydrographic network. The metropolis has been the subject of numerous hydraulic engineering since the foundation of the city. The trade has long been present along the waterways located near the centralities of Chớ Lớn and Sài Gòn. However, the presence of these commercial practices has been called into question by more than forty years of uncontrolled urban development. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the contemporary recompositions of water-related commercial practices and the influence of metropolization on it. Contemporary business practices are a resurgence of old practices. Water is no longer linked to an economic income potential. It has become a repellent space for traders. At the same time, it is a challenge for the authorities : adaptation to climate change and a showcase of modernity.

This book presents an exploratory account of the origins and dynamics of cities. The author recounts how the essential foundations of the urbanization process reside in two interrelated forces. These are the tendency for many different kinds of human activity to gather together to form functional complexes on the landscape, and the multifaceted intra-urban space-sorting crosscurrents set in motion by this primary urge. From these basic points of departure, the city in all its fullness emerges as a reflexive moment in social and economic development. The argument of the book is pursued both in theoretical and in empirical terms, devoting attention to the changing character of urbanization in the capitalist era. A point of particular emphasis concerns the peculiar patterns of resurgent urbanization that are making their historical and geographical appearance in the currently emerging phase of cognitive-cultural capitalism and that are now rapidly diffusing across the globe.

Futuristic concepts of housing environments show people, how it will be possible to live in the near future. These projects inspire engineers, scientists and researchers who bring modern technologies to life. It seems that technology is the key to solving the problems that humanity faces today. Housing environments need a new interpretation adapted to contemporary people who are looking for a new quality of living. In the article, the author will characterize futuristic visions of housing in the future, based on their location: on land, underground, in the air, under or on water.

Au cœur d’une région urbaine de plus de dix millions d’habitants, Hồ Chí Minh Ville s’affirme aujourd’hui comme moteur économique du Việt Nam. Les autorités de la ville-province entendent témoigner de ce statut métropolitain par une reprise en main de la planification, après des décennies de développement urbain spontané. La démarche de cette recherche doctorale en géographie urbaine consiste alors à décrypter les mutations contemporaines des dispositifs spatiaux hérités que sont les ruelles (hẻm) de Hồ Chí Minh Ville, à la fois dans leur dimension de composantes de la trame viaire et d’espaces publics.
La trajectoire historique contrariée de la ville permet d’éclairer la spécificité de sa morphologie, marquée par une très faible emprise de la trame viaire, dont la hiérarchie demeure incomplète. Près de 85 % des rues sont inférieures à douze mètres de large. Les ruelles forment ainsi le cœur de l’armature urbaine, tout autant que le cadre de vie de la grande majorité de la population. À l’interface entre le public et le privé, entre le collectif et l’individuel, la ruelle, envisagée comme forme urbaine dynamique, permet de penser les mécanismes de recomposition urbaine et l’évolution des pratiques citadines qui s’y déploient. En cela, cette recherche souhaite appréhender la réception par les citadins des normes de la « modernité urbaine », telles qu’elles sont aujourd’hui redéfinies par les autorités de la ville-province et qu’elles affectent la conception et le fonctionnement des espaces publics au quotidien.

Mots clés : Asie du Sud-Est ; Việt Nam ; Hồ Chí Minh Ville ; géographie urbaine ; rue ; espace Public ; trame ; renouvellement urbain ; recompositions territoriales


Abstract

At the heart of an urban region of more than ten million inhabitants, Hồ Chí Minh City is considered today as the economic engine of Việt Nam. The authorities of the city-province are seeking to assert its new metropolitan status by regaining control of urban planning after decades of spontaneous development. This thesis proposes to decipher the contemporary mutations of the inherited spatial frame of the Hồ Chí Minh City alleyways, taken both as an element of the street network and as ordinary public spaces.
The turbulent history of the city contributes to explaining the specificity of its morphology, with very few spaces dedicated to the street network, whose hierarchy remains incomplete. Nearly 85 % of the streets are less than twelve meters wide. Thus, the alleyways constitute both the heart of the urban framework and the living environment of the large majority of the population. Poised between public and private spheres, between collective and individual dynamics, the alleyway is an urban form in constant flux. This understanding of streets as an interface makes it possible to rethink the mechanisms of the urban fabric and the evolution of urban practices in the metropolisation of Hồ Chí Minh City. In doing so, this research seeks to grasp the way in which urban dwellers are adapting to the norms of “urban modernity” as redefined by the authorities of the city-province today, as well as the way these norms affect the daily functioning of ordinary public places.

Key Words: Southeast Asia ; Việt Nam ; Hồ Chí Minh City ; urban Geography ; street ; public space ; urban frame ; urban renewal ; urban change

Guerrilla warfare is not a new phenomenon and history is witness to its repeated occurrence. In the modern era, it acquired prominence during the Napoleonic Wars which led to an examination of its role by leading nineteenth-century thinkers including Clausewitz, Jomini, Marx and Engels. Over the course of the subsequent century, the concept and practice of guerrilla warfare was integrated within social, economic and political programmes that aimed to overthrow established authority and transform society through an armed struggle. The link that was forged in the mid-nineteenth century by Italian and Polish revolutionaries like Carlo Bianco and Mazzini achieved fruition in the writings and practice of Mao tse-Tung in the twentieth century. This paper traces such conceptualisations of guerrilla warfare.

Objectives Delivery riders have been front-line workers throughout the pandemic but little is known about their own health and safety during this time. This study explores the health and safety issues facing delivery riders in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular during the second lockdown (May-October 2021). Method A web-based survey of more than 800 riders was conducted in August-September 2021. Following descriptive statistics, four logit models were fitted to examine the factors associated with (a) sanitizing one's hands, (b) using a face shield, (c) contracting a new health issue, and (d) engaging in riskier traffic behaviors during the lockdown. Results The riders who were less consistent in adopting health and safety measures tended to be male, older, less-educated, and vaccinated. Also, they were under greater financial pressure and had suffered a larger loss of income during the pandemic. To recover the loss, they worked longer hours and felt under more intense pressure at work. The job pressure, long working hours, and financial burdens led many drivers to adopt risky traffic behaviors, such as speeding. Conversely, where the companies and co-workers were more supportive, riders tended to adopt health prevention measures more often. Fear of Covid-19 also acted as a facilitator. Job and financial pressure combined with the fear of contracting the virus contributed to the occurrence of new heath issues during the pandemic. Again, support from the company and co-workers helped to reduce the risk of new health problems emerging. Conclusion In Ho Chi Minh City and other Global South megacities that employ tens of thousands of riders, ensuring their health and safety is important to support both private businesses and public health. Overall, companies should assume a much larger responsibility here.

Success and failure of any organization depends on its human resource. Global explosion in business creates more opportunities, so people are highly mobile and not restricting to particular job. IT Industry, being a knowledge-based industry, a high intellectual capital lends competitive advantage to a firm. In IT, there are lots and lots of avenues and opportunities available in the hands of IT employees. The retention problem is highly persisted in IT industry. The shortage of manpower both in numbers and skills is a prime challenge for HR managers in IT-units. The compensation, career planning and technological obsolescence are the facts for employee turnover in IT-Units. There are many other factors which influence employees to leave but HRD need to understand employee expectations from the organization, which can make them to stay long back and perform well. The demographic details of the IT professionals should also be considered while designing the retention strategies as some of these variables have proved to have influence on retention. The objective of this paper is to understand that, is there any relation in frequency of job change with growing age and does different retention factors influences on different age group. The result of this study shows that retention factors are same in the different age groups and number of job changed is not constant in different age group. The study area is selected IT-units in the Pune city.

It is widely considered that there is no critical mass of architecture in a homogeneous style in Ho Chi Minh City, in contrast to Hanoi. This essay seeks to establish Ho Chi Minh City’s architectural heritage as a significant one, by arguing that the city does actually possess a critical mass of cohesive, remarkably well-designed buildings in modernist styles. Highlighted here is a unique feature of these modernist buildings: rounded, curved corners as a recurring motif in a dense urban center. I argue that such buildings, dating from the 1920s through the 1970s, have provided the center of Ho Chi Minh City unique, cohesive, and striking characteristics and that they form one of the great ensembles of modernist architecture anywhere. This essay seeks to re-locate the place of Ho Chi Minh City on the world map of the circulation of modernism, by emphasizing the internal dynamic of the city’s architectural evolution that transcends the colonial-postcolonial divide, and highlighting the evolution of forms revealing a continuity in spite of event-based ruptures in history. The significant presence of modernist buildings with curved corners in Phnom Penh, and their similarities to those of Ho Chi Minh City, suggest that regional circulation also played a crucial role.
Key words: modernism, rounded corners, architectural heritage, Ho Chi Minh City, Streamline Moderne, regional exchange, Phnom Penh

Smoking in Vietnam, as elsewhere in Asia, is strongly sex-linked. A 1997 national prevalence survey found about half of males but just 3.4% of females used tobacco regularly. Little is known about smoking-related health awareness or attitudes in Vietnam. There is concern that women may take up smoking if rapid social change brings alteration in traditional gender norms that discourage this behaviour. Effective tobacco control depends upon accurate understanding of prevailing knowledge and views.This paper reports on a 1999–2000 collaborative study into smoking attitudes, practices and health awareness, with particular reference to gender norms. A survey, based partly on findings from initial focus groups, was administered to young female students (n=1018) and factory workers (n=1002) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest metropolis. Participants were recruited through random cluster sampling.Results indicated that smoking continues to be shunned by the vast majority of young urban students and factory workers, although prevalence was slightly higher than found in national surveys, and there was a moderate degree of experimentation. Perhaps of greater concern was the degree of ambivalence voiced about taking up smoking in the future. Moreover, while nearly all expressed awareness of negative health effects of tobacco, these were vaguely worded and excluded key mortality risks. Gender norms appeared to be strongly enduring, with female non-smoking attributed overwhelmingly to its ‘inappropriateness’. Male smoking was seen as normative. Overall, workers (representing a low-income, less-educated population) had higher rates of tobacco use and less health knowledge than students. The paper concludes with a discussion about ramifications for public health interventions.

Once low, dense and organic cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) are now engaged in a steady-paced verticalisation process, especially in the new urbanised areas flourishing at their edges (khu đô thị mới). But beyond iconic new urban projects and glittering business districts, the everyday city production still takes place in the interior of their specific urban pattern, namely their alleyway neighbourhoods.

Tăng khả năng trải nghiệm các dịch vụ mới lạ là yêu cầu và xu hướng tất yếu mà ngành du lịch luôn tìm tòi và phát triển. Bên cạnh các loại hình du lịch mới đang thu hút du khách như: du lịch sinh thái, du lịch cộng đồng thì du lịch đường sông đang dần nổi lên như một hướng phát triển tiềm năng ở nhiều quốc gia. Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh có hệ thống sông ngòi kênh rạch đa dạng và liên kết được nhiều địa phương lân cận bằng đường thủy. Đây là điều thuận lợi để thành phố xây dựng và phát triển du lịch đường sông không chỉ ở nội thành mà còn kết nối thành nhiều tuyến với các tỉnh miền Đông và miền Tây. Vấn đề cần giải quyết hiện tại là đầu tư cơ sở vật chất, hạ tầng và tăng cường các hoạt động trải nghiệm trong suốt hành trình tham quan. Bài viết là gợi ý của chúng tôi về các tuyến du lịch đường sông cơ bản của thành phố trong đó nhấn mạnh  những hoạt động trải nghiệm và tính liên kết giữa các hoạt động, giữa các bên tham gia vào du lịch và giữa các địa phương.

This paper discusses the impacts of gender norms on the sexual life and experience of a group of young Vietnamese people. It is based on a qualitative study on sexuality and abortion among young people in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There were two general attitudes towards premarital sex. One view supported young people in a serious, loving relationship engaging in sex before marriage; the other opposed premarital sex because it affected the reputation of girls and their families. These general attitudes were similar to the views on virginity: one group believed strongly in girls maintaining their virginity and the other group emphasised love, emotion and trust, not virginity, as the most important criteria for marriage. Among women there were more supporters than opponents of the traditional view of premarital sex and virginity. Premarital sex was more acceptable for young people in a serious, loving relationship with certain commitment to marriage. Young men considered sex a way to express their love and to become more intimate. Women&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s view was that premarital sex only occurred within a serious, loving relationship or when there was a serious commitment to marriage. It is clear that young people&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s sexual life is shaped and constrained by gender norms through political interventions, sexual education and moral judgements. Under the pressure of these norms, young people face many difficulties in order to fulfill a safe and satisfying sexual life.

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have resulted in sharp land cover changes. Urban change not only impacts on land cover but also on urban climate. Land surface and atmospheric modifications due to urbanisation generally lead to a modified thermal climate that is warmer than the surrounding, non-urbanised areas. In this research remote sensing technology was used to evaluate urban growth patterns and its thermal characteristics through mapping impervious surfaces and evaluating thermal infrared images. The case study was carried out in the northern part of Ho Chi Minh City, which has experienced accelerated urban development since the late 1980s. Landsat and Aster images were used to calculate variations in urban impervious surfaces from 1989 to 2006. Thermal bands were processed to obtain radiant surface temperatures for investigating the urban heat island effect associated with increasing impervious surfaces, both spatially and temporally. Impacts of urban development on surface temperature were shown by investigating the surface urban heat island effect intensity. The results show that the built-up area in the northern part of Ho Chi Minh City expanded by 6.5 times between 1989 and 2006. Urban development has altered the magnitude and pattern of the surface urban heat island, with the highest land surface temperature cores found in the industrial (greater than 45oC) and urban areas (within 36oC and 40oC). In suburban and rural areas, where agricultural land still remains with full vegetation cover, the land surface temperature is usually lower. Using remote sensing, the impervious surface was extracted with overall accuracy and a Kappa coefficient for all three years greater than 96%, and the retrieved land surface temperatures with variations from in-situ measurements of less than 2oC. The results presented here indicate that remote sensing can help to spatially monitor urban development and land surface temperature changes over the whole area and over a long period of time.