The storm season often does considerable damage to urban trees, thus the Hà Nội Department of Construction (DoC) and concerned units have proactively implemented solutions to protect trees and ensure the community’s safety.

Pressure

The DoC is managing 787,000 trees on 751 roads and in the Thủ Lệ Park.

District-level authorities manage more than 369,000 trees on roads, alleys, parks, flower gardens, schools, cultural and sports facilities.

During the storm season, the risk of trees falling is always present.

Typically, in the heavy rain last Saturday evening, more than 400 trees fell across the city.

Deputy General Director of Hà Nội Green Trees and Park One-Member Co Ltd Nguyễn Đức Mạnh said that the trees had fallen due to extreme and unusual weather factors with very strong thunderstorms.

The fallen trees included large, long-standing ones.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said they expect severe heat waves this year.

The north, after hot days, will have showers and thunderstorms in the evenings, potentially affecting the urban green trees.

Solutions

To minimise damage caused by falling trees, different organisations have set up urgent response plans.

Deputy General Director Mạnh said that this year, the company will cut down or prune about 90,000-100,000 trees.

In addition, the company increases inspection and surveys to quickly detect dangerous trees and remove them before the rainy season.

Besides pruning and lowering the trees’ height, concerned units are required to strengthen bracing and immediately fix rotten stakes.

Another important task is to deploy forces to clear fallen trees.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Head of the Tree, Lighting and Underground Construction Management Division under the DoC, said that the department had pruned about 292,000 trees.

Trees management units also prepare trees that ensure standards and quality for additional planting, replace fallen ones.

All of the specific response plans aimed to minimise the number of fallen trees and ensure people's safety, said Hùng.

Kiều Thị Phương, lives in Trúc Bạch Ward, Ba Đình District, said that every year when storm season comes, people were worried about safety when traveling on the road and encountering fallen trees.

“We want tree care and maintenance units to increase management. In particular, they should arrange workers to prune high trees with heavy branches in the inner-city area, where there is a high density of traffic to minimise damage if trees fall,” she said.

Chief of Office of the Việt Nam Association of Architects Phạm Thanh Tùng said that in cities with rapid urbanisation, construction projects tended to expand balconies. Sidewalks were also narrowed to widen roads, thus space for trees was less.

“Land in Hà Nội in particular and in the Hồng (Red) River Delta in general has low terrain surface, many underground water veins, low natural drainage. As the results, trees are susceptible to falling when exposed to heavy thunderstorms,” he said.

Tùng recommended that in urban planning, it is necessary to choose appropriate trees.

“In previous years, we did not choose the right type of tree suitable for the soil, so many trees had an unstable lifespan,” he said.

In addition, Tùng proposed, more attention should be paid to keep the safe and stable growth of urban trees. — VNS