The capital of Hanoi is considered the city with most diverse trees in the country, according to Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Infrastructure Investment and Development Le Thi Bich Thuan.

Trees on Nguyen Chi Thanh street. 

Since 2016, Hanoi has developed a program to plant one million trees and so far the program has proven to be really effective, contributing to changing the landscape of the capital, creating trust for its residents about a green city in the future, Thuan said.

She added that 843 streets of 12 districts of the city are under the shades of trees. The number of about 75,000 trees is diverse in species.

According to international standard, a city dweller needs 1.7 m2, while people in Hanoi downtown has only about 0.6m2/person. This situation is a big challenge for Hanoi in sustainable development in the time ahead, Thuan noted.

She stressed Hanoi’s program to plant one million trees is essential for the capital to become a "green - cultural - civilized - modern" city. In 2018, the whole city planted 387,100 new trees, bringing the total number of planted trees to 927,800 trees, reaching 92.7% of the program's target.

Thuan said that in maintaining and developing the program, in the coming time, Hanoi city needs to build a master plan of urban tree planting in accordance with the city’s overall planning orientation and specify theshort, medium and long term schemes.

According to the urbanization expert, in order to have a system of trees in harmony with the city’s overall situation, it is necessary to have a close coordination between urban architects and tree growers, to ensure the suitability of the plant species with the streets’ characteristics and construction works.

In addition, it is necessary to have a perspective arrangement between the color of the trees and the color of the construction works, between the shape of trees and foliage with the general landscape of the street, between the growth characteristics of trees with underground structures, Thuan said.

In the context of tightened budget, mobilizing the participation of community and businesses will help Hanoi's goal of planting one million trees to be soon completed. That helps to build an open community lifestyle, Hanoians inharmony with the nature, towards a "green - clean - cultural" capital, Thuan concluded.

Hanoitimes