Traditional villages in the Nhue River Green Belt, Hanoi, Vietnam: a biophilic landscape framework for healthy and resilient urbanization

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and climate change are increasing pressure on traditional villages within Hanoi’s Nhue River Green Belt, where settlements, agricultural land, water systems, cultural heritage, and local livelihoods coexist within a strategic ecological buffer. While research on biophilic urbanism and healthy cities often focuses on parks, green–blue infrastructure, street greening, and building-scale design, less attention has been given to green-belt villages as socio-ecological landscape systems with potential health-supportive capacities. This paper develops a typology-based framework for ecological landscape organization supporting urban health. Drawing on policy review, field observation, spatial analysis, and secondary data, the study identifies key landscape assets and pressures, including water systems, productive and livelihood landscapes, cultural–social spaces, slow-mobility networks, and courtyard housing. Villages are differentiated by their relationship with water, spatial structure, and livelihood characteristics, and these assets are then translated into five health-related landscape capacities. The findings provide practical guidance for planning and policy by reframing green-belt villages as health-supportive ecological landscape infrastructure. The framework supports development control, landscape co-governance, everyday nature contact, cultural-place identity, and climate-adaptive public space, offering a transferable approach for healthier and more resilient urbanization in rapidly transforming Asian cities, while recognizing that health relationships are inferred rather than directly measured locally.