Expanding in the mountains: spatial patterns of urban form in a rapidly urbanising small city of Vietnam

Measuring urban form is particularly important in rapidly urbanising countries as it can help assess problems caused by inefficient planning. Despite this, there is a dearth of research on fine-scale measures of urban form in Asia and Vietnam. In this paper, we aim to identify spatial patterns of urban form measured at the intra-urban level in Lào Cai, a provincial capital city in northern Vietnam that has been transformed dramatically since its integration in the Greater Mekong Subregion. We compute 15 indicators of urban form divided into four groups: shapes of built areas, street connectivity, density of services and population, and accessibility. A spatial clustering of the indicators allows to identify five urban form types and their spatial patterns, showing that this small city is experiencing an extensive and fragmented urban growth. We question urbanisation policy underlying such urban form and suggest avenues for a more sustainable urban planning.