Introduction
Across the historical evolution of residential communities, the relationship between human societies and the natural environment, particularly green and ecological landscapes, has constituted a foundational dimension of public health, social well-being, and collective identity. From traditional agrarian garden systems to contemporary urban park models, greenery has functioned not merely as an ecological asset but as a core component of human sustainability, wherein environmental conditions, social life, and quality of life are deeply interdependent (Beatley, 2011; Kabisch et al., 2017). A growing body of international scholarship demonstrates that access to green spaces significantly enhances physical and mental health, strengthens social cohesion, and increases community resilience in the face of environmental change and urban stressors (Wolch et al., 2014; UN-Habitat, 2020).
Within the contemporary global context, peri-urban regions are increasingly recognized as critical “transitional spaces,” where conventional distinctions between urban and rural landscapes are progressively blurred. This transformation not only restructures physical land-use patterns but also reshapes social practices, environmental values, and forms of community attachment (Anguelovski et al., 2018). In such transitional settings, equitable access to green infrastructure has emerged as a central concern of environmental justice, as spatially uneven distributions of green resources tend to intensify social inequalities and reinforce long-term environmental vulnerability (Agyeman, 2005; Wolch et al., 2014).
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, provides a salient empirical context for examining these dynamics. Over the past decade, the city’s peripheral districts, prior to their administrative reconfiguration in July 2025, including Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be, and Can Gio, have experienced accelerated urbanization under the framework of the National New Rural Construction Program (NRCP). While this program has substantially improved infrastructure and livelihoods, it has simultaneously intensified environmental pressures, particularly through the fragmentation and degradation of local green spaces. In NRCP communes, green environments now exist in hybrid configurations: remnants of traditional rural landscapes characterized by orchards, canals, and vegetated boundaries coexist with expanding concretization, gated residential developments, and large-scale construction projects.
This spatial reconfiguration generates a distinctive socio-ecological frontier in which residents’ quality of life increasingly depends on the community’s capacity to preserve, adapt, and reorganize ecological resources, especially greenery and public parks. Survey data across the five NRCP districts indicate that although a segment of residents perceives improvements in their living environment, a substantial proportion reports limited change or even deterioration of green spaces in particular localities. These patterns reveal pronounced inequalities in access to green infrastructure. Complementary qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews and field observations further documents significant transformations in everyday living spaces: housing has become more enclosed, while playgrounds and shared communal areas have steadily diminished, weakening traditional patterns of neighborhood interaction and simultaneously elevating the social importance of community parks as emergent institutions for sustaining social ties and psychological well-being.
Conceptualizing green spaces not merely as elements of urban planning but as dynamic socio-cultural formations, this study investigates the evolving interconnections between greenery, community parks, and residents’ quality of life in Ho Chi Minh City’s NRCP communes. The analysis demonstrates how rapid urbanization has reoriented the functions of greenery, from ecologically grounded roles linked to agricultural production toward forms of urban green infrastructure associated with public health, climate adaptation, and environmental equity. This transformation extends beyond material landscapes to encompass shifts in environmental perception, collective memory, and everyday spatial practices.
Unlike previous studies that focus predominantly on metropolitan or fully urbanized settings, this research provides rare and systematic empirical evidence from NRCP communes, where urban-rural, ecological-social, and traditional-modern boundaries are simultaneously negotiated. By examining green spaces as social infrastructure within a rapidly transforming peri-urban governance framework, the study extends existing debates on environmental justice and sustainability to an underexplored Southeast Asian transitional context. In doing so, it highlights how institutional arrangements, everyday practices, and spatial inequalities jointly shape residents’ lived experiences of environmental change.
By situating Vietnamese peri-urban communities within broader theoretical debates on sustainability and environmental justice, this article contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on the relationship between human well-being, green infrastructure, and lived environments (Beatley, 2011; Kabisch et al., 2017; UN-Habitat, 2020). It elucidates how communities negotiate changing relationships with nature under contemporary development pressures, dynamics that mirror wider transformations in environmental values, spatial practices, and social adaptability observed across rapidly urbanizing regions worldwide. In doing so, the study advances conceptual understanding of green spaces as critical socio-ecological infrastructure mediating sustainable development, social cohesion, and environmental justice during urban-rural transitions (Agyeman, 2005; Anguelovski et al., 2018; Wolch et al., 2014).
To address these issues, this study is guided by the following research questions: (1) How do patterns of access, usability, and maintenance of green spaces and community parks influence residents’ perceptions of environmental quality and overall life satisfaction in NRCP communes? (2) To what extent do spatial disparities in green infrastructure provision generate emerging forms of environmental inequality across peri-urban districts of Ho Chi Minh City? (3) How do community parks function as social infrastructure in sustaining everyday social interaction and community cohesion amid increasing residential enclosure and urbanization pressures?
Research Methods
This study is anchored in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that examines the interconnections among green spaces, human well-being, and sustainable development. Research in urban planning and environmental studies consistently demonstrates that greenery and community parks function not merely as ecological components but as forms of socio-ecological infrastructure that substantially contribute to residents’ physical health, psychological well-being, and overall quality of life (Beatley, 2011; Kabisch et al., 2017). Complementing this perspective, environmental justice scholarship emphasizes that unequal access to green spaces across geographic areas and social groups can intensify existing inequalities and heighten environmental vulnerability, particularly in rapidly urbanizing peri-urban settings (Agyeman, 2005; Wolch et al., 2014). More recent studies on “green gentrification” further reveal that green infrastructure development, when insufficiently grounded in social equity considerations, may unintentionally reproduce new forms of spatial and social exclusion (Anguelovski et al., 2018). Building upon these insights, the present study conceptualizes greenery and community parks in Ho Chi Minh City’s New Rural Construction (NRC) communes as spatial-social institutions that simultaneously embody ecological, cultural, and equity dimensions of peri-urban quality of life.
Based on this framework, the study assumes that residents’ quality of life is shaped not only by the physical presence of green spaces, but also by their accessibility, usability, and governance conditions. Accordingly, the analysis is guided by the following hypotheses: (H1) higher levels of accessibility and perceived quality of green spaces are positively associated with residents’ overall life satisfaction; (H2) spatial disparities in green infrastructure provision are significantly related to perceived environmental inequality; and (H3) community parks with better maintenance and social functionality contribute more strongly to social cohesion and subjective well-being than poorly managed or underutilized spaces.
Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed-methods design in order to integrate the strengths of quantitative and qualitative approaches and to capture both structural patterns and lived experiences. A household survey was conducted in 2023 with 1,017 respondents across 12 communes located in five peripheral districts of Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be, and Can Gio. A stratified random sampling strategy was applied to ensure representation across residential location, demographic composition, and income categories. The survey instrument was structured around four major variable domains: (1) household socio-demographic and economic characteristics; (2) environmental and infrastructural conditions; (3) residents’ perceptions and evaluations of green spaces, parks, and landscapes; and (4) levels of satisfaction with overall quality of life. Perceptual variables were measured using multi-level Likert scales, allowing for systematic quantification of perceived changes in green spaces following the NRC implementation.
In parallel, qualitative data were collected through 30 in-depth interviews with key local stakeholders, including commune officials, environmental management personnel, cooperative leaders, local business owners, and long-term community residents. These interviews explored perceived transformations of landscapes and living environments, assessments of green space governance and policy effectiveness, and community expectations regarding greenery amid ongoing urbanization. Furthermore, 56 structured field observation sessions were conducted in the surveyed communes to document the current conditions of community parks, roadside greenery, landscaped streets, and patterns of public space usage. Observational data were recorded using semi-structured checklists and supplemented by field notes, photographic documentation, and systematic assessments of green space indicators such as spatial coverage, vegetation density, greenery quality, and intensity of use at different times of day and across varying contexts.
Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were first employed to summarize patterns of green space provision, usage, and residents’ perceptions. Subsequently, multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the determinants of perceived quality of life. The dependent variable was constructed as an overall quality-of-life satisfaction index derived from multiple Likert-scale items. Key independent variables included perceived accessibility to green spaces, distance to the nearest community park, perceived greenery quality, frequency of park use, and evaluations of maintenance conditions. Control variables comprised respondents’ age, gender, educational attainment, household income, and length of residence. Depending on the measurement level of the dependent variable, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and ordered logit models were applied. Likert-scale variables were treated as ordinal measures and tested for internal consistency prior to model estimation.
Qualitative data were thematically coded and subjected to content analysis, enabling interpretive triangulation with the quantitative findings and illuminating socio-cultural dimensions of green space use that are not fully captured by statistical measures alone. Together, this integrated methodological framework provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of greenery and community parks in shaping quality of life in Ho Chi Minh City’s NRC communes.
Results
Current Status of Green Spaces and Community Parks in New Rural Communes
Field survey evidence reveals that green spaces and community parks in the NRC communes of Ho Chi Minh City are characterized by quantitative scarcity, weak spatial connectivity, and unstable quality of use. At the metropolitan scale, total public green space in 2023 was estimated at approximately 491 hectares, corresponding to merely 0.55 m2 per capita, which remains far below the internationally accepted benchmark for special urban areas of 10–15 m2 per capita (Ban Mai, 2023). While this benchmark is primarily designed for core urban districts and high-density metropolitan areas, it nevertheless serves as an important reference point for evaluating overall green space adequacy. In peri-urban NRC communes, where population density is increasing rapidly and land conversion is accelerating, the widening gap between actual provision and international standards reflects mounting structural constraints on sustainable spatial development. This shortfall provides a critical contextual background: although NRC communes are located on the urban periphery, they are increasingly exposed to the city’s systemic “green deficit,” driven by rapid peri-urbanization, mechanical population growth, road concretization, and rising construction density.
At the local spatial scale, green elements within many NRC communes exist primarily in dispersed and fragmented forms, including scattered household trees, vegetation within school and institutional compounds, and roadside or canal-side greenery. In contrast, community parks of sufficient scale and daily service capacity remain unevenly developed or altogether absent (In-depth interview, Mr. D., 52, environmental official, Ho Chi Minh City). This produces a paradox frequently observed in peri-urban environments: although greenery is visibly present, residents lack accessible and functional “green destinations” that can be integrated into everyday life (In-depth interview, Mr. H., 49, resident, Binh Chanh). A principal cause lies in the temporal lag between urban expansion and park development. Survey data document numerous planned park projects delayed by land clearance constraints; for example, in Nha Be District, existing parks are typically small-scale, with an average area below 2 hectares per park, significantly limiting their effective service radius (Nhu Ngoc & Nguyen Chau, 2025). This condition exemplifies the structural lag of green infrastructure provision, wherein residential growth accelerates while land for parks contracts and establishment costs escalate, producing fragmented “green patches” incapable of forming integrated ecological networks (Crompton, 2001).
From a policy standpoint, advanced NRC standards require a minimum provision of 4 m2 of public greenery per capita, while systematizing diverse green land categories, including parks, gardens, playgrounds, transport corridors, riverbanks, and greenery within schools, hospitals, and public institutions, and prioritizing the planting of native, shade-providing, and perennial trees (Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, 2023). Unlike international benchmarks, which emphasize metropolitan liveability and ecological balance, the NRC standard focuses primarily on meeting minimum infrastructural criteria within rural-urban transition zones. However, field evidence suggests that this minimum threshold is often treated as a formal compliance target rather than as a substantive quality-of-life objective. Consequently, significant gaps persist between “planning criteria” and “operational reality.” Many projects remain incomplete, some public lands have not been formally transferred or planted as intended, and local-level governance and maintenance capacities remain limited. The challenge therefore extends beyond land scarcity to encompass green infrastructure governance, including responsibility allocation, maintenance regimes, encroachment control, and equitable access.
A salient empirical finding is the phenomenon of “presence without use.” Numerous newly constructed parks lack effective connections to surrounding street networks, undermining pedestrian accessibility; recreational equipment and children’s playgrounds frequently deteriorate; and even centrally located commune parks experience partial encroachment for parking or informal childcare activities. During evening observations conducted in June 2023 at a commune-level park in Binh Chanh District, for instance, researchers recorded that between 17:30 and 19:00, fewer than ten residents used the park, despite its central location. Most benches were broken, lighting was insufficient, and exercise equipment showed visible rust and damage. Several sections of the park had been informally converted into motorbike parking spaces and temporary vendor stalls, effectively discouraging recreational use by elderly residents and children. These patterns underscore that green infrastructure cannot simply be “built and left” but must be conceived and managed as genuine public spaces—accessible, safe, well-equipped, and continuously maintained. Absent these conditions, the quality-of-life benefits associated with greenery are substantially diminished, even when local authorities formally report compliance with quantitative targets.
Pronounced spatial disparities in park distribution and scale are observable across districts. Hoc Mon District, for instance, hosts relatively prominent projects such as Hoc Mon Ecological Park (6.14 ha) and several commune-level playgrounds, reflecting stronger investment in green destination development (Tuan Kiet, 2023). Yet even here, parks are disproportionately concentrated in commune centers, while peripheral or sparsely populated areas receive limited investment, producing patterns of “selective greening.” In Cu Chi District, green corridors along the Saigon and Vam Co Dong rivers are widely recognized as having significant potential, yet large segments remain undeveloped as parks or pedestrian spaces. Concurrently, ongoing conversion of agricultural land to residential and industrial uses intensifies pressures on remaining green resources, while commune-level park development remains fragmented and weakly interconnected.
Qualitative data further illuminate the broader social significance of public green spaces. As residential areas become increasingly enclosed by walls and gates, spontaneous neighborly interaction declines; as one resident of Cu Chi observed, “with gates and fenced gardens, neighbors hesitate to drop by for casual conversation,” leading to diminished community intimacy (Mr. N.V.N., 61). In this context, well-designed and properly managed parks and public green spaces function not only as ecological assets but as essential social infrastructure, sustaining intergenerational interaction, social cohesion, and mental well-being. Conversely, when parks are inaccessible, degraded, or encroached upon, communities lose both ecological value and shared social spaces.
Overall, the current condition of green spaces in Ho Chi Minh City’s NRC communes represents not merely a matter of numerical provision but a systemic challenge encompassing: (i) the scale and integration of green infrastructure networks; (ii) actual accessibility and usability; (iii) governance and maintenance capacity; and (iv) the evolving social role of public spaces within peri-urban community restructuring. These interrelated constraints jointly shape residents’ everyday experiences of environmental quality and social life, thereby reinforcing spatially differentiated patterns of advantage and disadvantage.
These findings provide a critical foundation for subsequent analysis of residents’ perceptions, satisfaction levels, and spatially differentiated experiences.
Residents’ Perceptions of Green Space Changes after Achieving New Rural Standards
Survey data collected from 1,017 households across 12 communes in five pre-merger peri-urban districts indicate that post-NRC green space development is perceived as conditionally improved, with substantial variation across residential locations and population groups (Table 1).
Overall, the distribution of responses reveals a pattern of partial and uneven environmental improvement, in which positive evaluations coexist with widespread perceptions of stagnation. This suggests that while NRC-related investments have generated visible changes in landscape appearance, their impacts on everyday environmental experience remain highly differentiated across communities.
Across the full sample, approximately half of respondents perceived some degree of improvement in local green conditions, whereas a large proportion reported no noticeable change. Rather than indicating program failure, this pattern reflects the selective nature of green infrastructure development, in which resources tend to concentrate in easily accessible or administratively prioritized locations, leaving many residential areas marginally affected. The relatively low proportion of respondents reporting substantial improvement further suggests that most interventions have focused on incremental beautification rather than on the creation of comprehensive and multifunctional green systems.
These findings point to two concurrent dynamics. On the one hand, the NRC program has generated tangible improvements in landscape quality and environmental aesthetics. On the other, structural limitations in land availability, institutional coordination, and maintenance capacity constrain the translation of these investments into broadly experienced quality-of-life gains. From an environmental justice perspective, this divergence indicates that access to meaningful green amenities is becoming increasingly stratified, reinforcing spatially differentiated patterns of environmental advantage and disadvantage. This tension is particularly pronounced in Ho Chi Minh City’s peri-urban context, where demand for parks and outdoor activity spaces intensifies under rapid urbanization, while institutional and spatial response capacities remain limited.
District-level analysis further reveals pronounced perceptual unevenness (Table 2).
Marked inter-district differences reflect contrasting ecological endowments, development trajectories, and governance capacities. Can Gio District exhibits the most favorable evaluations, reflecting its extensive mangrove ecosystems, relatively low construction density, and stronger ecological regulation. In this context, residents’ positive perceptions are shaped not only by formal park provision but also by the continued presence of semi-natural landscapes embedded in everyday life.
By contrast, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon, which are under more intense urbanization pressure, display clearer polarization. Here, rapid land conversion and fragmented planning processes have produced mixed environmental outcomes, generating visible improvements in some locations while simultaneously degrading others. The coexistence of moderate positive evaluations and relatively high negative responses suggests growing socio-spatial differentiation within these districts.
In Binh Chanh and Nha Be, perceptual structures closely resemble one another, characterized by high proportions of “no change” responses. This pattern indicates that green interventions in these districts remain largely confined to small-scale roadside planting and short-term beautification projects, which improve visual appearance but fail to transform everyday environmental practices. The absence of interconnected park systems and pedestrian-friendly green corridors limits the capacity of such interventions to generate sustained social and health benefits.
Qualitative evidence helps explain these disparities. Residents in Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, and Binh Chanh frequently acknowledged visible enhancements, such as roadside planting, flower-lined streets, and general environmental tidying, yet emphasized the continued absence of large, accessible, and multifunctional parks that support daily recreation. As one resident of Cu Chi explained: “They planted more trees for appearance, but spaces for walking and exercise for the elderly and children are still lacking; to reach a park, you have to go far” (In-depth interview, Mr. B., 55, Cu Chi).
This testimony highlights the gap between symbolic greening and functional green infrastructure. While aesthetic improvements enhance perceived modernity and administrative performance, they do not necessarily translate into improved opportunities for physical activity, social interaction, or psychological restoration.
Accordingly, residents’ evaluations are shaped not merely by the presence of greenery, but by its functional usability within everyday routines. Where parks fail to form interconnected networks, lack pedestrian accessibility, or provide sufficient amenities, landscape improvements struggle to produce durable enhancements in lived quality of life. From the perspective of social infrastructure theory, these findings suggest that green spaces generate social value only when they are embedded within daily mobility patterns and supported by sustained institutional management. Otherwise, their contribution to community cohesion and well-being remains limited and uneven.
Green Spaces as social Infrastructure and Their Impact on Residents’ Quality of Life
The findings indicate that green spaces and community parks in NRC communes perform functions that extend beyond ecological services, operating as critical social infrastructure that directly shapes residents’ quality of life, health outcomes, and community cohesion. Consistent with social infrastructure theory, these spaces function as everyday platforms that facilitate routine social encounters, mutual support, and collective belonging. As urbanization transforms residential spatial structures, most notably through the proliferation of enclosed housing with walls, fences, and iron gates, spontaneous forms of neighborly interaction have steadily diminished, thereby intensifying the social significance of accessible public green spaces in sustaining everyday community life.
In-depth interview data vividly illustrate this transformation in rapidly urbanizing communes. A long-term resident of Cu Chi observed: “In the past, houses had no gates and gardens had no fences; when passing by, you would stop and chat. Now every house has a gate; you have to call and wait to visit, which makes it awkward” (In-depth interview, Mr. V., 62, Cu Chi).
This testimony underscores the gradual erosion of “natural interaction spaces” within residential neighborhoods, elevating parks and public green areas as increasingly vital arenas for social connection and intergenerational engagement. In the absence of informal neighborhood spaces, community parks increasingly assume the role of semi-institutionalized arenas for sustaining social ties, particularly among elderly residents, women, and children.
Consistent with this qualitative evidence, quantitative analysis reveals a strong association between residents’ satisfaction with green spaces and their overall evaluations of quality of life (Table 3).
Rather than reflecting purely subjective preferences, these patterns indicate structurally differentiated opportunities for social participation and well-being. In districts exhibiting higher proportions of positive evaluations, such as Can Gio and Hoc Mon, residents benefit from more stable ecological conditions, better-maintained facilities, and stronger integration of parks into daily mobility patterns. By contrast, in districts such as Binh Chanh and Nha Be, where nearly half of respondents perceive “no change,” overall satisfaction with environmental conditions and social activities remains moderate and displays marked polarization across resident groups.
Field observations further substantiate these patterns. In localities where parks have received sustained investment, providing walkways, seating, playgrounds, and exercise equipment, public green spaces evolve into everyday social hubs, particularly for the elderly, women, and children during morning and evening hours. Conversely, where parks are undersized, physically degraded, or partially encroached upon for parking, resident visitation declines sharply, accompanied by visibly weaker community interaction. These contrasting trajectories highlight how institutional maintenance regimes and governance capacity mediate the social effectiveness of green infrastructure.
These findings illuminate the indirect yet enduring pathways through which green spaces shape quality of life: by promoting physical health through increased activity, enhancing mental well-being via stress reduction, and strengthening social capital through more frequent social contact, trust, and mutual support. From a social infrastructure perspective, these mechanisms operate cumulatively, reinforcing individual resilience and collective capacity to cope with urbanization-related stressors. This dynamic explains why households that evaluate green spaces as “better” consistently demonstrate higher levels of satisfaction with mental well-being, perceived safety, and community relationships than those reporting “no change” or “worse” conditions.
At the same time, the uneven distribution and differential quality of green spaces generate emerging forms of socio-environmental inequality. Communities with limited access to functional parks face compounded disadvantages, including reduced opportunities for physical activity, weaker social networks, and heightened exposure to environmental risks. In this sense, green infrastructure functions as both a resource for social inclusion and a potential mechanism of exclusion, depending on governance arrangements and spatial allocation patterns.
From a policy perspective, the results confirm that investments in parks and green spaces within NRC communes should be understood not merely as environmental interventions, but as high-return investments in social infrastructure that generate broad benefits for human welfare and long-term community stability. Effective policy design therefore requires moving beyond quantitative provision targets toward integrated strategies that prioritize accessibility, maintenance, community participation, and social functionality.
Discussion
The findings of this study demonstrate that green spaces and community parks in Ho Chi Minh City’s NRC communes function as a form of socio-ecological infrastructure that exerts profound influence on residents’ quality of life, community cohesion, and adaptive capacity under conditions of accelerated urbanization. This conclusion is consistent with a growing body of international scholarship indicating that green spaces extend well beyond their ecological functions to operate as key mediators of human well-being, social capital, and community resilience (Beatley, 2011; Kabisch et al., 2017; Wolch et al., 2014). Within the rapidly transforming peri-urban landscape of Ho Chi Minh City, where traditional rural forms are being reconfigured into semi-urban spatial structures, public greenery and community parks are emerging as foundational components of human sustainability.
First, the quantitative results reveal a clear and statistically meaningful association between green space accessibility and residents’ evaluations of quality of life. Among the 1,017 surveyed households, 50.3% reported that green spaces had become “better” or “much better” following NRC implementation, whereas 41.8% perceived no change and 7.6% perceived deterioration. Marked spatial disparities are evident: in Can Gio, characterized by extensive natural ecosystems, 60.7% of residents expressed positive evaluations, substantially exceeding those in districts experiencing intense urbanization pressure such as Cu Chi, Binh Chanh, and Nha Be, where “no change” responses ranged from 44% to 47%. These patterns empirically reinforce Beatley’s (2011) “biophilic cities” framework, which emphasizes the centrality of everyday contact with nature in promoting physical and psychological well-being, and align with Kabisch et al.’s (2017) assertion that nature-based solutions play a pivotal role in enhancing quality of life in urban-rural transition zones.
Qualitative evidence further clarifies these dynamics. Residents in Cu Chi and Binh Chanh consistently acknowledged visual improvements from roadside planting and landscape beautification, yet emphasized that the absence of sufficiently large, accessible, and functional parks meant such enhancements were insufficient to meaningfully alter daily living practices, particularly for elderly residents and children. This suggests that green infrastructure contributes to quality of life not through aesthetic presence alone, but through routine usability embedded in everyday social life.
Second, pronounced inter-district disparities in green space perception expose emerging issues of environmental inequality. In rapidly urbanizing districts, residents not only report higher levels of dissatisfaction, but also experience shortages of adequately scaled parks, facility degradation, and land encroachments, whereas Can Gio generates positive “green” perceptions primarily through its inherited natural ecology. These findings resonate with Agyeman’s (2005) environmental justice framework and Wolch et al.’s (2014) analysis of uneven green infrastructure distribution, illustrating how development processes, if focused narrowly on hard infrastructure, risk reproducing new forms of socio-environmental inequity within peri-urban regions.
Third, the study underscores the increasingly vital role of parks and green spaces as social infrastructure amid the restructuring of peri-urban communities. Interview narratives vividly document the erosion of spontaneous neighborly interaction as residential spaces become increasingly enclosed; as one long-term Cu Chi resident explained, “now every house has a gate; to visit for a chat, you have to call at the door, so it becomes awkward”. Under such conditions, parks and public green spaces emerge as among the few remaining venues for sustaining intergenerational interaction, community activities, and local social capital. This observation strongly complements Anguelovski et al.’s (2018) argument that well-planned green infrastructure can mitigate social vulnerability and strengthen community cohesion in transitional urban contexts.
Despite these benefits, the findings also reveal a persistent gap between policy intentions and operational outcomes. The prevalence of “presence without use,” physical degradation, insufficient pedestrian connectivity, damaged facilities, and ongoing encroachments significantly undermine the social and health benefits of green infrastructure in many NRC communes. These deficiencies indicate that the core challenge is not merely the number of parks, but the quality of governance through which green spaces are planned, maintained, and socially integrated, echoing UN-Habitat’s (2020) warning that sustainable urban development requires strong institutional capacity, community participation, and long-term stewardship mechanisms.
From a broader academic perspective, this study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it provides systematic empirical evidence from NRCP communes, an underexamined peri-urban context in Southeast Asia, thereby extending predominantly urban-focused green space research to transitional rural-urban settings. Second, by conceptualizing community parks as social infrastructure embedded within everyday mobility and interaction patterns, the study advances existing theoretical debates on the social functions of green infrastructure beyond ecological service provision. Third, by integrating environmental justice and human sustainability perspectives, the findings demonstrate how spatial inequality, governance capacity, and social practices jointly shape differentiated quality-of-life outcomes under rapid urbanization. Together, these contributions refine current understandings of green spaces as central components of human-centered sustainable development rather than peripheral urban amenities.
At the same time, several limitations should be acknowledged. The cross-sectional research design captures residents’ perceptions at a single point in time, limiting causal inference regarding the long-term impacts of green infrastructure. The reliance on self-reported evaluations may introduce perception and social desirability biases, while certain socio-economic groups, such as temporary migrants and informal settlers, may be underrepresented despite stratified sampling procedures. In addition, the focus on peri-urban districts of Ho Chi Minh City constrains the generalizability of the findings to other urban and regional contexts. Future research would benefit from longitudinal, comparative, and mixed-scale approaches to further validate and extend the present results.
Conclusion
This study has examined the role of green spaces and community parks in shaping residents’ quality of life within Ho Chi Minh City’s NRC communes under conditions of rapid urbanization and peri-urban spatial transformation. Drawing on mixed-method evidence from a survey of 1,017 households, 30 in-depth interviews, and 56 field observation sessions, the findings demonstrate that green spaces function not merely as ecological assets but as a form of socio-ecological infrastructure that directly influences human well-being, community cohesion, and social adaptive capacity.
First, in response to the question of how accessibility, usability, and maintenance conditions shape residents’ perceptions of environmental quality and life satisfaction, the study finds that meaningful improvements in quality of life are closely associated with the availability of well-connected, well-maintained, and multifunctional green spaces. Mere physical provision or symbolic beautification is insufficient to generate sustained benefits when parks are poorly integrated into everyday mobility and social routines.
The empirical analysis further reveals a strong association between green space accessibility, everyday experiences of use, and residents’ overall evaluations of quality of life. Communes characterized by stronger natural ecological endowments or more coherent green systems, such as Can Gio, consistently report higher satisfaction levels than districts experiencing intense urbanization pressures, including Cu Chi, Binh Chanh, and Nha Be. In relation to spatial inequality, the findings indicate that uneven patterns of green infrastructure provision are producing differentiated environmental experiences across districts and social groups, thereby reinforcing emerging forms of socio-environmental disadvantage within the NRC development process.
Second, with regard to the extent to which spatial disparities generate environmental inequality, the study demonstrates that differences in park scale, accessibility, and maintenance quality play a decisive role in shaping residents’ evaluations. Communities with limited access to functional green spaces face compounded disadvantages in terms of physical activity opportunities, social interaction, and psychological well-being.
Beyond environmental outcomes, the study highlights the critical social function of parks and green spaces in sustaining community interaction and social capital amid increasingly enclosed residential configurations. As traditional forms of spontaneous neighborly communication decline, public green spaces are becoming one of the few remaining platforms for intergenerational exchange and community bonding.
Third, addressing the question of how community parks operate as social infrastructure, the findings show that well-managed and socially embedded parks serve as key mediating spaces that strengthen trust, mutual support, and collective belonging in peri-urban communities. Nevertheless, substantial gaps persist between policy aspirations and operational realities. Phenomena such as “presence without use,” facility degradation, insufficient pedestrian connectivity, and land encroachment continue to constrain the social effectiveness of green infrastructure in many communes.
Theoretically, this study suggests that green spaces in peri-urban transition zones should be conceptualized not simply as physical amenities or environmental indicators, but as socially embedded infrastructures whose value emerges through everyday practices, governance arrangements, and patterns of spatial accessibility. By integrating social infrastructure theory, environmental justice perspectives, and human sustainability approaches, the research advances a relational understanding of how ecological resources, institutional capacity, and community life interact under conditions of rapid urbanization.
From a broader scholarly perspective, this research advances understanding of human sustainability within Southeast Asia’s urban-rural transitional spaces, where ecological, social, and cultural boundaries are being rapidly reconfigured. The findings affirm that green spaces extend well beyond environmental considerations, constituting a foundational component of quality of life, social stability, and resilient urban development in contemporary peri-urban contexts.
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