Background and objective: Vegetarian eating among university students has become an increasingly relevant topic as concerns about health, nutrition, and sustainable lifestyles shape the priorities of younger generations within the broader framework of human sustainability. Many studies have documented the health-related motivations underlying vegetarian eating among university students; however, far fewer have examined how economic considerations shape their dietary choices, particularly in Vietnam. This study investigates the extent to which economic and health motivations influence university students' likelihood of adopting a vegetarian diet. Methods: The study employed a structured questionnaire administered directly to students across seven universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Students were asked to self-identify as vegetarian or non-vegetarian, and to respond to items measuring health-related and economic motivations for vegetarian eating, perceived health benefits of vegetarian diets, their level of engagement with vegetarian nutrition information, and their participation in physical and mental well-being activities. Results: The findings indicate that both health and economic motivations significantly influence students' likelihood of adopting a vegetarian diet, with health motivation emerging as the stronger predictor. The results also show that students who self-identify as vegetarians report more favorable evaluations of the health benefits of vegetarian diets. However, students who adopt vegetarian diets primarily for economic reasons show little interest in seeking information about vegetarian nutrition. Conclusion: Policymakers should place greater emphasis on improving the quality of vegetarian food options, alongside ensuring affordability for university students, as part of broader efforts to advance human sustainability in urban educational settings.
Background and objective: Contemporary scholarship often frames human sustainability as a policy goal or a set of modern indicators, while the historical conditions and long-term social processes through which foundational human capacities are formed, sustained, and reproduced remain underexamined. This article conceptualizes publishing as an urban cultural environment and examines how Saigon-Cholon’s print ecosystem functioned as a form of soft urban knowledge infrastructure—that is, everyday, non-coercive infrastructures organizing repeated encounters with knowledge—for sustaining human sustainability between 1861 and 1939.Methods: The study adopts a historical and interdisciplinary approach, triangulating contemporary newspapers and printed materials in quoc ngu (Romanized Vietnamese), French, and selected Chinese-language materials with colonial administrative and statistical records and relevant scholarship. Four analytically tractable indicators—literacy, access, inclusion, and resilience—are employed to trace how printed texts were produced, circulated, received, shared, and accumulated over time within urban social life.Results: The findings show that between 1861 and 1913, publishing evolved from an instrument of colonial governance into an emergent urban cultural environment through the establishment of printing infrastructure, the standardization of quoc ngu, and the diffusion of reading and writing practices beyond the colonial state and religious institutions. From 1914 to 1939, commercialization and politicization operated as mutually reinforcing processes that increased the scale and tempo of print circulation while deepening participation, thereby thickening the social reach of the print environment.Conclusion: The Saigon-Cholon case demonstrates that human sustainability can be analyzed as a historically traceable social process rather than a normative policy category. By organizing repeatable encounters with knowledge through everyday knowledge infrastructures, the print ecosystem contributed to the maintenance and reproduction of literacy, access, inclusion, and resilience under conditions of colonial rule and institutional constraint.
Background and objective: Urban forest parks serve as critical interfaces where intensive human use overlaps with wildlife habitats, leading to an increasing incidence human-wildlife conflicts. Wild boars (Sus scrofa) are widely recognized as ecological generalists with high adaptability across diverse landscapes; however, quantitative understanding of their habitat selection within small-scale, fragmented urban forest patches remains limited. This study aimed to identify key environmental factors influencing wild boar presence in urban forest parks by integrating LiDAR-derived three-dimensional habitat structure with species distribution modeling.Methods: Wild boar presence data were obtained using unmanned sensor cameras (camera traps) and thermal imaging drones in Ansan Urban Nature Park, Seoul. Seven environmental variables, including terrain factors and forest vertical structure variables derived from drone-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, along with existing forest type data, were incorporated into a Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to predict habitat suitability and assess the relative contribution of each variable.Results: Understory density was the most influential environmental factor affecting wild boar presence. Habitat suitability increased sharply once understory vegetation exceeded a threshold level and reached its peak in areas characterized by moderate elevation and steep slopes. The habitat suitability map revealed continuous, , band-shaped zones of high suitability along ridges and slopes, indicating spatially structured habitat use along topographic axes. The model showed reliable predictive performance, with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.765. While these results partially align with previous findings on wild boar habitat preferences, the incorporation of three-dimensional forest structure showed that habitat selection is more strongly associated with vertical vegetation characteristics that provide concealment, rather than with topographic features alone.Conclusion: Wild boar habitat selection in urban forest parks is primarily driven by three-dimensional vegetation structure that enhances concealment, rather than by topographic preference alone. These findings demonstrate that LiDAR-based habitat modeling provides a valuable foundation for spatially targeted management strategies, enabling the efficient allocation of monitoring resources and the development of mitigation measures that balance public safety with wildlife coexistence in urban forest landscapes.
Background and objective: Philodendron hederaceum Schott is a widely cultivated ornamental foliage plant that is commonly propagated by stem cuttings; however, uneven rooting and establishment, along with variability in early growth, can reduce production uniformity. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of exogenous auxin (indole-3-butyric acid; IBA or 1- naphthaleneacetic acid; NAA) dipping, applied either alone or in combination with a low concentration of 6-benzyladenine (BA), on propagation performance and subsequent morphophysiological quality of P. hederaceum stem cuttings.Methods: Single-node stem cuttings (approximately 5 cm) with one leaf were dipped (basal 0.5 cm for 1 min) in ten solutions, including a control (25% ethanol), BA (0.1 g⋅L-1), IBA or NAA (0.5 or 1.0 g⋅L-1), and auxin-BA combinations, and then grown for four months. Survival and rooting rates, growth parameters, biomass components, remote sensing-based vegetation indices (e.g., anthocyanin reflectance index 2 and normalized difference vegetation index), and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm and PIABS) were assessed. Data were analyzed using Duncan's multiple range test, and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to interpret multivariate response patterns.Results: Survival and rooting rates did not differ significantly among treatments, but several growth parameters (e.g., shoot length and width, internode length, and root length) responded to dipping treatments. Leaf-size parameters showed treatment-dependent changes, while leaf number was not significantly affected. Shoot fresh weight showed limited treatment effects, whereas root fresh and dry weights varied among treatments, indicating that the auxin-BA combination (IBA 0.5 g⋅L-1 with BA 0.1 g⋅L-1) was associated with relatively greater post-establishment vigor, particularly in root biomass accumulation. Optical and leaf pigment-related metrics (e.g., SPAD units, CIELAB L* and a*, and selected vegetation indices) differed across treatments, but Fv/Fm and PIABS were not significantly affected. PCA indicated that PC1 (31.2%) represented a morphology/biomass axis and PC2 (18.2%) reflected vegetation-index variation, with cumulative variance reaching 59.6% by PC3.Conclusion: Overall, auxin-only and auxin-BA combined dipping treatments mainly affected post-establishment growth and quality-related traits rather than rooting rate. Within the tested range, IBA at 0.5 g⋅L-1, particularly in combination with BA at 0.1 g⋅L-1, was associated with more favorable growth and root biomass responses, whereas NAA at 1.0 g⋅L-1 tended to show less favorable responses. PCA further supported the interpretation that growth/biomass traits and optical traits represented partly distinct response dimensions.
Background and objective: This study aimed to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of an agro-healing program that integrates the plant life cycle with cognitive-behavioral strategies as an emotional and cognitive intervention for individuals at high risk of depression. Specifically, a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based agro-healing horticultural therapy program was applied to assess its effects on both psychological and physiological outcomes, including depressive symptoms and electroencephalogram (EEG) changes.Methods: Conducted in ten weekly 90-minute sessions, the horticultural activity-based program was conducted by incorporating five core components of cognitive-behavioral strategies—identification of cognitive distortions, problem-solving, socialization, reward, and cognitive restructuring—into the stages of the plant life cycle, including sowing, cultivation, harvesting, and utilization.Results: In the control group, which received only conventional psychiatric treatment, scores for interpersonal problems—a subdomain of depression—significantly increased following the intervention. In contrast, the experimental group, which participated in the CBT-based agro-healing horticultural therapy program in addition to conventional care, demonstrated an overall reduction in depression levels. Statistically significant improvements were observed in somatic retardation, interpersonal problems, depressive affect, and total depression scores. Moreover, compared with the control group, the experimental group exhibited significantly greater reductions across these domains. These findings suggest that vulnerability to depression extends beyond emotional symptoms and is structurally associated with impairments in social cognition, interpersonal functioning, and relationship maintenance.Conclusion: The findings indicate that an agro-healing horticultural therapy program integrating cognitive-behavioral strategies into plant-based activities may effectively reduce depressive symptoms and promote psychological stability in individuals at high risk of depression. Furthermore, this study is meaningful in that it provides integrated evidence based on both psychological scales and EEG measures.
Background and objective: Agriculture remains a critical livelihood source for rural households in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, where climate change exacerbates vulnerability through flooding, drought, salinity intrusion, and unseasonal rainfall. These stressors threaten the five livelihood capitals (natural, human, physical, financial, and social) outlined in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). This study aims to examine the differential and combined impacts of these climatic hazards on livelihood capitals among agricultural households in Thanh Phu commune, a coastal area of the Mekong Delta highly exposed to climate risks.Methods: Data were collected in January 2024 (updated as of November 2025) through structured face-to-face interviews with 200 randomly selected agricultural households across three ecological zones in Thanh Phu commune. Livelihood capitals were assessed using 88 indicators covering natural, human, physical, financial, and social dimensions. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), with Pillai’s Trace as the primary statistic due to violated homogeneity assumptions, was employed to test the individual and interaction effects of four climate stressors on the five interrelated livelihood capitals.Results: MANOVA revealed significant multivariate effects of all single climate stressors (p ≤ .002), with flooding, drought, and salinity intrusion showing the strongest impacts (partial η² up to 0.382). Flooding significantly affected natural, human, social, and physical capitals; drought influenced human, social, and physical capitals; salinity intrusion impacted physical and financial capitals; while unseasonal rainfall primarily affected natural and financial capitals. Interaction effects were weaker and more selective, with notable synergistic impacts from flooding-drought and flooding-salinity on financial capital.Conclusion: Climate change imposes substantial and differentiated threats to livelihood capitals in coastal Mekong Delta communities, necessitating targeted, capital-specific adaptation strategies. Prioritizing resilience in natural, physical, and financial capitals through diversified farming, infrastructure improvement, and financial support mechanisms is essential for sustainable rural development under escalating climatic risks.
Background and objective: Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) Libosch. ex Steud. (Korean name: jihwang) is generally cultivated in soil in the open-field conditions. However, continuous cropping often leads to root rot caused by soilborne pathogens, highlighting the need for alternative cultivation methods. This study aimed to identify an suitable growth medium for R. glutinosa under hydroponic conditions.Methods: Rhizome seeds of the R. glutinosa 'Togang' cultiva were sown in pots filled with 100% of each medium: soil (SO), perlite (PL), peat moss (PM), and cocopeat (CO). The plants were cultivated for 153 days under controlled conditions. Results: At the final harvest 154 days after sowing, rhizome diameter was the thickest in PL (approximately 12.2 mm), whereas rhizome length was the longest in PM (approximately 37.8 cm). The number of fresh rhizomes was the highest in CO, followed by PL, PM, and SO. Fresh rhizome weight was the highest in CO (128.68 g per plant). In contrast, rhizome dry matter content was the lowest in CO (15.0%), followed by PM (16.64%), PL (18.35%), and SO (19.48%). Conclusion: Based on these findings, CO, which resulted in the highest fresh rhizome weight and lowest dry matter content, appears to be the most suitable medium for the cultivation of R. glutinosa under hydroponic cultivation.
Background and objective: Rapid urbanization in Vietnam has increased the prevalence of high-rise apartment living, making public space quality an important factor in shaping residents’ experiences and place attachment. This study investigates the effects of public space quality on residents’ place attachment in apartment complexes in Ho Chi Minh City.Methods: A quantitative research design was employed using a structured questionnaire survey administered to 300 residents living in two large apartment complexes, namely Vinhomes Grand Park and Westgate An Gia. Measurement scales were developed based on established literature and assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of four dimensions of public space quality—comfort, safety, aesthetics, and utility—on residents’ place attachment.Results:The results show that all measurement scales demonstrate strong reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.869 to 0.921. The regression model explains 53.0% of the variance in place attachment (R² = 0.530, p < .001). Comfort was found to be the strongest predictor of place attachment (β = 0.309, p < .001), followed by aesthetics (β = 0.249, p < .001) and perceived safety (β = 0.185, p < .001). In contrast, utility did not exhibit a statistically significant effect (β = 0.055, p = .322), indicating that functional provision alone is insufficient to foster emotional attachment.Conclusion: The findings suggest that residents’ place attachment in high-rise apartment complexes is primarily shaped by experiential and perceptual qualities of public space rather than by functional attributes alone. Comfort, aesthetic quality, and perceived safety play decisive roles in strengthening emotional connections to residential environments. These results highlight the importance of human-centered public space design in promoting social sustainability and residential well-being in high-density urban contexts.
Background and objective: Maritime development in Vietnam has traditionally been approached through legal, geopolitical, economic, and environmental lenses, with limited attention to the cultural and spiritual dimensions that shape community interactions with marine spaces. This study addresses this gap by examining the persistence and significance of spiritual-cultural practices (SCPs) among key stakeholders connected to the Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago, exploring their contributions to community resilience, place attachment, cultural continuity, and sustainable maritime development.Methods: A mixed-methods design was employed, combining a structured questionnaire with in-depth interviews. A total of 1,187 valid responses were collected from three stakeholder groups: 143 island residents (current or former) in the Truong Sa Archipelago, 132 coastal fishermen from Cam Ranh (Khanh Hoa Province), and 912 naval personnel stationed in Khanh Hoa Province. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, and comparative analysis in SPSS, supplemented by qualitative interpretation of interview narratives.Results: SCPs remain vibrant and diverse across all groups, encompassing ancestor worship, veneration of President Ho Chi Minh, and maritime deities such as the Whale God and the Lady of the South Sea. Naval personnel exhibited the highest regular participation (51.4%) and emphasized cultural preservation (64.5%), reflecting institutionalized rituals. Fishermen showed the strongest intensification of belief over time (79.5%) and prioritized livelihood protection and faith (61.8% and 58.8%, respectively). Residents demonstrated frequent engagement with sacred sites (72.8%) and balanced cultural preservation (57.2%) with religious faith (45.7%). Over 70% of respondents across groups affirmed that SCPs contribute to ethical conduct, community cohesion, and symbolic sovereignty assertion, functioning as a form of "soft sovereignty" and intangible cultural capital.Conclusion: The findings underscore the complementary roles of naval personnel (institutionalized rituals), fishermen (occupationally adaptive practices), and residents (place-based continuity) in sustaining maritime cultural heritage. SCPs serve not only spiritual and social functions but also enhance resilience and peaceful territorial affirmation. Integrating SCPs into marine spatial planning, cultural tourism, education, and national maritime strategies is recommended to achieve culturally inclusive and sustainable maritime development in Vietnam.
Background and objective: Home gardening is widely practiced as an accessible form of physical activities across age groups and are increasingly incorporated into agro-healing and therapeutic horticulture programs. Although these activities are often classified as light- to moderate-intensity based on energy expenditure, repetitive working postures such as squatting and trunk flexion may impose substantial localized musculoskeletal load. This study aimed to investigate exercise intensity and muscle workload in the upper and lower limbs during typical home gardening activities based on working posture.Methods: 10 healthy young adult males participated in controlled laboratory experiments involving two common home gardening tasks: lifting flower pots and watering plants. Each task was performed under two different posture conditions, resulting in four experimental postures in total. Exercise intensity was quantified using metabolic equivalents (METs), while muscle workload of the upper and lower extremities was assessed using surface electromyography and normalized to maximum voluntary contraction (%MVC).Results: Based on MET values, pot lifting was classified as a moderate-intensity physical activity, whereas watering was categorized as a light-intensity activity. Despite the relatively low MET levels, several upper limb muscles exceeded high-risk workload thresholds, indicating substantial localized muscle demand. In particular, the anterior deltoid consistently showed high activation across tasks and postures. Muscle workload patterns varied depending on both task type and working posture, with increased trunk muscle demand observed in bending postures and sustained shoulder muscle workload during watering activities.Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that energy expenditure alone may not adequately reflect localized musculoskeletal load during home gardening activities. A combined assessment using both METs and %MVC is therefore necessary to accurately evaluate physical demands and potential injury risk. The results provide practical evidence for designing posture-sensitive, muscle-specific, and safer home gardening and agro-healing programs.
Background and objective: The physical environment of fine dining restaurants plays an important role in shaping consumer experience. This study examines how specific physical environment attributes—ambient conditions, spatial layout, and decoration—differentially influence consumers’ willingness to pay a premium through the mediating roles of extrinsic and intrinsic experiential value.Methods: An online survey was conducted with 230 consumers who had prior fine dining experience were analyzed for final analysis. Environmental attributes were conceptualized as ambient conditions, spatial layout, and decoration. Experiential value was divided into extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions, and willingness to pay a premium was measured. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed relationships among variables, including confirmatory factor analysis and mediation analysis using bootstrapping procedures. Results: The structural equation model revealed attribute-specific effects of the physical environment on experiential value and willingness to pay a premium. Spatial layout showed a significant positive effect on extrinsic experiential value (β = 0.511, p < .001), as did decoration (β = 0.404, p < .05), whereas ambient conditions were not significant. With respect to intrinsic experiential value, ambient conditions exhibited a significant positive effect (β = 0.314, p < .05), as did decoration (β = 0.754, p < .001), while spatial layout was not significant. Regarding direct effects on willingness to pay a premium, extrinsic experiential value did not show a significant influence, whereas intrinsic experiential value demonstrated a significant positive effect (β = 0.831, p < .01). Bootstrapping analysis further confirmed that experiential value functioned as a mediating mechanism linking physical environment attributes to premium price acceptance. Intrinsic experiential value mediated the effects of ambient conditions, spatial layout, and decoration, whereas extrinsic experiential value mediated only the effect of decoration.Conclusion: These results indicate that premium price acceptance in fine dining settings is primarily shaped by experiential value emerging from interactions with physical environment attributes. In particular, decorative elements function as a strategic resource by simultaneously enhancing functional evaluations and emotional engagement. This study highlights the importance of experience-centered environmental design as a core mechanism for sustaining premium pricing strategies in fine dining restaurants. In doing so, this offers conceptual support for biophilic strategies as a value-creating resource in fine dining contexts.
Background and objective: This study systematically explores the research structure and trends in the fields of landscape and ecology in the context of climate change adaptation.Methods: A total of 509 research articles published between 1976 and 2025 were retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using author keyword-based text mining with VOSviewer.Results: The analysis revealed that research on climate change adaptation in the landscape and ecology fields showed sharp quantitative growth from 2008, coinciding with the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Keywords including climate change (363 occurrences), adaptation (136), landscape ecology (135), ecosystem (123), and biodiversity (103) formed the central axis of the research network. Cluster analysis identified four research domains: Cluster 1, "Biological Understanding," exploring genetic and physiological adaptation mechanisms; Cluster 2, "Policy and Management Feedback," addressing mitigation-adaptation policies and institutional implementation; Cluster 3, "Distribution and Change Prediction," predicting species distribution and habitat changes under future climate scenarios; and Cluster 4, "Spatial Decision Making and Execution," encompassing conservation prioritization and the development of protected area networks. Interpreting inter-cluster relationships through the frameworks of EBDM and IPCC (2014) revealed a cyclical structure: C1→C3→C4→C2→C1.Conclusion: This study quantitatively analyzes the flow of climate change adaptation research, demonstrating the development of a systematic and integrated research system, which spans from basic ecological understanding to policy implementation. The results can serve as foundational data for future policy formulation, evaluation indicators, and model development related to climate change and biodiversity.
Background and objective: Traditional craft villages are valuable cultural resources that play a crucial role in fostering sustainable tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City. This study aims to evaluate the tourism development potential of six representative craft villages: Thai My bamboo and rattan weaving craft village, Phu Hoa Dong rice paper village, Tan Thong Hoi bamboo screen village, Xuan Thoi Son basket weaving craft village, Le Minh Xuan incense stick making craft village, and Ly Nhon salt-making village.Methods: The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with field surveys and expert interviews to identify and compare key factors influencing the tourism development potential of each craft village.Results: The findings reveal significant differences in tourism potential among the six craft villages, reflecting variations in infrastructure, the level of cultural heritage preservation, accessibility, and the degree of local community participation. Accordingly, Le Minh Xuan incense stick-making village and Phu Hoa Dong rice paper village are assessed as highly favorable for tourism development. Thai My bamboo and rattan weaving craft village shows a moderate level of favorability, Ly Nhon salt-making village is considered less favorable, while Tan Thong Hoi bamboo screen village and Xuan Thoi Son basket weaving craft village are assessed as unfavorable. This evaluation of favorability provides an overall picture of the tourism development potential of each craft village, thereby serving as a basis for proposing solutions to optimize the value of traditional craft villages in tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City.Conclusion: The study demonstrates a clear differentiation in tourism development potential among the six traditional craft villages in Ho Chi Minh City. These findings provide a scientific basis for prioritizing investment and formulating targeted development policies. Specifically, villages with high potential should be positioned as distinctive tourism products; those with moderate potential require enhanced infrastructure and stronger market linkages; and less favorable villages need support in heritage conservation, capacity building, and product restructuring in order to gradually and effectively integrate into the sustainable tourism value chain.
Background and objective: Coastal cities are currently facing significant risks to their complex and dynamic coastal systems, where sea-level rise, increased storm frequency, and coastal erosion directly threaten human lives, economic infrastructure, and ecosystem integrity. In this context, assessing adaptive capacity is no longer merely a technical planning exercise, but has become a critical requirement for governance and survival in coastal cities. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize and evaluate how adaptive capacity is understood and assessed in coastal cities using a socio-ecological systems approach. Methods: To emphasize interpretive depth, this study employed a qualitative rapid review. It deliberately chose nine empirical studies from the Scopus database, focusing on their depth and relevance to adaptive capacity assessment of social-ecological systems in coastal cities, guided by the PICOC framework. Key findings were systematically extracted using PICOC and examined through qualitative thematic analysis.Results: The findings present a thorough, detailed, and multifaceted view of the adaptive capacity within coastal social-ecological systems. The key conclusions are as follows: (1) Utilizing a range of diverse methodologies and innovative strategies is crucial for broadly evaluating adaptive capacity; (2) The holistic integration of knowledge, culture, participation, and learning facilitates the exclusive but localized assessment that reinforce bottom-up adaptation strategy in coastal cities; (3) Urban scale and governance are key factors in strengthening the adaptive capacity; and (4) Moving to a more-than-human urbanism is a driving force for a transformative adaptation approach for urban-coastal areas.Conclusion: This study contends that assessing the adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems in coastal cities hinges on overcoming institutional obstacles, integrating diverse data sources, and, crucially, transforming the relationship between humans and ecosystems from one of exploitation to one of symbiosis to ensure the sustainable and adaptive future.
Background and objective: This study examines participant satisfaction with the Citizen Gardener Training Program implemented in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, and aims to identify directions for program improvement through empirical analysis. The program has been operated since 2022 under the Ordinance on the Promotion and Support of the Garden Culture Industry and is structured into basic and advanced courses designed to enhance gardening competencies and community-based garden culture.Methods: Survey data were collected from 125 participants who completed either the 60-hour basic course or the 70-hour advanced course. The curriculum includes knowledge of garden plants, plant management, garden design methods, and garden operation and maintenance. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0, applying descriptive statistics, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.Results: The basic course showed high satisfaction with understanding and management of garden plants, while the advanced course demonstrated high satisfaction with garden design methods and garden operation and maintenance. Across both courses, practical skill development and applicability to everyday life were perceived as more important than formal certification outcomes. Instructor expertise and hands-on experience were significant determinants of educational satisfaction, and future participation intention was positively associated with satisfaction and experiential learning outcomes.Conclusion: Citizen gardener training is most effective when structured around practice-based learning rather than certification-oriented objectives, providing empirical implications for the systematic development of community-based garden education programs.
Background and objective: Unlike urban migration, which is often individual-based and short-term, rural migration tends to be more stable and long-term, raising issues related to housing, livelihoods, and community integration. While migration to urban areas has been widely studied, research on rural migrant communities remains limited, particularly from a social network perspective. This study examines the level of cohesion and identifies key actors within the agricultural support network of a rural migrant community in Southeastern Vietnam.Methods: Using a multistage sampling approach, 97 agricultural households in a hamlet of Tan Khai commune, Dong Nai province, were surveyed, identifying 117 actors in the agricultural support network. Social Network Analysis was applied to measure network cohesion (density, connected components, and clustering) and to identify central actors based on out-degree, betweenness, and EV-brokerage indices.Results: The network exhibited low cohesion, with a density of 0.011, comprising 33 connected components and several isolated ones. Within the main component (accounting for 65% of all nodes), seven subgroups were identified. About half exhibited homophily, with members sharing the same regional origin. The remaining subgroups were heterophilous, characterized by diverse regional backgrounds.Conclusion: The network structure exhibits notable differences from the typical social structures of traditional rural communities in Vietnam, which are often characterized by strong cohesion and tightly knit relations based on kinship, extended family, and neighborhood ties, particularly in the northern regions. In light of the limited capacity of formal agricultural extension systems, strengthening informal support networks and leveraging the roles of central actors as key nodes and intermediaries for disseminating information, techniques, and farming experience can play a crucial role in enhancing agricultural performance.
Background and objective: Food safety has emerged as one of the most pressing public concerns in contemporary Vietnam, where the proliferation of food scandals has eroded public trust in the food system. In this context, "clean food" has evolved beyond a technical category to become a cultural symbol associated with purity, modernity, moral responsibility, and social distinction. This study aims to examine how clean food is constructed, contested, and practiced within everyday life, and how it reflects broader transformations in morality, risk perception, and social relations in post-Đổi Mới Vietnam.Methods: This research employed a qualitative design combining discourse analysis, document review, field observations, and 15 in-depth interviews with urban consumers, farmers, food retailers, and clean-food entrepreneurs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke), grounded in theoretical frameworks of discourse (Foucault), purity and pollution (Douglas), risk society (Beck), and ethical consumption (Faltmann).Results: Findings reveal that clean food functions as a multilayered cultural symbol shaped by overlapping discourses of safety, purity, modern lifestyle, and moral legitimacy. While clean food represents aspirations for health and modernity, it also exposes social tensions rooted in unequal access, urban-rural distrust, fragmented regulatory systems, and competing moral expectations among consumers, producers, and state actors. Interview data highlight how risk anxiety drives consumers to develop individualized strategies, such as buying from trusted networks, joining collective purchasing groups, or home-growing food, thereby privatizing risk and intensifying emotional and moral labor, particularly among women.Conclusion: Clean food in Vietnam encapsulates broader socio-cultural transformations, including the reconstruction of moral norms, the reconfiguration of trust, and the negotiation of responsibilities among individuals, markets, and state institutions. Understanding clean food as a cultural and moral phenomenon offers critical insights into the dynamics of risk, inequality, and ethical consumption in rapidly modernizing societies.
Background and objective: Development in Jakarta tends to focus on physical infrastructure expansion and commercial growth, while ecological aspects and residents' quality of life are given less attention. Many projects do not fully consider their impact on microclimate, air quality, and outdoor comfort, which then worsens pollution, increases heat load, and heightens psychological stress in dense and congested urban centers. This study aims to examine the ecological comfort conditions of Jakarta and build public awareness of the importance of residential design in responding to urban ecological challenges.Methods: The study used three types of environmental comfort tests, namely thermal comfort, visual comfort, and auditory comfort tests, which were measured in real time at 20 locations in five areas of Jakarta to identify variations in urban ecological conditions. In addition, a perception survey of 170 respondents was conducted to understand how residents feel about the comfort, accessibility, and visual quality of their environment. Results: The results of the third comfort test showed that all parameters were above Indonesian National Standard (SNI) threshold, indicating that the environmental quality of Jakarta was not yet able to meet comfort requirements. Even public spaces have become exhausting and unsustainable areas for the comfort of users and the surrounding urban ecosystem. Meanwhile, perception surveys reveal significant variations in residents' experiences regarding comfort, accessibility, and visual quality. Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of developing tropical eco-design for simple housing by optimizing ventilation, natural lighting, trees and vegetation, as well as the use of natural materials and variations in floor height on limited sites. Ecologically informed tropical housing design can reduce heat loads, improve air quality, and create calmer living spaces despite the noisy and densely populated urban environment.
Background and objective: The coastal fishing communities in the Mekong Delta are encountering increasing threats from climate change and the loss of marine resources, jeopardizing the viability of their traditional livelihoods. While indigenous ecological knowledge has historically facilitated environmental adaptation, its current significance amidst fast socioecological transformation is not yet fully comprehended. This study investigates the mobilization, transformation, and limitations of knowledge in developing adaptive strategies among coastal fishers, intending to enhance inclusive and contextually relevant fisheries governance and coastal resource management.Methods: The research used a qualitative methodology that integrates in-depth interviews and participant observation in two coastal locales, An Thủy commune and Sông Đốc municipality. Thirty interviews were carried out with male and female fishers of varying ages and fishing experience, focusing specifically on elder knowledge holders. Field observations were conducted throughout the seasons, and all data were meticulously documented in comprehensive field diaries for thematic analysis.Results: Research indicates that fishers' indigenous knowledge functions within two interconnected domains: (i) hydrometeorological knowledge and (ii) marine resource knowledge. Fishers utilize a locally integrated early-warning system grounded in multimodal environmental data and lunar calendars to optimize fishing schedules and mitigate danger. They also delineate micro-fishing areas and seasonal species trends, enhancing operational efficiency and mitigating uncertainty. This information is culturally embedded in folk expressions and occupational standards, promoting ethical relationships with the sea and facilitating intergenerational transmission. Nonetheless, its adaptive efficacy is progressively limited by resource exhaustion, heightened competition, and an increase in extreme weather events.Conclusion: Indigenous knowledge is a crucial adaptive resource for coastal communities; nevertheless, its primarily oral transmission and concentration among elder fishers render it susceptible to erosion. The systematic documenting and institutional integration of this knowledge are crucial for enhancing community resilience and advancing sustainable fisheries governance.
Background and objective: As climate change becomes a central theme in corporate communication, the way organizations construct their environmental messages reveals their underlying perspectives a nd ethical orientation toward nature. This study examines how Vietnamese enterprises communicate about climate change within their corporate social responsibility (CSR) frameworks, analyzing their content through the lenses of action frame as well as ecocentric and anthropocentric approaches.Methods: The combination of content analysis and discourse analysis was employed for studying the annual and sustainability reports from top-rated domestic companies recognized for sustainable practices in Vietnam in 2025. The analysis focused on three categories: long-term corporate framing of climate change via their action plans, greenhouse gas inventories scopes, and the beneficiaries highlighted within the reports.Results: Findings reveal that the studied Vietnamese corporations demonstrate awareness and concrete actions regarding climate change. These actions, ranging from greenhouse gas emissions reduction and energy efficiency to renewable energy adoption and biodiversity initiatives, suggest that climate change has increasingly become an integral component of CSR planning and communication among leading Vietnamese firms. Nevertheless, some of them have not yet paid sufficient attention to the detailed requirements of the greenhouse gas inventories and still lack a concrete roadmap for achieving Net Zero in the coming years. Besides, the studied firms’ CSR communication predominantly reflects an anthropocentric frame, emphasizing the nature’s instrumental values, human-centered benefits, and economic growth. A smaller proportion of firms adopt an ecocentric stance, recognizing nature’s intrinsic value.Conclusion: The study suggests that future efforts should prioritize more greenhouse gas accounting and the development of transparent Net Zero roadmaps to enhance the accountability of corporate climate strategies. Besides, corporates should integrate both anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives to strengthen their climate change communication. Emphasizing respect for and protection of nature’s inherent worth may enhance message credibility and reinforce their leadership in sustainable development.
