Abstract
Lao PDR is a landlocked country located in the middle of Indochina. Vientiane Capital, which is the capital city of Lao PDR, has an area of 3,920km2 and its population was 795,000 in 2009. It has high economic and demographic growth potential. It is thus quite likely that the urban area would rapidly expand toward the suburbs, creating the problem of urban sprawl with bad living conditions and inappropriate social services. In this study, it was carried out to make clear current conditions of urban parks in Vientiane Capital with conducting a park counting survey and a park interview survey. According to the study, it is clear that there are only 9 urban parks with a total area of 20.6ha in Vientiane Capital. Considering the population volume, the parks area seems to be quite less. Additionally, definition of “urban park” as one of the urban infrastructure facilities is not regulated in any relevant laws, therefore, any vision and target volume of urban parks have not been formulated so far. Following this study, it is required that studies conduct more in developing countries especially in Asia to grasp current conditions of urban parks for aiming of establishment of sustainable city and of export of Japanese knowledge and skills related to urban parks.
