Compact or dispersed? spatial patterns of urban growth and Land-Use efficiency in Vietnam (2017–2024)

Understanding how urbanization reshapes the relationship between land use and the environment is crucial for promoting sustainable development in rapidly urbanizing countries. This study develops a grid-based spatial framework to examine the patterns and environmental implications of urban growth in Vietnam from 2017 to 2024. Using 1 km × 1 km grid data derived from ESRI land cover datasets, this study integrates Shannon entropy, Built-up Intensity (BI), and spatial autocorrelation indices (Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I – LISA) to assess land-use efficiency. The results reveal that urbanization in Vietnam has become increasingly compact and spatially polarized. The Red River Delta and Southeast region exhibit the strongest increases in BI and clustering of High-High urban nodes, while agricultural and forest landscapes remain dominant elsewhere. Entropy values indicate localized diversification of land use in peri-urban areas, reflecting growing land-environment complexity at the urban fringe. Overall, the findings demonstrate that Vietnam’s urban expansion is evolving toward compact and clustered forms, which may improve land efficiency but also intensify pressure on peri-urban ecosystems. The framework provides a transferable approach for analyzing urban-environment interactions in developing countries and supports evidence-based strategies for managing sustainable urban growth.