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The status of an LDC with rapid changes in the policies relating to economics, population, and housing markets are the main factors affecting the size, form, and structure of the cities therein. In the case of LDCs, the urban growth patterns are similar to those of the European and North American cities, where wealth and civilization were the results of urbanization (Shaalan, 2013).

The proportion between built-up areas and entire urban land areas could explain the changes in the urban form through time periods. According to the common perceptions of urban planning and authorization in Laos, planning has concentrated on the basic urban structures and on all infrastructure patterns, which are believed to be the first priority for urban and rural development processes. In recent years, the Lao government promoted and approved various large development projects, such as electricity supply networks, drainage systems, and other transportation networks. Due to the development strategies being employed in Laos, the physical shapes and the structure of Vientiane Capital have been gradually changed by the infrastructure development policy. Concepts such as history, culture, and social life in the central areas have been directly affected by the development approaches employed.

The government policies are considered the major driver of growth in the urban areas (Molotch, 1976). Since 1995, Lao people from the rural areas have migrated to the main urban areas, such as Vientiane Capital as well as Borikhamxay, Xayabouury, and Xiengkhuang provinces. Vientiane Capital eventually came to have the largest percentage of migrants (Phouxay and Tollefsen, 2010). Based on the policy of urban development in Vientiane Capital, the basic infrastructure development projects have been the top priority in terms of the support funds for long-term development and restoration. According to the available censuses from the National Statistic Center of Laos (NSCL), due to the growth and concentration of the population in the central areas (MPI, 2005), the Lao government is continuously endeavoring to solve the problems associated with rapid population growth by expanding the size of the city using basic infrastructure enlargement processes. For instance, in 1896, there were only 222 registered villages within Vientiane Capital. The development policies of the central government have been applied continuously, and the result was the increase in the number of village units in the inner urban areas of Vientiane Capital, with a total of 499 villages in 2010. The population growth magnitude also showed a nearly 31-fold increase from 1896 to 2010 (see Table 3). This shows the phenomenon of urban growth direction from the power of centralized governance in Vientiane Capital.

The community units, on a village scale, have been considered for centralization. Therefore, regulative criteria were established to set a standard for villages in urban areas, such as the following: (i) the village must lie in the municipal vicinity where the district or provincial authorities are located, where there are more than 600 residents or more than 100 households; (ii) there is a road available for motor vehicles to gain access to the village; (iii) a majority of the households in the village are electrified; (iv) there is a tap water supply for a majority of the households; and (v) there is a market in the village (MPI, 2005). The Lao regime appears as the centralized form, with an own-style communist ideology. The management system has been driven by the centralized political base. Particularly in high-level decision making, the consensuses among the inhabitants and the government have been considered the highest priority, called “democracy.” The regular Lao inhabitants have the right to live and settle anywhere in the country and they have the right to use land and enter into land transactions, as given by the central government. In addition, compensation is given to land owners when their properties are ruined or damaged by the government’s development projects. Therefore, urban forms have been extended by small and large scale private land owners.

In recent years, the Lao government developed a comprehensive urban development policy, with comprehensive planning guidelines to support urban growth that provide solutions for the environmental impacts of the developments. Such policies and guidelines were adapted by the municipal bodies in community development projects. The main strategy is the approach of encouraging communities to collaborate in the planning and implementation of processes. The private sectors are also encouraged to take part in the land and infrastructure development projects. The Plan for Vientiane Capital Development Framework (PVCDF) was established in 1989, and it consisted of detailed zoning and planning regulations (ADB, 2010). For more than 30 years, from 1975 (a significant year for the Lao people, called “Laos Independence Year”), the Lao government has formulated and implemented very strong policies to achieve the goal of poverty reduction and to elevate the country’s status as a developing country by 2020 (MPI, 2010). The Lao government is holding onto the strategy that promotes urban growth with sustainable goals.

In 2007, the 6Ss policy for development and environmental protection was discussed in the national meeting of the party organization in Vientiane Capital. The crucial contents of the minutes of the meeting were stated, which included the recognition that developing a plan to achieve economic growth is very important in setting up the 6Ss policy, which covers the (i) “silvery city”; (ii) “sanitary city”; (iii) “safe city”; (iv) “seductress city”; (v) “succulent green city”; and (vi) “snugness city” (ALACE, 2007). This policy is a tool for promoting and implementing balanced growth, environmental protection, social stability, and economic growth. It is also based on the 7th NSEDP objectives and priorities, and the Lao government is currently finalizing a framework for accelerating the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) to assist in the implementation of NSEDP by integrating diverse interventions related to the MDGs. The six priority areas are (i) expanding the basic infrastructure for MDG achievement; (ii) sustainable practices for environmental sustainability and for improving food security; (iii) access to basic education and gender equity; (iv) equal rights for women in terms of socio-political participation and empowerment; (v) social protection and community participation to improve the health conditions; and (vi) improving the sanitation and safe water supply for rural and small town areas (World Bank, 2010a, 2010b).

The land use planning policy is a significant instrument for controlling the growth and preventing the phenomenon of the chaotic conditions of Laos’ urban areas. Since the onset of new development in Laos, especially in Vientiane Capital, the Lao government has focused on land management and urban planning laws, which were significantly legislated by the Laos National Assembly (LNA). Other laws, decrees, and regulations have also been legislated to address various other facets of development of Laos (see Table 4).

Vientiane Capital is the most attractive place in Laos for residing and investment for both the Laotian working class and foreigners. The capital’s environment is an important factor in affecting both investment and development. This trend, however, will bring about chaos in the realm of the city’s social norms and physical environment. Lately, the Lao government has been using laws and regulations to boost growth and to solve the problems associated with unplanned development. The structures of institutions and organizations are based on a top-down system, which decentralizes the power to the local authorities. In reality, the power of the local authorities was negatively affected by the flows of the market force, which can be explained by lax zoning controls and lax implementation of the existing housing construction regulations. Some phenomena associated with urban structure transformation have been revealed to be the outcomes of the inefficient implementation of the pertinent regulations and new policies for development.

With an estimated per-capita income of USD 320 in 2003, Laos was the poorest and least developed country in East Asia. Its social indicators are among the worst in the region and are close to the average for Sub-Saharan Africa. Laos had a 23% urban population, with an urban growth rate of about 4.8%, in 2005 (MPI, 2005). According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) website, it had a 34.3% urban population and a 4.4% urbanization rate in 2011 (see Table 5). These figures indicate a more than 10% urban population growth from 2005 to 2011. In addition, Laos’s rate of urbanization as of 2011 was higher than those of China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Within Laos, Vientiane Capital had the largest urban population of the country‘s 17 provinces.

Laos’ smaller towns have annual growth rates of up to 4.3% but only 60% had adequate water supply and had 30% solid waste management (see Table 6). These small towns have a critical administrative functions such as serving as provincial and local capitals, and suffer from the problems associated with serving as economic links between the rural and urban areas. The economic links between the national and international markets are the important elements and include central transport depots and agricultural processing locations. Nevertheless, there is very little infrastructure investment: piped water is scarce; sanitation has an only 50% developed status; roads are largely unpaved; and solid waste is vastly uncollected. This leaves silt on roads, garbage blocking the drains, which cause flooding and the spread of disease (UNGA, 2001).

Land use and management policy is also a key issue in Vientiane Capital. The demand for land in urban areas is increasing, and the urban boundaries are not clearly defined. The urban areas expand rapidly, with unbalanced growth patterns. The land markets have been individually driven by small and large private businesses. The operating systems are not efficient, effective, or stable. There are many illegal land developments because it is hard to register and develop land due to the lack of clear property rights.

To address these limitations in realizing efficient urban management in the increasingly urbanized society, the Lao government launched a decentralization program in 1995. This program has been implemented only in Vientiane Capital and four other large provinces. Vientiane Capital recorded a concentrated population growth of about 134 person/km² in 1995. The density of the population around the inner area with in a 5km radius was 3,475 person/km² in 1995 and 3,790 person/km² in 2005 (see Table 7), with an annual growth rate of only 0.91%. In contrast, within 5-10km and farther than 10km from the central area, the annual growth rate shows a higher percentage. These figures indicate that Vientiane Capital is rapidly growing and that such growth is rapidly spreading to the suburban areas, with more scattered patterns.

The management process of Vientiane Capital in the early days had complicated obstacles. Before the colonial era, the urban management process was understood from the viewpoint of community structure and social organization, which was controlled by the power of group norms and the trust within the community in the region.

This paper looks at the Vientiane urban structure and organization from three main periods before 1975: (i) from the 14th century, prior to the establishment of the Lane Xang kingdom in present-day Laos; (ii) from the 14th century to 1830, referred to as the period of the cancelation of the traditional Lao regime structure by Siam; and (iii) from the colonial era to the significant era of independence in 1975.

In the ancient era, the kings and builders were clearly involved in the urban planning stage. Several cities were “planned” settlements, but most ancient cities are classified as “unplanned” cities in the literature on historical urbanism. In recent decades, many scholars assumed a simplistic scheme in which cities with a clear grid layout are classified as “planned” whereas those that lack the grid form are considered “unplanned” (Smith, 2007). The system of kingly power was used in Laos from the 14th to 19th centuries (Vilavong, 2001), where the management and organization of the city were dominated by centralized power, represented by the king. An important point is that there was only one main core region, and regions outside this area were called “sub domains” or “sub cities”. Another important point is that there was a taxation system, which had been clearly defined since the kingdom era. The inhabitants paid taxes to support the power of the empire as the king. Based on these facts, the structure of Vientiane could be simulated as a system of centralized control with decentralized city structure. The land use patterns were based on class levels, which are illustrated in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. 
Urban form of Vientiane Capital in 14^th century.

Source: Drawn by authors based on Vilavong (1964 and 2003) and Sayarath (2005)

Vientiane Capital became the center of authority in 1560. The year 1640 signaled the start of one of the civilized eras, when the top-level aristocrats moved to the core city and left the city where they resided. For this reason, the cities grew without centralized authorities. With regard to the management and authority in Vientiane during this period, it was revealed that the central power was divided into two levels: the federal and local levels. The local level consisted of three sub levels: the village, canton, and district levels.

In 1829, when Siam took control of Vientiane, the structure of the city was a combination of two main cities: Vientiane and Champasack. Siam restructured the city management system using a multi-core theory, which separated the management organization into four parts under the highest level of the Siamese kingdom (Osborne, 2002). Based on the consensus agreement between France and Siam, the existing land on the left side of Mekong River was placed under the control of the French authorities, and the right side belonged to Siam. Evidence of territorial war-city walls used by the city to defend itself from external aggressors—was supported by the discovery of an inner ring and an outer ring. From the era of the French protectorate, Vientiane Capital was managed and designated as the central authority in 1945. In this era, the form of the city was defined similarly as the elements of the “City Beautiful Movement” by Daniel Burnham in 1901 with the intention of introducing beautification, monuments, and social control to the city. During the French colonial period in the 1950s, the structure and image of the city was created in core areas by the Western builders.

The growth history and the evolution of urban societies have been found from the development direction of transport arteries (Hals, 1929). Therefore, the changes in the roads’ structures are discussed in this paper (see Table 8). The earlier structure of the city was found in the 1895 Vientiane map, showing a pattern from the shoreline of the Mekong River bank and spreading inwardly, without clear planning. It was found that in 1959, Vientiane Capital had a high growth rate, with zonal planning ideas.

Period	Original map*	Urban form**	Explanation
1895			Without a master plan, a simple structure plan was drawn by M. Le Bovec
1959			Master plan and defining zones of Vientiane by BCEOM consultant company
1971			Map of main organizations and institutes in Vientiane defined by the National Geographic Department
2002			The master plan, which was planned by the Urban Research Institute (URI)

After independence in 1975, Laos has been a politically stable country with a centralized, one-party system led by the President, Prime Minister, and Politburo Party. In an effort to spur the country’s development, the Lao government has undertaken several policy measures that have had mixed impacts on the country’s urban development. One effort has been to resettle villages to lowland areas that are closer to public services. This policy, however, has put a strain on the communities as the resettled people struggled to adapt to new contexts and environments with respect to their means of livelihood.

There have been efforts to eliminate slash-and-burn upland cultivation with the aim of achieving sustainable agriculture and preserving the country’s natural resources as well as making room for the future production lands.

Since the development facets in 1986, the command and control economic system was changed to an economic-mechanism system. In this period, the master plan of Vientiane Capital was launched under the name “Schéma Directeur et d’Aménagement Urbain de Vientiane” and was supported by the United Nations Center for Housing and Human Settlement (UNCHS or UN-Habitat). It focused on three main factors: (i) demographic trends (including population forecasts and their implications for land consumption in the capital area); (ii) socioeconomic trends (covering employ- ment, income, housing, and migration); and (iii) physical growth trends in the city (covering the evolution of spatial-development patterns, the land market, roads and bulk infrastructure, and public facilities) (Rabe et al., 2007). By 1994, Vientiane’s master plan, which was designated by the World Heritage Office (WHO), had included about 100 villages in its goal of managing and controlling the growth and dispersion of urban areas. In 1995, the government faced a problem related with rapid growth of population increase in 160 villages on the new master plan. It had only been four years when the number of villages increased to 189 in 1999 and the master plan was required to cover more specific central areas (Figure 3). Through the matching of an old map and the new structure of the urban form from 1895 to 2002 (Table 8), it was noted that both the centralized growth and dispersed growth had been influenced by the structure of the social, political, and economic factors in each related period.

Fig. 3. 
Map of urban expansion of Vientiane Capital, 1994-1999

Source: Redrawn by the authors based on Urban Research Institute (2010)

Note: Master plan of 100 villages in 1994, 160 villages in 1995, and 189 villages in 1999.