<p>Identifying optimal sites for Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) is a significant challenge in densely urbanized areas globally. Major cities in Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), have been increasingly grappling with urban flooding and drainage challenges due to rapid urbanization and climate variability. This study proposes a Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) based approach to prioritize sites for retention pond (RP), one of the most potentially SUDS components, in the Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe (NLTN) basin of HCMC. The approach considered “feasibility” and “demand” as the core criteria for analysis. Of those, six feasibility criteria, including slope, depth to water table, roads, rivers, land use, and soil properties, and three demand criteria, including proximity to flood-prone areas, runoff coefficient, and land surface temperature, were used to determine optimal RP sites. All criteria were weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process based on expert judgements. Results indicated that the southern area of the NLTN basin is the top priority for RP sites (priority scores ranging from 0.50 to 0.62). Furthermore, distance to streams, depth to water table, and land use type were considered as the most influential factors to determine the priority RP sites. The proposed method demonstrates significant potential to enhance spatial planning strategies for SUDS adoption in urban settings, both in Vietnam and worldwide.</p>