Vulnerability, Coping and Adaptation to Water Related Hazards in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

This chapter deals with the conceptualization, identi fi cation and assessment of the vulnerability of different social groups to water related hazards in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is globally seen as one of the key hotspots of climate change related risks due to its exposure to fl oods, salinization and potential sea level rise. In order to underline the multifaceted nature of vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change the paper outlines vulnerability pro fi les of different households and socio-economic groups in selected hazard prone areas, notably in rural communities exposed to high fl oods, coastal communities exposed to saline intrusion and urban communities exposed to urban and tidal fl ooding. The different locations selected for the assessment of vulnerability allow comparing how different local context situations and hazard phenomena might in fl uence speci fi c coping and adaptation strategies. The socio-economic transformation processes and policy reforms that have affected all three locations are examined in terms of their in fl uence on vulnerability and capacities. The chapter provides a contribution to a further enhancement of methods, data bases and quality criteria for moving from an impact oriented risk assessment to a forward-looking vulnerability assessment

Adaptation and development trade-offs: fluvial sediment deposition and the sustainability of rice-cropping in An Giang Province, Mekong Delta

“…Many of these alleged negative impacts, such as increasing the inequality between the landless and the land owners (Birkmann et al 2012;Pham 2011), increasing the prevalence of pests and disease (Pham 2011), and reducing agricultural productivity ) remain largely unquantified. Two further impacts were identified in the 'Mekong Delta Plan' (MDP 2013): flood water exclusion has the potential to exacerbate downstream flooding; and the associated exclusion of sediment accretion was recognised as counterproductive to sustaining the long-term integrity of the delta.…”

“…In deltas around the globe climate change-induced eustatic sea-level rise (Church et al 2013), natural subsidence, and development-linked subsidence are outstripping the delta-building power of sediment accretion, causing deltas to 'drown' and thereby threatening the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people (Syvitski et al 2009). The supply of fluvial sediment to deltas is known to be a critical factor in maintaining delta surfaces above rising sea levels.…”

Structuring Climate Adaptation through Multiple Perspectives: Framework and Case Study on Flood Risk Management

“…Notwithstanding, there are also examples of studies taking a dual perspective such as those considering socio with other domains such as technical, economic, cultural or equityinclusiveness [16,[18][19][20]. Eriksen, et al [21] argue that there are multiple perspectives to climate adaptation and present the "Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" IPCC [22] as evidence.…”

“…Considerable research has also been conducted in the City that considers multiple perspectives-vulnerability reduction, institutional, planning, water quality, infrastructure improvements-concerning climate change and adaptation at multiple levels [19,55,58,77,81,[85][86][87][88]. The traditional engineering perspective is reflected in the recent flood risk management plans that are being prepared and considered for implementation, where the emphasis is more on avoiding floods by means of: (i) dike rings; (ii) improvements to drainage systems; (iii) and increasing the freeboard of flood defence systems, roads and houses by 50 cm [55,85,89].…”

“…Considerable research has also been conducted in the City that considers multiple perspectives-vulnerability reduction, institutional, planning, water quality, infrastructure improvements-concerning climate change and adaptation at multiple levels [19,55,58,77,81,[85][86][87][88]. The traditional engineering perspective is reflected in the recent flood risk …”