Vietnam

Understanding Vietnam’s Risks

Vietnam is one of the most hazard-prone countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. This rapidly developing country is highly exposed to a variety of other natural hazards, such as typhoons, floods, droughts, sea water intrusion, landslides and forest fires. Typhoons and floods are the most frequent and devastating of these, resulting in numerous casualties and damaged livelihoods. With a coastline of 3,200 kilometers, an estimated 70 percent of the population live in coastal areas and low-lying deltas, and therefore have increased exposure to flooding risk. Further, a 2007 assessment report of the World Bank lists Vietnam as one of the five countries in the world most affected by climate change. For example, one meter rise in the sea level would partially inundate one commune out of five—or five percent of the national land area, 11 percent of the population, and seven percent of the agricultural land.

Sharing Data

OpenDRI engagements through the pilot activities of the Building Urban Resilience Program have been underway since 2011. The current focus is supporting the Can Tho Comprehensive Flood Risk Management Master Plan project, where critical geospatial flood risk data are being collected and can be leveraged to demonstrate OpenDRI concepts and enhance GIS capacity at the subnational scale. At the national level, a component of the Vietnam Managing Natural Hazards Project is the improvement of information systems for better data sharing in order to strengthen disaster preparedness. This activity should be implemented by early 2017. There are also good opportunities to reinforce the OpenDRI capacity in the country and create linkages with existing projects in other sectors such as through Urban Upgrading in Can Tho and Transportation Management in Haiphong.

Collecting Data

In partnership with Code for Resilience, OpenDRI has also supported community mapping activities in Vietnam.