Adaptive capacity mapping of Vietnam response to risk from tropical cyclones

The impacts of climate change and natural hazards have threatened communities in various ways. Vulnerability and resilience of the communities and environment are not evenly distributed spatiotemporally since they are influenced by internal physical/structural features and external dynamics. An understanding of the involving factors of the process of perception, formulation, evaluation, and response by the exposed units to manage tropical cyclone risk is required to narrow the gap between the expected response and the actual response. The spatial analysis of positive ability response is normally known as adaptive capacity, which is key information to design preparedness plans or adaptation strategies. In this study, Vietnam, located in Southeast Asia is selected as a testbed to apply an analysis framework proposed. With long coastal line and unique geographical, topographical, and climate features lead Vietnam to become one of the most hazard-prone countries in the Asia-Pacific region vulnerable to the threatening of tropical cyclones or storms and flooding. Correspondingly, Vietnam has been ranked among the top five countries most affected by climate change (IPCC, 2007; World Bank, 2011). Here, a framework is proposed to evaluate the adaptive capacity to tropical cyclones by using geospatial techniques. The framework considers different dimensions that are represented by three main components including social sensitivity, community adaptive capacity, and community exposure to tropical cyclones. The results of our study provide crucial information for national issues under the context of climate change adaption and mitigation, and disaster management. The framework can be applied to the other regional and global scales to reduce the vulnerability degree of community and economic lost in response to extreme events and natural hazards nowadays and in the future.

Keywords: adaptive capacity; tropical cyclones; Vietnam; geospatial techniques; risk; natural hazards, vulnerability