Flood hazard and resilience in the watershed Nhat Le–Kien Giang in Vietnam

Abstract

Flood is the most dangerous of natural disasters. It is responsible for considerable loss of life and economic damage, especially in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam. Improving community resilience can both reduce damage and alleviate the economic burden of communities in the aftermath of floods. Flood damage reduction strategies in Vietnam mainly focus on flood hazard and often neglect to take into account community resilience. The objective of this article is the development of a theoretical framework to assess the relationship between flood hazard and community resilience in the Nhat Le-Kien Giang River watershed. Flood hazard was calculated by integrate flood depth and flood velocity applying MIKE FLOOD modeling and the AHP , while data on the resilience of communities was collected via questionnaire. A total of 70 households in Hong Thuy commune were selected by the random sampling technique. The results showed that the high-hazard region is concentrated along the river like Tan Ninh, Gia Ninh, Hong Thuy, and Hoa Thuy communes. It also illustrated how access to resources, prevention strategies, and community perceptions are important factors to improve the resilience of communities. The results represent an important theoretical framework that can be used to support decision-makers in building appropriate damage-reduction strategies.

Keywords

• flood hazard
• resilience
• hong thuy
• quang bình