Abstract
This introduction locates Central Vietnam in the international debate on climate change in developing countries, particularly in terms of socio-economic impacts. Central Vietnam is considered the most vulnerable region of the country in terms of exposure to the effects of climate change. The prospects of a rise in sea level, threats to agricultural production in coastal zones, and risks of increasing weather variability imply higher frequencies of storms, heavy rains and droughts. In order to determine how people, communities and public authorities adapt to new circumstances however, these overall challenges must be placed in a real-life context. There is a gap in the international climate change debate between, on the one hand, a reliance on technical approaches and overall mechanical modeling to countries and regions, and on the other, the perspectives that derive from local environmental data collection and socio-economic analysis. Complexities increase dramatically when working at the lower and intermediate levels: the observed processes of change are not only ascribable to climate change, but to globalization, policy changes, marketization, general economic development, and large-scale human interventions in the environment. There is an urgent need for integrated approaches, such as the building of environmental management into climate change responses, addressing the total impact of livelihood stresses in social vulnerability perspectives, and ensuring that overall adaptation policies adequately address social justice.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change thus defines climate change as ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’ (UNFCC).
- 2.
Obviously, a social vulnerability perspective has a different orientation than a technical vulnerability perspective (such as applied by the IPCC), which in general terms defines vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity and adaptability.
References
ADB (2009) (Asian Development Bank) The economics of climate change in Southeast Asia: a regional review. ADB, Mandaluyong City
Adger WN (1998) Indicators of social and economic vulnerability to climate change in Vietnam. CSERGE Working Paper GEC 98-02
Adger WN (2006) Vulnerability. Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, Norwich
Adger WN, Kelly PM (1999) Social vulnerability to climate change and the architecture of entitlements. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 4:253–266
Bankoff G (2003) Constructing vulnerability: the historical, natural and social generation of flooding in Metropolitan Manila. Disasters 27(3):224–238
Berkes F, Folke C (eds) (1998) Linking social and ecological systems. Management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Berkes F et al (2003) Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Birkmann J (2011) First- and second-order adaptation to natural hazards and extreme events in the context of climate change. Nat Hazards 58:811–840
Boateng I (2012) GIS assessments of coastal vulnerability to climate change and coastal adaptation planning in Vietnam. J Coast Conserv 16:25–36
Brooks N (2003) Vulnerability, risk and adaptation: a conceptual framework. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Working Paper 38
Bruun O (2012) Sending the right bill to the right people: climate change, environmental degradation and social vulnerabilities in Central Vietnam. Weather, Clim Soc 4(4):250–262
Chaudhuri S et al (2002) Assessing household vulnerability to poverty from cross-sectional data: a methodology and estimates from Indonesia. Department of Economics, Columbia University, Discussion Paper 0102-52
Chaudhry P, Ruysschaert G (2007) Climate change and Human Development. UNDP, Human Development Report Office Occasional Paper, 2007/46
Cutter S et al (2003) Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Soc Sci Quart 84:242–261
Dao N (2010) Dam development in Vietnam: the evolution of dam-induced resettlement policy. Water Altern 3:324–340
Eriksen S et al (2011) When not every response to climate change is a good one: Identifying principles for sustainable adaptation. Clim Dev 3:7–20 Review article
Fabres B (2011) Think global, act global in the Mekong Delta? Environmental change, civil society and NGOs. In: Stewart MA, Coclanis PA (eds) Environmental change and agricultural sustainability in the Mekong Delta. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 7–34
Folke C (2006) Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analysis. Glob Environ Change 16(3):253–267
Fortier F (2010) Taking a climate chance; a procedural critique of Vietnam’s climate change strategy. Asia Pac Viewpoint 51(3):229–247
Füssel HM, Klein RT (2006) Climate change vulnerability assessments: an evolution of conceptual thinking. Clim Change 75:301–329
Gaillard JC et al (2007) “Natural” disaster? A retrospect into the causes of the late-2004 typhoon disaster in Eastern Luzon, Philippines’. Environ Hazards 7(4):257–270
Giddens A (2009) The politics of climate change. Polity Press, Cambridge
Hewitt K (ed) (1983) Interpretations of calamity: from the viewpoint of Human ecology. Allen and Unwin, Boston
Holling CS (1973) Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23
LAV (2009a) (Look at Vietnam) Numerous hydroelectric plants built in the central highlands region have made floods in the storm-hit area more serious, experts say. www.lookatvietnam.com. 12 December
LAV (2009b) (Look at Vietnam) Deputy Minister blames reservoirs for worsening floods. www.lookatvietnam.com. 10 October
Marino E, Ribot J (2012) Special issue introduction: adding insult to injury: climate change and 5th inequities of climate intervention. Glob Environ Change 22:323–328
McElwee P (2010) The social dimensions of adaptation to climate change in Vietnam. The World Bank, Discussion Paper 17, December
Mitchell M (2009) Complexity theory: a guided tour. Oxford University Press, Oxford
MONRE (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) (2007) National target program to respond to climate change. MONRE, Hanoi
MONRE (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment)— (2009) Climate change: sea level rise scenarios for Vietnam. MONRE, Hanoi
Moser C (1998) The asset vulnerability framework: reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies. World Dev 26(1):1–19
Nelson DR et al (2007) Adaptation to environmental change: contributions of a resilience framework. Ann Rev Environ Res 32:395–419
O’Brien KL, Leichenko RM (2000) Double exposure: assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization. Glob Environ Change 10:221–232
O’Brien KL et al (2004) What’s in a word? Conflicting interpretations of vulnerability in climate change research. CICERO Working Paper
OECD (2009) OECD policy guidance on integrating climate change adaptation into development co-operation. OECD, Paris
Prigogine I (1997) The end of certainty. The Free Press, New York
Schad I et al (2012) Why do people not learn from flood disasters? Evidence from Vietnam’s northwestern mountains. Nat Hazards 62:221–241
Schipper L (2007) Climate change adaptation and development: exploring the linkages. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Working Paper 107
Scott JC (2004) Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale University Press, New Haven
Scott JC (2009) The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, New Haven
Sebesvari Z et al (2011) Climate change adaptation and agrichemicals in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. In: Stewart MA, Coclanis PA (eds) Environmental change and agricultural sustainability in the Mekong Delta. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 219–240
Sperling F et al (ed) (2002) Poverty and climate change: reducing the vulnerability of the poor through adaptation. African Development Bank
Van Tan P (2010) Study on developing detailed climate change scenarios for mid-central Vietnam. Sub-project 3, project ‘Assessing impacts of climate change on physical, environmental conditions and socio-economic development in mid-central Vietnam’. Hanoi, Institute of Geography, Vietnamese-Danish research project
WB (2010) (World Bank) Economics of adaptation to climate change: Vietnam. World Bank
WB (World Bank with Danida and Sida) (2011) Recognizing and reducing corruption risks in land management in Vietnam. National Political Publishing House, Hanoi
Williamson T, Hesseln H, Johnston M (2012) Adaptive capacity deficits and adaptive capacity of economic systems in climate change vulnerability assessment. For Policy Econ 24:48–54
Wisner B et al (2004) At risk: natural Hazards, People’s vulnerability and disasters, 2nd edn. Routledge, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bruun, O., Casse, T. (2013). Climate Change, Adaptation and the Environment in Central Vietnam. In: Bruun, O., Casse, T. (eds) On the Frontiers of Climate and Environmental Change. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35804-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35804-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35803-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35804-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)