Man Quang Huy
Faculty of Geography
VNU - University of Science
Hanoi, Vietnam
Email: mqhuy@vnu.edu.vn
Objectives
1. investigating impacts of water disasters on affected
communities in Central provinces with case studies in
2 communes of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces
2. analyzing community – based adaptation of affected
communities based on bottom-up approach
3. identifying the top priorities in each community to
increase its adaptive capacity
Climate change adaptation approaches
- Top-down
- Bottom-up
Community- based adaptation (CBA)
 There is no universally accepted definition of CBA
 The definition that is most popular:
“CBA is a community-led process based on communities’
priorities, needs, knowledge, and capacities, which should
empower people to plan for and cope with the impacts of
climate change” (Reid et al 2010)
Adaptive capacity
The ability of a system to adjust to climate change
(including climate variability and extremes) to moderate
potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to
cope with the consequences (IPCC).
Vulnerability = f (exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity)
IPCC
Assessing adaptive capacity
Adaptive
capacity of
househoulds
Human capital
Knowledge of climate risks, conservation
agriculture skills, education
Social capital
Support from government in agricultural
produce, farmer-based organizations,
participatory of households’ members in
social organizations
Physical capital
Furniture, production tools
Natural capital
Cultivated land, aquaculture land
Questionnaire
Financial capital Income, loans, rate of agricultural
employment in every household
CVCA (climate vulnerability and capacity analysis)
methodology of CARE
Adaptive Community
capacity of surveys
communities
- hazard mapping
- historical timeline
- seasonal calendar
- group discussion to identify the top problems related to
flood’s impacts
Assessing adaptive capacity
 Household survey (August 2013): 164 households in
Hung Nhan and 190 households in Yen Ho
 Community surveys (June 2014): 20 key informants in
Hung Nhan and 15 key informants in Yen Ho being
representatives for different income groups in the
villages participated in two separated survey.
Nghe An
Lam River
Ha Tinh
Hung
Nhan
commun
e
Lam
River
Yen Ho
commun
e
Case study areas
Hung Nhan commune
Yen Ho commune
674ha, 3856 inhabitants, the most part
live based on agriculture.
746.25ha, 4536 inhabitants (2011), the
most part live based on agriculture.
Economic structure: agricultural sector
53%, industrial sector: 30%, service
sector: 17% (2012).
Economic structure: agricultural sector
50%, industrial sector: 30%, service
sector: 20% (2013).
Be affected by the Lam River
Be affected by the Lam River
Causes of floods: completely outside the
dyke
Cause of floods: the lowest land in Duc
Tho district
Season of crops and flood in two case study areas
1
First paddy crop
Second paddy crop
Corn, potatoes,
peanut,…crop
Flood season
Storm season
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Result 1. Impact of flood in Hung Nhan and
Yen Ho (perception of community)
 81.9% interviewed-households in Yen Ho and
95.3% in Hung Nhan ranked flood impacts as
strongest in compared with other natural disasters
(salinization, sea level rise, extreme cold, extreme
hot, drought and heavy rain).
Result 1. Impact of flood in Hung Nhan and
Yen Ho (perception of community)
Received impacts of flood in Hung Nhan and Yen Ho (% households)
Impact of flood
Cultivation
Decrease productivity (of plants)
Totally lost crop in some typical years
More diseases of plants
Slow growth (of plants)
Cattle and poultry breeding
Reduce natural foods
Increase disease
Lower productivity of cattle and poultry
Destroy cages
Hung Nhan
Yen Ho
55
89
37
13
71
60
29
13
53
34
29
29
63
50
46
43
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung
Nhan
 Human capital
 Physical capital
Human capital
-Education level of
household headers
(Job, Indigenous
knowledge)
Physical capital
-Roads
- Irrigation works
-Housing
+ tile-roofed houses:
+ two-floored houses:
-Means of transport
+ Motobikes:
+ Wagon:
+ Boats:
Hung Nhan
Yen Ho
- 62.5% graduated from
secondary
- 23.6% graduated from high
schools
- 45.5% graduated from
secondary
- 35.8% graduated from high
schools
-only main roads connecting -100% of concrete roads
communes are paved and a
tiny proportion of concrete
roads inside the villages, the
remainders are dirt road
-failed to promote efficient
-failed to promote efficient
- 74.8%
- 6.1%
- 51.4%
-3.2%
-76/9%
-48%
-46.6%
-72.2%
-48%
-7.5%
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung
Nhan
 Financial capital: average income, accessibility to loans
and debt levels
Average income/person in the villages (applying Vietnamese
poverty standard)
Average income/person
Yen Ho (%)
Hung Nhan (%)
Poor (under 400,000vnd)
17.3
39.7
Nearly poor (401,000-500,000vnd)
13.3
12.3
The remainder
69.4
48.0
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung
Nhan
 Financial capital: average income, accessibility to loans
and debt levels
Debt level of households
Debt level
Yen Ho (%)
Hung Nhan (%)
5-20 million VND
47.9
67.2
21-50 million VND
19.7
20
51-80 million VND
8.5
3.1
More than 80 million VND
8.5
3.1
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung
Nhan
 Natural capital: Land and land ownership, inequality
in access land
Proportion of owning agricultural land area
Debt level
Yen Ho (%)
Hung Nhan (%)
Owning > 2500m2
67.3
49.6
Owning < 1500m2
18.1
22.7
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung
Nhan
 Social capital:
- Mostly people did not appreciate participation in
social groups.
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Institutional adaptation
- The term “institutions” covers not only formal political
structures but also the more diffuse “rule of the game” and social
and cultural norms.
- Building houses in higher height in comparison to the past since
historical flood in 2010 (at least above water level in flood).
- Choosing alternatives in low-lying paddies
- Cultivating short-day rice varieties in the summer-autumn
season to harvest by full moon in July (the lunar calendar).
Despite low quality in comparison with long-day rice varieties,
short-day varieties have still been viewed as appropriate choices.
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Hung Nhan
- poor household can get a loan of 10 million VND without
interest rate in 10 years to build “chòi” (hut) as a shelter of
cows and buffalos.
- Building a community house in high land to be shelter for
elderly and children in flood in 2011.
- Organizing maneuvers to response to flood and storm every
fifth year. Each maneuver costs roughly 100 million VND,
however district just funds for this activity a tenth of cost ->
cooperated to Hung Chau commune to conduct the
maneuver.
Chòi (hut) for cows and buffalos in Hung Nhan
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Yen Ho
- restructuring the plant and livestock.
+ peanut -> planting corn in some areas due to not good
quality soil since 2003. In spite of being higher price
when selling, peanut takes more effort to care than
corn.
+ cultivating rice -> farming fish in low-lying fields for
the reason of high economic efficiency
+ cultivating high quality rice
Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of
communities
 Main livelihood of people in both areas is agriculture,
in which, cultivation plays decisive role -> unstable
 poor households have low access to financial
capital -> more dependent on their membership of
social
 Yen Ho’s residents have better livelihood
Result 3. Identifying the top priorities in each
community
 Finding out alternative livelihood strategies to diversify income




-
For example, in Hung Nhan, developing breeding cows is a feasible
one because of its high economic efficiency, whereas, aquaculture
is an appropriate option in Yen Ho.
More finance supports (to get larger loans/credits from banks)
Technique supports in production
In Hung Nhan, increasing accessibility to evacuation of people
and assets in flood (improving road system)
In Yen Ho,
finalizing the part of ditch along the dyke running through the
Village 5 to eliminate petechial fever and pollution in rain season
local authority needs to check and change regulations in land
lease policy to help farmer promote their production.
DISCUSSIONS
 method of assessing adaptive capacity
 measuring losses due to flood and comparing losses (an
important aspect of defining adaptive capacity)
 Human factors causing flood are not taken into account in
this study
 Policy “New rural program” (top-down)
 Different societies face different threats, and have different
resources as well as coping mechanisms. The approach here
can be applied in other circumstances to have insight into
adaptation strategies in each locality.