Adaptive capacity to flood of communities in North Central Vietnam

Case studies in Yen Ho commune, Duc Tho district, Ha Tinh province and Hung Nhan commune,

Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province

Man Quang HuyFaculty of GeographyVNU - University of ScienceHanoi, VietnamEmail: 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

CVCA (climate vulnerability and capacity analysis) methodology of CARE

- hazard mapping

- historical timeline

- seasonal calendar

- group discussion to identify the top problems related to flood’s impacts

Assessing adaptive capacityHuman 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

Financial capital Income, loans, rate of agricultural employment in every household

Adaptive capacity of

househoulds

Questionnaire

Community surveys

Adaptive capacity of

communities

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.

Assessing adaptive capacity

Nghe An

Ha Tinh

Lam River

Hung Nhan

commune

Yen Hocommu

ne

Lam River

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

Case study areas

Season of crops and flood in two case study areas

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)

Impact of flood Hung Nhan

Yen Ho

Cultivation

Decrease productivity (of plants) 55 71

Totally lost crop in some typical years

89 60

More diseases of plants 37 29

Slow growth (of plants) 13 13

Cattle and poultry breeding

Reduce natural foods 53 63

Increase disease 34 50

Lower productivity of cattle and poultry

29 46

Destroy cages 29 43

Received impacts of flood in Hung Nhan and Yen Ho (% households)

Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of communities

Livelihood of households in Yen Ho and Hung Nhan

Human capitalPhysical capital

Hung Nhan Yen Ho

Human capital-Education level of household headers(Job, Indigenous knowledge)

- 62.5% graduated from secondary - 23.6% graduated from high schools

- 45.5% graduated from secondary - 35.8% graduated from high schools

Physical capital-Roads

- Irrigation works-Housing + tile-roofed houses: + two-floored houses:-Means of transport + Motobikes: + Wagon: + Boats:

-only main roads connecting communes are paved and a tiny proportion of concrete roads inside the villages, the remainders are dirt road-failed to promote efficient

- 74.8%- 6.1%

-76/9%-48%-46.6%

-100% of concrete roads

-failed to promote efficient

- 51.4%-3.2%

-72.2%-48%-7.5%

Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of communitiesLivelihood of households in Yen Ho and

Hung NhanFinancial capital: average income,

accessibility to loans and debt levels

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

Average income/person in the villages (applying Vietnamese poverty standard)

Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of communitiesLivelihood of households in Yen Ho and

Hung NhanFinancial 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 communitiesLivelihood of households in Yen Ho and

Hung NhanNatural 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 communitiesLivelihood of households in Yen Ho and

Hung NhanSocial capital:

- Mostly people did not appreciate participation in social groups.

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.

Result 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of communities

Chòi (hut) for cows and buffalos in Hung Nhan

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 2. Adaptive capacity to flood of communities

Result 3. Identifying the top priorities in each communityFinding 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.

DISCUSSIONSmethod 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.