Vo Van, Tuan: Vulnerability Assessment of Different Socio-Economic Groups to Floods in the Rural Mekong Delta of Vietnam. - Bonn, 2014. - Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
Online-Ausgabe in bonndoc: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:5n-35096
@phdthesis{handle:20.500.11811/6036,
urn: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:5n-35096,
author = {{Tuan Vo Van}},
title = {Vulnerability Assessment of Different Socio-Economic Groups to Floods in the Rural Mekong Delta of Vietnam},
school = {Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn},
year = 2014,
month = sep,

note = {The objective of the study is to identify and understand the different factors that characterize vulnerability towards slow-onset floods in rural areas of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. This thesis aims to explore losses and harm that people experience through floods; to achieve this, criteria and indicators to assess vulnerability have been developed. Emphasis is given to how varying socio-economic groups access and use their livelihood resources to build livelihood strategies in the context of floods. It also explores the influence shaped by the transforming processes and structures in their flood response. Factors such as wealth, land ownership, main sources of income and settlement durations are identified as being key drivers of vulnerability to floods in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore and triangulate information in order to ensure reliability and consistency of data collected. A literature review and secondary data analysis provided the trends of floods, flood damage patterns, land use alternatives, major flows of resettlement and flood-related policies. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions as well as participatory methods such as key informant panels, transect walk, timeline analysis, wealth ranking and seasonal calendars were applied to understand flood vulnerability of local residents. Three hundred and seventy households located in riverbank and inland areas in the Plain of Reeds: An Hoa and Phu Hiep Communes, Tam Nong District in Dong Thap Province were interviewed using standardized questionnaires. According to these explorations, the relevant indicators and their weighting which were verified by involved stakeholders’ perceptions was constructed, and using this approach, vulnerability at the household level was estimated.
The indicators were identified by using scientific literature and primary data. The indicators were then consolidated and validated through household interviews, flood damage reports, expert interviews and focus group discussions with people exposed to floods. In-depth interviews during the field research enabled the research to probe deeper research findings and explore main relations among determinants influencing flood vulnerability.
Theoretically and conceptually, the study is based on a modified framework, which is essentially associated with the BBC Conceptual Framework and the Sustainable Livelihood Framework. In order to get a more in-depth understanding of the framework components, the study draws on theoretical ideas related to disasters, disaster risk management, coupled human-environmental systems, and institutional economics.
Access to land that is key to reducing flood vulnerability is also heavily modified by the transforming structures and processes including physical attributes such as embankments, relocation, agricultural intensification and socio-economic reforms. There are various indicators influencing flood vulnerability however, with regard to the selected indicators for this study they are related to flood-related exposure, susceptibility, capacity of response and rural livelihoods. Seven indicators were found to be the most important drivers of flood vulnerability: (1) access to agricultural land, (2) access to residential land, (3) type of house, (4) household assets, (5) demographic composition of household, (6) remittance and (7) income dependency.
A modified framework based on vulnerability and livelihood approaches has provided conceptual means to explore the subject matter from a holistic perspective comprising not only objective facts but also subjective meanings of flood implications. This is because vulnerability assessment can enable comparison of the flood vulnerability of different socio-economic groups. The various research tools to assess flood vulnerability, particularly participatory qualitative approaches, further helped to identify root causes of vulnerability to floods. The study enables policy makers and researchers to identify specific measures, such as flood-based physical assets and knowledge enhancement, livelihood improvement for the landless and the relocated, as well as flood risk reduction strategies to reduce the overall vulnerability of different socio-economic groups in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.},

url = {https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/6036}
}

The following license files are associated with this item:

InCopyright