9 - Urban Disaster Risk Reduction in Vietnam: Gaps, Challenges, and Approaches

Abstract

Urbanization is bringing many new pressures to communities. For example, disasters pose major risks to dikes and other embankments along rivers; energy demand is driving the development of dams and hydroelectricity systems; greenhouse gas emissions are rising; there are more frequent and intense extreme weather events and continuing sea-level rise (SLR); and disasters are having a greater impact on safety and infrastructure. With these and other issues, many communities in urban and peri-urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters. Efforts in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Vietnam have primarily focused on rural areas and often employ effective community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) methods. Current disaster management policies and efforts focus largely on emergency response and disaster recovery, and less so on risk reduction, prevention, and adaptation. This chapter analyzes those gaps and challenges, and provides an urban resilience approach for urban DRR with some case studies from the cities of Da Nang and Can Tho in Vietnam.