New research on development issues in Vietnam Volume 9, number 24

Governing Cross-Border Effects of Disasters in Urbanising Asia: What Do We Know?

Matthias Garschagen. in: Crossing Borders: Governing Environmental Disasters in a Global Urban Age in Asia and the Pacific, Springer Singapore, Singapore, 2018, pp. 59-78.

Abstract: This chapter reviews the existing literature on cross-boundary effects of disasters in Asia and their governance, paying particular attention to the role of urbanization. It considers scientific literature as well as reports by global, regional and national organizations and business actors, including, for instance, the insurance industry, trade associations and disaster risk management agencies. In addition, it analyses secondary statistical data, specifically examining the effects of selected, past disasters in East, South and Southeast Asia. The analysis shows that current knowledge on cross-border effects of disasters in Asia is very uneven in terms of, both, regions and themes. The paper therefore clearly identifies knowledge gaps and research needs. Apart from a better understanding of the material and physical cross-border effects, e.g. on food prices or migration flows, these pertain especially to the question of how disaster risk can be better mitigated and managed in an integrative manner. Even established regional platforms such as ASEAN face severe challenges in capacitating and implementing their policy frameworks for regional disaster preparedness and response. The chapter explores key barriers and offers first heuristics for the formulation of recommendations.

Using Multi-Criteria Analysis to Evalutate the Level of Urbanization in Ho Chi Minh City from 2004 to 2012.

Nguyen Duong Minh Hoang and Nguyen Hoang My Lan, 2017.

Free full text https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lan_Nguyen22/publication/281731448_Using_MCA_and_GIS_to_evaluate_the_level_of_urbanization_in_Ho_Chi_Minh_City_from_2004_to_2012/links/5631d2c908ae506cea679c11/Using-MCA-and-GIS-to-evaluate-the-level-of-urbanization-in-Ho-Chi-Minh-City-from-2004-to-2012.

Abstract: The rapid urbanization process brings benefits and challenges to economic and social development in Ho Chi Minh City. Understanding the characteristics of this process helps the city's managers to understand and control properly. Thus, the objective of this research is to evaluate the level of urbanization in Ho Chi Minh City from 2004 to 2012, particularly, the urbanization level is examined in 2005, 2008 and 2012. By Multi-criteria Analysis method, urbanization is evaluated in three main criteria: Economic and social growth, Social services development and Technical infrastructure development. Based on Analytical Hierarchy Process method, the weights of those criteria are 0.411, 0.328 and 0.261, respectively. Due to total score, urbanization level is divided into 4 rates: high (80 – 100), slightly high (65 – 80), medium (50 – 65) and low (less than 50). About half of 24 districts reached at high and slightly high rate of development in period of 2004 – 2012. And trend of urbanization in Ho Chi Minh City is toward north east – south west axis, resulted from spatial statistics by Standard Deviational Ellipse tool in ArcGIS software.

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Urban Transformations Across Borders: The Interwoven Influence of Regionalisation, Urbanisation and Climate Change in the Mekong Region.

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the Mekong region, a part of the world that is going through one of the most dramatic periods of urbanisation and economic integration, while also being highly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. Drawing on climate vulnerability assessments conducted in cities in Thailand and Vietnam under a regional programme, the chapter illustrates the significance of approaching disaster risk and climate change through the combination of systems and people-oriented approaches, rather than territorial approaches for understanding the regional and trans-boundary dimensions of climate vulnerability and disaster risk. The chapter considers the ways in which urbanisation creates new patterns of vulnerability and risk that go beyond spatial impacts of specific events. In addition to the agglomeration of assets and resources in specific physical locations, contemporary urbanization depends on complex systems of physical infrastructure and technology for generating services around water, food, energy, transport, and communications. Increasingly these urban systems networked and interlinked, increasingly at regional scales. The ways in which urban people interact with systems to derive benefits are significant factors in shaping both wellbeing and vulnerabilities. Fragility or failure in such systems can have far-reaching implications beyond the location of a specific event. Approaching urban systems as interlinked and networked, we consider cascading impacts of shocks and crises at multiple scales, often beyond the administrative boundaries of cities stretching across national boundaries, and how vulnerabilities and risks are distributed unevenly across different groups of people. In this chapter, we argue that such an approach to risk allows for identification of a range of multiple scale policy interventions, including those at the trans-boundary scale for disaster social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation; and ultimately for setting a policy agenda for inclusive, transformative urban futures.

Social development

Improving the Delivery of Social Protection through ICT: Case Studies in Mongolia, Nepal, and Viet Nam.

Free full text http://www.adb.org/publications/improving-delivery-social-protection-ict-mongolia-nepal-vietnam.

Abstract: Integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in social protection is driven by the demand for more accurate and efficient service. It helps increase coverage of social protection programs and empower beneficiaries. This working paper makes a case for investing in ICT to improve the delivery services of social protection programs. ICT for social protection will improve efficiency, transparency, and empower citizens by opening up areas of information and social engagement that can influence policies and resources devoted for social protection. Some of the enabling factors for faster take-up of ICT in social protection programs are present in Mongolia, Nepal, and Viet Nam.

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Water

Drinking Water Options in the Context of Arsenic Contamination in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

Vo Thanh Danh, Huynh Viet Khai, Nguyen My Hoa and Nguyen Van Cong. EEPSEA, 2017.

Free full text http://www.eepsea.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=586:drinking-water-options-in-the-context-of-arsenic-contamination-in-the-vietnamese-mekong-delta&Itemid=192.

Abstract: This study aims to assess households’ choices regarding safe drinking water and water treatment technology in the context of arsenic (As) contamination in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Based on the Protection Motivation Theory, a predictive model of As-poison-related health protective behavior was designed via a cognitive mediating process with threat and coping appraisals of intention action choice in safe drinking water by household. Five factors affected a household’s decision to use As treatment technology: educational status, duration of residence, family size As knowledge, and ethnicity. At a discount rate of 3% and timeline of 10 years, costs per disability-adjusted life years avoided saved by using sand filter and treatment equipment were USD 1.29 and USD 1.13, respectively. Thus, using treatment equipment method is the best choice for preventing As-related diseases. Household preferences regarding water treatment methods are differing depending on what criteria are given top priority. To improve safe water use in arsenic-contaminated areas, the study recommends launching a public awareness campaign, accelerating existing rural pipe water program, promoting safe water treatment, providing the public with updated and accurate information on the state of As contamination, and seeking additional safe water sources such as rainwater and treated groundwater.

Governance conditions for adaptive freshwater management in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

T. P. Ha, Carel Dieperink, Van Pham Dang Tri, Henriëtte S. Otter and Piet Hoekstra. Journal of Hydrology, 2018, volume 557, pp. 116-127.

Free full text https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169417308429.

Abstract: The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) is a region of utmost importance to Vietnam’s national food security. However, the availability of required freshwater resources (from both surface and groundwater sources) is currently under great threats due to dry season salinity intrusion, surface water pollution, and over-exploitation of groundwater. Global climate change, sea level rise, and upstream and in situ development activities may worsen the situation. Assuming that adaptive management could be a promising strategy to address the increasingly complex and unpredictable water-related problems in the VMD, we design and apply a framework to identify the extent to which the governance regime in this region exhibits conditions that are likely to promote adaptive freshwater management. Using both primary and secondary data, our analysis reveals that the prospects for adaptive water management in the study area are limited since several conditions were not present. We observe among others limitations in vertical and horizontal integration and public participation, restraints in knowledge and information sharing, inadequate policy development and implementation, and insufficient diversification of financial resources. Following our findings, we conclude the paper with recommendations both for national, regional and local policy interventions and for future research. [Ha-etal-2018.pdf].

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Membrane distillation for seawater desalination applications in Vietnam: Potential and challenges.

Free full text http://www.vjs.ac.vn/index.php/jst/article/viewFile/10715/8964.

Abstract: Desalination of seawater and brackish water can be a practical approach to augmenting fresh water resources and hence mitigating the fresh water scarcity in Vietnam. Current seawater desalination plants utilize either thermal distillation or pressure-driven membrane separation technologies. Membrane distillation (MD) is a hybrid process, in which thermal distillation is combined with membrane separation. The MD process inherits notable attributes from both thermal distillation and membrane separation, including super quality distillate, low susceptibility to the feed osmotic pressure, negligible feed water pre-treatment, low investment and operational costs, and process modularization. Thus, MD has emerged as a promising technology platform for small-scale seawater desalination applications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the seawater MD desalination process. The fundamentals of the MD process including configurations, membrane modules, membrane properties, and heat and mass transfer mechanisms together with approaches to enhancing heat and mass transfer are first systematically reviewed and analyzed. Then, the potential and challenges (e.g. most notably membrane wetting and fouling and energy consumption) of the seawater MD desalination process are thoroughly discussed. The analyses and discussions provided in this review paper help shed light on the viability of MD for fresh water provision in remote coastal and rural areas in Vietnam.

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