Phong Tran, Ph.D.
Researcher
United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD)
5th Floor, Hito-mirai-kan,1-5-2 Wakinohama-Kaigan-Dori,
Chuo-ku, Kobe, 651-0073, JAPAN
Tel: +81 78 262 5564
Fax: +81 78 262 5568
Email: tranphon@hawaii.edu
Phong Tran's CV

Phong Tran is a researcher of the United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD). He has been conducting research on environment, poverty and disaster linkages in developing countries, particularly in Viet Nam. Phong has more than five years working as a research consultant for several projects of the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and INGOs in Viet Nam. He obtained his master degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Hawaii University, USA and his bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Architecture, Ho Chi Minh City. With his multidisciplinary background, he tries to promote an integrated approach in disaster risk management, which focuses not only on structural measures but also on non-structural measures.

Recent catastrophic floods in Viet Nam have been increasingly linked to land use and forest cover changes in the uplands. Despite the doubts that many scientists have expressed on such nexus, this common perception if on the one side prompted positive forest protection/reforestation programs, on the other produced often-unwarranted blame of upland communities for their forest management practices. This study analyzed the disparity between public perceptions and scientific evidences relating the causes of catastrophic floods. The former was drawn on the results of the questionnaire and focus group discussions surveys with key informants in case studied mountainous areas, and the latter was based on GIS and remote sensing analysis of land cover change and the statistical analysis of hydro-meteorological data of the Huong river basin. The results indicate that there is a gap in the common beliefs and the actual relationship between forest cover change and catastrophic flood. Indeed in the study area there was a significant change in land cover during the period of 1989 to 2008, yet, this change appears not to have carried significant role on the catastrophic flood levels. In case of catastrophic floods, 71% of the variance of flood level in the downstream areas was accounted for by the variance in rainfall. Evidences from this study showed that the significant increasing trend of catastrophic flood impacts in the Huong river basin was mainly due to climate change/variability and to the development of main roads and dyke infrastructures in the lowlands. Hence, forest management policies and programs shaped on the common assumption that forest degradation is the main cause of catastrophic flood in the downstream areas, should be reassessed to avoid unnecessary hardship and poverty on upland people.

This article explores the impacts of floods on the economy, environment, and society and tries to clarify the rural community’s coping mechanism to flood disasters in Central Viet Nam. It focuses on the social aspects of flood risk perception that shapes the responses to floods. The research findings revealed that flooding is an essential element for a coastal population, whose livelihood depend on productive functions of cyclical floods. The findings also revealed that floods, causing losses and damages, often inhibited economic development. The surveyed communities appeared to have evolved coping mechanisms to reduce the negative impacts of the floods, yet these coping mechanisms are under pressure due to environmental degradation. Integrated flood risk management is considered as a suitable paradigm for coping with flood disasters.

Disasters and environmental degradation create serious problems all around the world. They are inherently linked, but little attention is paid to their interaction, particularly at local levels. The degree of integration of disaster management and risk analysis with environmental management programs in relation to human vulnerability has been examined in Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Viet Nam. Unsustainable agricultural practices, and inappropriate development programs have contributed substantially to the increase of disaster risks. On the other hand, disasters damage natural resources and reduce environmental quality, indirectly contributing to increasing poverty which in turn, adds to the vulnerability of both natural and human systems, so further increasing disaster losses. Notwithstanding, in Viet Nam, there is a big gap between disaster and environment management policies and programs. In order to bridge the gap, an integrated approach in which environment-disaster linkage, rural–urban linkage, and poverty are brought into focus as core aspects of disaster management.

Linking community knowledge with modern techniques to record and analyze risk related data is one way of engaging and mobilizing community capacity. Realizing the important roles of local community in hazard identification and assessment, Development Workshop carried out a participatory Geographic Information System hazard-mapping project in Viet Nam. The purpose was to prepare detail flood risk maps for commune planners, villagers and other stakeholders, to identify the magnitude and extent of past flood disasters, and to make recommendations for local authorities and decision makers regarding flood risk reduction activities based on local knowledge and needs. In this paper, the authors discuss the use of GIS at local levels; the need for combining modern technology and indigenous knowledge into disaster management; and suggest a way to mobilize available human and technical resources in order to strengthen a good partnership between local communities and local and national institutions. The paper also analyses the current vulnerability of two communes by correlating hazard risk and loss/damage caused by disasters and the contribution that domestic risk maps in the community can make to reduce this risk. The disadvantages, advantages, and lessons learned from the GIS flood risk-mapping project are presented through the case study of Quang Tho Commune in Thua Thien Hue province, Central Viet Nam.

Current unplanned urbanization in developing countries is growing at an alarming rate that poses challenges for development planning and disaster risk management. The ever-growing vulnerability of large urban populations contributes to increasing urban risks in the face of which natural hazards are compounded into frequent disasters. Many recent major disasters have occurred in densely populated human settlements leading to high levels of human, economic, social and environmental loss with a consequent severely negative impact on national and regional development. In urban context, therefore, risk assessment information is very important for authorities and communities to determine what risks they face and to what degree and will determine what actions need to be taken and what resources are required. Implementing actions and accessing resources before such an assessment is undertaken may lead to waste and duplication. A comprehensive disaster risk assessment will help to identify what actions need to be taken to reduce the likelihood of a threatening event as well as actions that need to be taken to reduce the impact when an event has taken place. Risk assessment consisting of hazard analysis and vulnerability analysis is a basic instrument of disaster risk management, which is used to study the factors of disaster risk and provides the basis for planning and implementing measures to reduce risks and impacts of disasters. This chapter will focus on the concept of risk analysis and its applications and the challenges of integrating the results of risk analysis into development programs in the urban context.

This report mainly focuses on the analysis of Safer Village Plan developed by villagers under the Capacity Building for Adaptation to Climate Change (CACC) project to see how much of these plans were implemented, and to see what were the advantages as well as the obstacles encountered during the implementation process. During a two-week field research in November 2005, the author carried out 10 focus group discussions, 2 of which were at commune level and 8 at the village level. The author also received the comments on CACC project from provincial and district level, the chief of Provincial Red Cross Association and the vice chairman of Phu Vang district 

Tran, P., Marincioni, F., Shaw, R., Sarti M., An, L.V (2007). Flood Risk Management in Central Viet Nam: Challenges and Potentials. International Symposium on Mitigation & Adaptation of Climate-change-induced Natural Disasters, 20–21 September 2007, Hue city, Vietnam. 

Tran, P., Shaw, R. (2007) Towards an integrated approach of disaster and environment management. Workshop-Seminar on Understanding the Environmental Impacts of Disasters. Osaka, Japan 23 Mach 2007. Organized by UNEP and GEC.

Tran, P., Chantry, G., and Norton, J., and Nguyen, T. (2006) GIS and local knowledge in disaster management: A case study of flood risk mapping in Vietnam. Earth System Science Partnership – Open Science Conference. Beijing 9-12 November 2006. Organized by Diversitas, IHDP, WCRP, and IGBP.

Tran, P., Shaw, R. (2006) Towards an integrated approach of disaster and environment management. Building an Asia Pacific Community for Sustainable Development. Hanoi 8-12 December 2006. Organized by East West Center.

Tran, P., Marincioni, F., Shaw, R., Sarti M., An, L.V (2007). Flood Risk Management in Central Viet Nam: Challenges and Potentials. Vietnamese Symposium on Economics and Technology 2007 (VSET 2007) - October 13, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.

Tran, P., Marincioni, F., Shaw, R., Sarti M., An, L.V (2007). Flood Risk Management in Central Viet Nam: Challenges and Potentials. International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation, and Policy Response in South East Asia, February 13-15, 2008 Bali, Indonesia.

Tran, P., Shaw, R. (2008). Disaster-Environment-Development: A Scoping Study on Inter-linkages in Asian Pacific Region. Joint Workshop Integrating Environment Management and Disaster Risk Reduction, Organized by UN/ISDR, UNEP, UNCRD, ADRC, Hyogo Prefecture. May 15, 2008 Kobe, Japan.