Climate change and rural vulnerability in Vietnam: An analysis of livelihood vulnerability index

Abstract

Vietnam is a densely populated country, with the majority of its impoverished people living in rural areas. These people lack facilities and means of self-protection against risks, especially natural disasters related to climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to study the livelihood vulnerability under climate change in rural regions of Vietnam. The study was based on the original Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and LVI-IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) combined with the use of dataset from the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) in 2018. by using the dataset from the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) in 2018. The database is composed of 1,852 rural households in 12 provinces in Vietnam and considers socio-demographic profile, livelihood, health, food, social networks, water status, natural disasters, and climate variability. The results show that the North Central and South Central Coasts are the most vulnerable regions, with a lower LVI score (0.261) but higher LVI-IPCC score (0.012); this is mainly due to higher exposure to disasters—such as floods, sea storms, and tropical depressions—which heavily affect people’s livelihood. The Red River Delta, the Northern Midlands and Mountains, and the Central Highlands are moderately vulnerable. Moreover, the research outcome indicates that the Red River Delta and the Mekong River Delta were more vulnerable in terms of the sensitivity factor due to a higher vulnerability score on food and water components, especially drought and saltwater intrusions