Community perceptions of social, economic and environmental impacts of flooding in central districts of Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract: The impacts of flooding on road infrastructure in Hanoi are highly disruptive, despite recent progress by the Vietnamese authorities in improving the city’s drainage systems. The GCRF–OSIRIS Project aims to optimise investment strategies to minimise the impacts of flood disasters, making disaster risk reduction more effective, by introducing operational research methods. In support of this objective, the project carried out an impact assessment in four of the city’s central districts. The assessment considered locally perceived social, economic and environmental impacts on residents, local entrepreneurs, and on visiting street vendors and transport service providers. Impacts of flooding were found to be highly gender-differentiated. When roads are flooded, women—both resident and visiting—face greater conflicts between the need to maintain their incomes and the responsibilities of caring for vulnerable family members, resulting in increased stress and increasing risks to their health. The assessment suggests that such disproportionate impacts on women could be mitigated through public education and pre-emptive planning measures.

Keywords: Flood disasters, impact assessment, disaster risk reduction, gender.

Article posted to Journal of the British Academy, volume 7, supplementary issue 2 (Cities and Infrastructure in the Global South).