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Climate change, deforestation and hydropower dams are contributing to environmental change in the Lower Mekong River region, the combined effects of which are felt by many rural Cambodians. How people perceive and manage the effects of environmental change will influence future adaptation strategies. The objective of this research was to investigate whether the use of a low-cost, explicitly spatial method (participatory mapping) can help identify locally relevant opportunities and challenges to climate change adaptation in small, flood-prone communities. Four villages along the banks of the Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia, were the subject of this research. To identify perceived environmental hazards and adaptive responses, eight workshops were conducted using focus-group interviews and participatory mapping. The communities’ responses highlight the evolving nature of environmental hazards, as droughts increase in perceived importance while the patterns of wet season flooding were also perceived to be changing. The attribution of the drivers of these hazards was strongly skewed towards local factors such as deforestation and less towards regional or global drivers affecting the hydrology of the Mekong and climate patterns. Combining participatory mapping with focus-group interviews allowed a greater depth of understanding of the vulnerabilities and opportunities available to communities than reliance on a single qualitative method. The study highlights the potential for a bottom-up transfer of information to strengthen existing climate change policies and tailor adaptation plans to local conditions.

The effects of environmental change are becoming more noticeable in the Lower Mekong Basin, where there is growing pressure on the agriculture-based livelihoods of communities living along the mainstream of the Mekong River. This chapter presents an investigation of temporal seasonal variability in four communities of Kratie Province, Cambodia, including identification of locally developed strategies to adapt to temporal changes in weather patterns. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining historical hydrometeorological data with participatory seasonal calendars and daily routine diaries. Seasonal calendars were compiled from nine workshops across four villages in Kratie Province, and daily diaries were collected from seven individuals across three villages. The results indicate that patterns in rainfall, flooding and drought have become more variable due to the impacts of environmental change; a phenomenon that will likely continue into the future. Without effective, locally appropriate adaptation measures, changing weather patterns will likely continue to have adverse impacts on communities in the region due to their reliance on reliable seasonal rainfall and flooding events for crop cultivation. Households and communities in the study region have already developed a number of approaches to mitigate the adverse impacts of environmental change. This research also reiterated the importance of incorporating both local knowledge and scientific data to gain the most accurate understanding of the impacts of environmental change in a given region.

Determining alarm levels of river floods is considered an effective non-structural measure to prevent and mitigate the damages of flood and inundation. This study aims to propose a holistic approach, a comprehensive review of the factors affecting flooding and flood risk, based on which the water level (WL) is proposed for the flood alarm levels. The corresponding proposed WL to the necessary flood alarm levels is based on observed data, as well as simulated data from statistical methods and hydrological and hydraulic models.

In this paper, the proposed criteria to delineate WLs corresponding to flood alarm levels include flood magnitude; flood derivation and flood duration; flood risks and damage; correlation with neighboring stations; flood characteristics and local characteristics; and other criteria (flood prevention strategy and flood experience).

The paper proposed a synthesis approach to determine flood warning levels in Vietnam. The retrieved levels are the basics to revise the Decision 632/2010 of the Vietnam Government on determining water alarm levels for flood prevention. The study proposes a new flood alarm system including revised flood levels at 115 existing stations and new flood levels at 30 additional stations. The proposed flood warning level can help manage the flooding problem in major river systems that supports flood protection and prevention services in Vietnam.

The paper proposed a novel synthesis approach to flood prevention in Vietnam.

Vietnam is located in the tropical monsoon area, one of five storm hubs of Pacific Asia, and is regularly faced with various disasters. Drought, a normal part of the climate for virtually all regions of Vietnam, is of particular concern, where an interruption of the country already limited water supplies for extended periods of time can produce devastating impacts. Historical records indicate that drought occurs almost everywhere in those places almost every year (Hieu, 2002). However, multiyear droughts are of great concern to water-resource managers, natural-resource managers, and policy makers (Nguyen, 2010b).

This paper aims to study dams on transboundary rivers. In this study, the case of the Nu–Salween–Thanlwin River is reviewed. This study is an attempt toward developing a conceptual model to explain the unequal hydropower exchange of hydropower dams on transboundary rivers.

This paper reviews big dam project plans on the Salween–Thanlwin River near the Myanmar–Thailand border from the perspective of critical hydropolitics. The evidence is drawn from an extensive review of academic literature, reports, newspapers and websites on this topic. Cascao and Zeitoun’s (2010) four pillars of power, namely, geographical, material, bargaining and ideational power, are reviewed in the case of the Salween–Thanlwin River and its riparian states.

On the basis of a realist discourse, power relationships between dams and their socio-environmental effects are discussed from the perspective of critical hydropolitics. Multiple levels of power asymmetry regarding geographical, material, bargaining and ideational power are observed. The powerful states are high electricity consumers and importers. They invest in hydroelectric dams of adjacent developing states and buy back most of the electricity generated to fuel their industrialization and urbanization. Weak states generally do not have high bargaining power. They depend on the investment of high material power states for domestic and economic development and gain from the export of electricity. However, the externalities of hydropower dams are transferred to these weak states. This contributes to an unequal hydropower exchange model.

The model provides an analytical framework for hydropower dam projects through which comprehensive and multidimensional views are extracted. Academia, policymakers, private developers, international development agencies and nongovernment organizations will have a better understanding of hydropower dam projects and the interactions among riparian states.

This conceptual model stems from Cascao and Zeitoun’s (2010) four pillars of power – geographical, material, bargaining and ideational power. The author limits the framework to hydroelectric dams in transboundary rivers. The powerful states are high electricity consumers and importers that dominate the dam development projects and exchange process.

The purpose of the present research is to examine the comparative values that urban Vietnamese consumers place on attributes of rice that is produced using environmentally friendly methods. The authors consider the impacts that this may have on the livelihoods of rural Vietnamese small farmers. Rice is an “impure public good” that includes both “private” and “public” attributes that consumers consider in their purchase decisions. Consumers make tradeoffs between environmentally and socially beneficial practices (public goods) and perceptions of product quality (private goods). The authors used latent class modeling to investigate the values associated with attributes of rice that is produced using sustainable farming practices.

The authors used a discrete choice experimental design in which consumers stated their choices among combinations of rice attributes. The survey provided responses from 360 urban Vietnamese consumers and allowed to estimate the preferences and nonpecuniary values for rice grown using different levels of environmentally beneficial production methods.

The results identify two segments of rice consumers: one group of consumers who are sensitive to price and the other group who are sensitive to environmental issues. The individual characteristics are reflected in the choices of production methods and in the willingness to pay for environmentally beneficial outcomes of those methods.

Given the number of independent variables measured, the sample was relatively small, such that confirmatory statistical methods were inconclusive. However, the authors used multiple analytical tools that provide corroboration of the significant determinants of the utility functions for the two segments.

The results provide directions for production of rice at a national level, as well as practical implications for consumer-oriented communications.

Results suggest that the emerging middle class of Vietnamese consumers are willing to pay more for rice that is produced using methods that are beneficial to the environment. Results also indicate challenges to provide sustainably-produced rice to poorer groups of consumers.

The study provides important context for consumer preferences within emerging economies. This also adds to a growing literature that uses the choice experiment method to estimate consumer valuation of the outcomes of various agricultural practices.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Lai Heua Fai, Festival of Light, as a place making ritual in the world heritage town of Luang Prabang, a former royal capital of the Lao-speaking kingdom. It compares this centuries-old traditional festival with a very new place making festival, the Luang Prabang Film Festival which began only six years ago.

Sense of place theorization has developed considerably in recent decades as a number of discourses have co-mingled and as social and cultural research has embraced space/place as a crucial component of knowledge production. The study explores place making in a globalized, post-modern and post-colonial world. Fieldwork was undertaken in Luang Prabang between 2008 and 2016 including interviews, observations, photographic recording and participation, leading up to the 2013 celebration of Lai Heua Fai and the 2015 film festival.

Lai Heua Fai and the Luang Prabang Film Festival are spatial practices that represent the places they evoke. Both these events connect the past, the present and the future in place. The authors argue that separating “events” from “place” sets up a dichotomy that is problematic and unsustainable on many levels: perceptually, as a lived experience, epistemologically and analytically.

The authors suggest that these two identity forming events, in the life of Luang Prabang, herald “place” and “place making” as ongoing dynamic processes of construction and re-construction where the “traditional” and the “contemporary” are constantly re-constituted as markers, in the case of this research, of Luang Prabangan identity and place attachment.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate a recent trend in climate change and its impact on livelihood of community living in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam. Further, it aims to increase the government attention for adaptation measures by providing awareness of climate change and its negative impacts on livelihood.

For study purpose, cross-sectional and secondary data sets were used. The community perceptions about climate change were recorded by face-to-face interviews of 500 respondents from Nam Dinh province, Vietnam in April 2015 by using a well-structured questionnaire, whereas secondary data were collected from the statistical yearbook of General Statistics Office of Vietnam. To accomplish the study objectives, Cobb–Douglas production function and Likert scale were used to estimate the community perceptions of climate change and impact of climate change on livelihood, respectively.

Results depict that climate change negatively impacted on the productivity of rice and livestock. Particularly, frequently occurring of droughts, floods and salinity intrusion negatively impacted on rice productivity, while livestock productivity is decreased by frequent occurring of flood storms in study area.

The study results suggest a government support is essential to achieve sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities living in the Red River Delta, particularly some adaptation measures in the context of climate change are required in study area.