Flood Mitigation Strategies for the Red River Delta

The increase of natural disasters and especially floods are causing economical losses to escalate. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the global problem of climate change. Governments of both developed and developing countries are therefore concerned with increasing post-disaster liabilities in aiding recovery, repairing infrastructure damage and compensation of victims. In particular, governments of developing countries are ill prepared to cover the financial losses of disasters. Moreover, they often experience difficulties of raising funds for the recovery process. In this article, we identify possible policy strategies for coping with complex environmental and social decisions with flood risk involved; using the Red River delta in Vietnam as a case for investigating various mitigation strategies. The delta is densely populated and many people are at risk of flood. The paper is concluded by an outline of a model used for policy scenario simulations and decision support.