Assessing vulnerability to flood hazard of households in Phong Nha town, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province

Abstract

This study focuses on assessing the vulnerability of households in Phong Nha town, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province to flood hazard. A set of 23 indicators for assessing vulnerability to flood was proposed based on three components: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The study area, famous for the Phong Nha-Ke Bang World Heritage Site, has been severely affected by floods. A substantial 81% of households experienced flood damage in 5 recent years in 2019-2023. In particular, the October 2020 flood devastated 85% of households in the town. The study results showed 39% of households have children under five years old and above 65 years old. Regarding adaptive capacity, 56% of interviewed households have basic mitigation tools and only 9.0% actively participate in disaster prevention training course and 4% have property insurance. The values of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity are 0,67; 0.32; 0.37 in scale 0-1, respectively. The quantitative assessment of the vulnerability of households in Phong Nha town to flood hazard is 0.62 on the scale of -1 and +1, indicating a relatively high level of vulnerability. The results provide a basis for managers to strengthen measures to improve local people's adaptive capacity in preparing for disaster prevention in general and floods in particular.