Vulnerability assessment of households to natural hazards: a case study of an ethnic community in Lao Cai Province, Viet Nam

Tóm tắt

This study presents an indicator-based assessment of household vulnerability to natural hazards among H’Mong communities in Lao Cai Province, Viet Nam. The assessment used the IPCC AR4 framework with three components: Exposure (E), Sensitivity (S), and Adaptive Capacity (AC), and a set of 19 indicators was used to assess the vulnerability. Household data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 70 H’Mong households in 2026. Flash floods and landslides are the most frequently experienced hazards in the study area, with percentages of 67% and 80%, respectively. 100% of interviewed households rely on agriculture. Approximately 73% of households reported having no savings or access to credit and 68.5% lived in wooden, grade-IV (lowest-grade) houses. The calculated assessment results for E, S, and AC were 0.46, 0.57, and 0.44, respectively, resulting in an overall vulnerability index of 0.59. Financial limitations, inadequate housing, and weak institutional support were identified as the main constraints to household resilience. These findings provide evidence to support targeted disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation policies for ethnic minority communities in mountainous regions.