Post-Flash-Flood Responses in the Northern Highlands of Vietnam: Embracing Adaptation Practices through the Continuum Approach

Abstract

Many studies on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation classify responses to environmental disturbances along a binary division, which fails to capture the complexity of social reality and strategies at the local level. To gain insight into adaptation practices, this paper proposes using a “continuum approach” in a case study of a flash flood in a Tay commune in Lao Cai province. The article identifies eight disaster responses and analyses them as a node on a spectrum between exogenous and endogenous actions, disaster prevention and post-disaster responses, spontaneous and planned adaptations, and compulsory and voluntary changes. This approach allows for conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of post-disaster risk management in Northern upland communities of Vietnam to be drawn.