tailieunhanh - Environment and Climate Change in the Central Coast of Vietnam

The Central Coast suffers from severe natural conditions, impacted by various natural calamities and disasters. For the past few years, it has been one of the areas that are most influenced by climate change, storms, floods and the sea level rise, which cause negative impacts on local people’s life and socio-economic development. | Environment and Climate Change. Environment and Climate Change in the Central Coast of Vietnam Truong Minh Duc* Abstract: The Central Coast suffers from severe natural conditions, impacted by various natural calamities and disasters. For the past few years, it has been one of the areas that are most influenced by climate change, storms, floods and the sea level rise, which cause negative impacts on local people’s life and socio-economic development. Statistic data for 4 decades, from the 1970s to present, shows that the intensity and frequency of natural calamities have been increasingly greater and severer. Storms, floods and the sea level rise have been much more complicated in the Central Coast, due to climate change. The paper describes the actual state of environment and climate change for the past time, based on which the author suggests measures to minimize impacts of environment and climate change on socio-economic development in this region. Key words: Climate change, environment, socio-economic development, the Central Coast. 1. Actual state of environment and climate change in Central Vietnam . Climate change In terms of storms and floods: Flood is one of the natural disasters that cause the most damage to local people in Central Vietnam at present. As the geological structural particularity of this region is that the Annamite Range runs along the coast and sometimes touches directly the sea, rivers and canals are often short with a high slope. In the meanwhile, there are neither flood controlling dikes nor big reservoirs in the upper areas, which can help to accommodate inflows to minimize flood damage in the lower plain areas. Consequently, residence areas in both sides of the rivers are often flooded, when it rains heavily. Of all regions in Vietnam, the Central Coast suffers the greatest influence of storms. The number of storms slamming into Central Vietnam accounts for of all storms hitting into Vietnam. Statistic data show that in .