Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam

A framework for analyzing social vulnerability is outlined, an aspect large ly underemphasized in assessments of the impacts of climate change and clim ate extremes. Vulnerability is defined in this paper as the exposure of ind ividuals or collective groups to livelihood stress as a result of the impac ts of such environmental change. It is constituted by individual and collec tive aspects which can be disaggregated, but are linked through the politic al economy of markets and institutions. Research in coastal northern Vietna m shows that baseline social vulnerability is enhanced by some institutiona l and economic factors associated with Vietnam's economic transition from c entral planning, namely the breakdown of collective action on protection fr om extreme events and an increasingly skewed income. Offsetting these trend s are other institutional changes associated with the dynamic nature of the economic restructuring and evolution of the market transition in Vietnam, which decrease vulnerability. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights res erved.