Water urbanism and “living with flooding”: a case study in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Water in deltaic settlements is generally treated as a hazard or threat to vulnerable communities. This study aims to explore the social and spatial practices of three communities in Cai Rang, in Can Tho City, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The aim is to discuss how “living with flooding” can inform a water urbanism perspective that might be useful to planners and designers in other deltaic environments. A mixed method approach is used to uncover how households, clusters of households and communities cope with flooding twice a day during the wet season. Findings show that local residents occupy housing types and clusters that suggest a high degree of resilience to changing water levels, especially flooding. This work has implications for architecture, landscape architecture and urban design as it demonstrates how a low income waterfront community can work together to maintain water-related activities while accommodating changes in river and tidal flows.

KEYWORDS:

• Water urbanism
• Vietnam
• Mekong Delta
• flooding
• climate change

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the generosity and kind support of the people of the Can Rang district in making this study possible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gillian Lawson

Gillian Lawson (PhD., MScAgr, BScAgr, GradDipLandArch,GradCertHE) is an Associate Professor and Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, but originally from Australia. Her work has focused on the sociology of education, social practices in public/private open spaces, green infrastructure and waterfront communities in landscape planning and design. She has supervised a large cohort of PhD students to completion within these areas in Australia. Her publications range from investigating the struggles of emerging landscape architects to the vulnerability of flood-prone communities in cities in an era of social and environmental change. Her current interests are in national learning outcomes for landscape architecture programmes in Australia, New Zealand and other Asia-Pacific countries, and on water as a catalyst for improving the adaptation of our cities to climate change.

Mirko Guaralda

Mirko Guaralda (Ph.D., MHEd, DArch) is an academic with more than 19 years of experience and he is internationally recognized for his innovative work in the field of urban design, addressing, in particular, the novel concept of people-place interaction, enquiring into the complex issues of place quality and community engagement. Currently, Mirko is Associate Professor in Architecture at the Queensland University of Technology; he was a researcher at the United States Study Centre of Sydney (USSC) in 2012 with a study on the relationship between urban form and social behavior. From August to December 2017 he was visiting professor at the Thammasat University of Bangkok, Thailand, and engaged in the teaching and research activities at this institution. Since 2018 he has been engaged also in research and teaching at the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (China).

Phuong Nga Nguyen

Phuong Nga Nguyen was a PhD candidate with the School of Landscape Architecture at the Queensland University of Technology.