Vietnam: Integrated coastal management for a sustainable future in Dong Hoi

By Hoang Nhat Do and Rob van den Boomen

Viet Nam’s marine resources deliver huge benefits to the country’s economy, as well as providing countless ecosystem services to its large coastal zone. However, coastal zone management is becoming increasingly difficult, as a result of impacts related to climate change such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, and sand dune degradation.

The situation is especially pronounced in coastal cities such as Dong Hoi, which is gaining popularity as a tourism destination. Located in Quang Binh province in the central part of the country, the Dong Hoi’s coastline is changing rapidly, posing a threat to resident’s livelihoods and local economy. Despite the importance of Dong Hoi’s coastal zone for tourism development, the causes and long-term impacts of the region’s coastal degradation are poorly understood by local stakeholders.

With assistance from the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF), administered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the local government is piloting the Dong Hoi Integrated Coastal Management Project. The project, a component of ADB and Viet Nam’s Urban Environment and Climate Change Adaptation Project, is restoring sand dunes based on evidence generated from scientific surveys and stakeholder consultations.

The pilot is being delivered by an expert consortium of international and national specialists led by Dutch consulting engineers Witteveen+Bos, Hanoi University’s Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics (Hanoi University), and Van Phu JSC. Since 2018, they have been conducting studies, capacity building activities, and raising public awareness on coastal zone management.

Technical information and community integration

Exploratory studies that seek to determine the way that the Kien Giang river behaves and moves sediment, and the development and migration of the dune system in Nhat Le estuary are crucial to the design of sand dune restoration. These studies in hydrodynamics, bathymetry and other morphological assessments, provide a detailed picture of how the process of sedimentation in the river mouth contribute to severe flooding upstream, and cause problems for river and marine transport navigation. They also show the impact of annual dredging, which negatively affects the condition of the beach.

The results of these studies and ongoing monitoring and observations have helped to identify actions that can help to sustainably adapt and maintain the river mouth and the coastline. The site for the pilot was chosen in May 2020 with the agreement of Quang Binh Provincial Government. To ensure the project’s success, the initiative has been designed to involve a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, local fisherman, and women and children’s groups. Each have been consulted and received customized training courses about sustainable nature conservation.

It is hoped that that by 2021, the flagship project will be well underway and serve as a model of best practice to other coastal towns in Viet Nam and beyond.