Risk Assessment of Desertification for Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vietnam is one among five ranked countries with high-risk injury due to the phenomenon of climate change. Geographically, Binh Thuan, a coastal province, is located in the Southern Centre area. Currently, natural disasters have become more frequent, particularly drought. Desertification has become more serious. Besides the natural causes as described above, there are several affected by human activities such as high population and poverty, inappropriate cultivating technique, deforestation, ill-adopted legal framework, weak management capacity, lack of adequate knowledge, and a lack of awareness in local population. To assess risks of desertification for the Binh Thuan province (Vietnam), a risk assessment model based on a Leopold matrix was applied. As a result, a model of cause and effect showed six degrees of impacts of environmental and social conditions on the socioeconomic developments from very highly to very unlikely significance. Risk assessment allows for a general figure of various impacts of desertification on the socioeconomic developments in Binh Thuan, Vietnam.