Assessment of household adaptive capacity to disasters: Two comparative case studies in Central Vietnam

Abstract

This paper presents comparative case studies between an ancient town in Quang Nam province (QN town), and a commune in Da Nang city (DN commune) in order to quantitatively assess the adaptive capacity of households in response to natural disasters. An indicator-based assessment with a set of 13 indicators is applied in this study. The results of 85 interviewed households in two study areas revealed that despite the higher probabilities of disaster occurrence, the households in QN town demonstrated better adaptive capacity compared to those in DN commune. The quantitative assessment (on a 0–1 scale) of adaptive capacity in the QN town and DN commune showed the values of 0.61 and 0.55, respectively. QN town had higher adaptive capacity than DN commune due to higher income stability, better preparedness measures for disasters, higher percentages of households receiving disaster warning information, better accessibility to clean water, healthcare service, food, and financial support during and after disasters. Conversely, DN commune demonstrated higher insurance coverage, higher percentages of households participating in social organizations, and receiving social support during and after disasters. Drawing from the findings that influence the difference in adaptive capacity levels between households in QN town and DN commune, the study subsequently proposes the recommendations for policymakers and individuals in both areas to improve their long-term prevention and preparedness strategies, enabling them to effectively respond to natural disasters.