Lowland of Red River Delta, Vietnam

The formation of this triangular land and lasting cultivation upon it has transformed the Red River Delta into a highly anthropocentric rice-based delta. The delta area is affected by climate change variability as externalities, a fast and persistent urban expansion and environmental degradation presenting an increasing socio-ecological vulnerability, involving- biodiversity loss, water stress (mainly pollution and flooding), and social spatial fragmentation. These phenomena increase future uncertainty and local informality. The project calls for an acknowledgement and awareness of the presented systems complexity of this typical monsoon Asian country under such risks.

The proposed project focuses mainly on the potential synergy between topos and habitat- flux, translations, and diversity. It is composed of a cycle of reviewing, reorganizing, and resonating, with recasting existing vernacular adaptation strategies. A combination of methods- sections, multi-scalar approach, evaluation frameworks, and dynamic pathways- is used to explore systemic thinking of water consumption, urban occupation, local culture and land cultivation in the area. The possibilities proposed by the project are constructed in order to facilitate an integrated resource co-management through adaptive governance, as to understand evolutionary systems of water, land, and forestry within. By exploring systemic interdependencies in and across systems and stakeholders, the exploratory cycle from local to regional scales by landscape transformation and socio-ecological evaluation reveals a revised relationship with the ground towards socio-ecological resilience.

Socio-ecological vulnerabilities linking with production morphologies in the Red RIver Delta. The review of current performance of the delta is composed of three aspects- climate vulnerability, mainly about social accessibility to facilities and adaptiveness to flooding events; water system instability, related to the crisis and fluctuation that extreme flooding and drought brought; ecological degradation, connected with fertility and production regarding local livelihood. By linking the regional bio-geographical condition, three main production morphologies are located in different areas with different levels and dimensions of vulnerabilities, providing possibilities for further research.
View of the local landscape. The photos further show the sense of places about production either in collective paddy fields or household-based ponds, and processes including the urban canal, regular mobile venting, etc.
Visioning the delta. Based on the proposed green-blue and urbanization structure, the hybridity of infrastructure links between general design principles and systemic spatial and socio-cultural processes of multiple scales. Regarding bio-geological conditions and the identified socio-ecological vulnerabilities, adaptive local interventions thus further can be implemented in different locations of characteristics or shifting around with local resistance, linking with biophysical temporal aspect with criteria of water quality, fluctuation inland, urbanization and pollution, soil cycle change and forestation.
A local adaptation with humans and activities. The collage is about local transformation of landscape through cutting and filling along the infrastructure. The interventions consider risks of salinity and soil degradation, and the place-making with local culture and materials. While linking the phasing of local transformation with main socio-economic events, the distribution and movement of natural and social capitals can be rearranged and provide new opportunities, such as levee maintenance in an interval between festival and new-round production, and an exchange of local ecological knowledge such as sluice with new type of production techniques.
Adaptive local livelihood. From local to regional to local. The scene shows a future integration of public-private-participation between local adaptation and regional mitigation. It entails the aim of resilient livelihood and ecosystem restoration with acceptable socio-cultural changes.