Sea and storm coastal habitats offer strongest defense

Surging storms and rising seas threaten millions of U.S. residents and billions of dollars in property along coastlines. The nation's strongest defense, according to a new study by scientists with the Natural Capital Project at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, comes from natural coastal habitats. Of the 25 most densely populated counties in the United States, 23 of them are along the coastline. The study, "Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms" published in Nature Climate Change, mapped the entire U.S. coastline and reports that habitats such as sea grasses, mangroves, sand dunes, and...

Plan designed to upgrade Mekong Delta dykes

A plan has been developed to upgrade the sea and estuary dykes system in the Mekong Delta in response to rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to the Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning (SIWR). Under the plan, nearly 620km of sea dykes and over 740km of estuary dykes in the region will be upgraded or newly constructed by 2025. They will be six metres wide, with forests outside the dyke to reduce the impact of waves. Constructions built below dykes are arranged so as to prevent natural disasters, control water salinity and protect aquaculture, transportation and other...

Destructive flooding puts central Vietnam at risk

Life after the recent spate of floods in central Vietnam is so tough that many residents are wilting under the strain. All aspects of life seem to have been turned upside down, from food and housing to education and work. A day after the historically devastating floods, farming families in Quang Ngai province started eating beef for the first time. Normally, their incomes are so low they never taste the meat, but this time it was a matter of survival.    Despite the risk of disease, they were forced to eat the drowned animals because the floods wiped out their...

Coastal erosion a constant threat to Vietnam

With a long coastline, coastal erosion is a constant threat to Vietnam and is getting more serious as a consequence of more storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change, experts reported at a workshop in Hanoi on July 17. Addressing the workshop, which discussed the national assessment report on coastal erosion, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands Vu Si Tuan said Vietnam has implemented an array of programmes at different levels to assess the situation of erosion and deposition, particularly in key regions, and built scientific bases for prevention measures. However, the country has...