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Vietnam is rethinking how it deals with floods after a year of relentless storms caused hills to collapse and large parts of cities to go under water.
From mapping high-risk areas to reimagining “sponge cities” that can naturally absorb and release water, Vietnam is investing billions in what experts call a new era of climate extremes. Under a national master plan running to 2030, the government has pledged more than $6 billion to build early-warning systems and move communities out of danger.
In small towns like Vinh in central Vietnam, these ideas are taking shape. Drainage networks are being expanded, flood valleys are being prepared and river banks are being transformed into green spaces that can absorb and then drain water after heavy rains.
This year’s onslaught of typhoons has underlined the urgency of that task: Ragasa, Bualoi, Matamo – each marked its own path to devastation. Record rainfall turned roads into rivers and caused slopes to slide, leaving the land barely time to recover between storms.
As Typhoon Kalmegi gathers strength on its way to Vietnam this weekScientists warn it may not be the last. It’s a glimpse of the country’s climate future – warmer oceans are fueling storms that move faster, last longer, and drop heavier rainfall, hitting the poorest communities the hardest.
“Vietnam and its neighbors are on the front lines of climate disruption,” said Benjamin Horton, professor of earth sciences at the City University of Hong Kong.
Climate change is reshaping Vietnam’s hurricane season
Scientist Says the arrival of hurricanes in Vietnam is not a random event, but part of a broader change in the behavior of hurricanes on a warming planet. Horton said Vietnam typically experiences about a dozen typhoons a year, but the 2025 cluster was a “clear sign” of global warming.
Ocean waters are now about 1 °C (33.8 °F) warmer than before the industrial era. Therefore storms bring more moisture.
The economic hit has been severe for Vietnam, a developing country that wants to become rich by 2045. Floods regularly disrupt farming, fishing and factories – the backbone of its economy. State media estimate the country could lose $1.4 billion in 2025 due to extreme weather.
Vietnam estimates it will need to spend $55bn-$92bn this decade to manage and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Vietnam’s cities aren’t built for climate shocks
About 18 million people, about one-fifth of Vietnam’s population, live in its two largest cities, hanoi And ho chi minh cityBoth are on river deltas that once served as natural buffers against floods. But as concrete spread over wetlands and agricultural lands, cities lost their ability to absorb rain.
Flooding in Hanoi in October lasted for almost a week in some areas. The city of more than 8 million has overgrown infrastructure and its colonial-era drainage system has failed as streets turned into brown canals. Motorcycles were swept through waist-deep water and the Red River embankments were tested.
Vegetable seller Dang Thuan’s house was flooded with knee-deep water, destroying his stock. There used to be many ponds in his neighborhood, but they were filled in to build houses and roads. Now the water has nowhere to go.
“We can’t afford to move,” she said, “so every time it rains heavily, we just wait and hope.”
In 1986–1996, the decade that coincided with the ‘Doi Moi’ economic reforms that led to a construction boom, Hanoi lost nearly two-thirds of the water bodies in its four main urban districts, according to a study. Kyoto UniversityCenter for Southeast Asian Studies.
State media have reported that between 2015 and 2020, it has lost water bodies spanning the area of 285 football fields.
According to a study, by 2024, more than three-quarters of Hanoi – including much of its densely populated area – is at risk of flooding. Flooding in the city cannot be solved by building more, said Hong Ngoc Nguyen, lead author of the study and an environmental engineer at Japanese consultancy Nippon Koei.
“We can’t control the water,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s shift from concrete canals to green riverbanks, which slow and stop stormwater rather than carrying it away.
A global problem with text in nature
The idea of designing cities to “live with water” is gaining popularity globally, including in Vietnam.
City officials and residents in Bengaluru, India are working to save the city’s remaining lakes, while Johannesburg in South Africa is trying to restore its Jukskei River.
Vietnam’s recent floods have sparked a broader conversation about how cities should respond to storms.
Ngo Trung Hai, former director of the National Institute of Urban and Rural Planning, told the state newspaper Hanoi Times that the city must learn to live with heavy rains and adopt long-term strategies. European business associations have urged Vietnam’s financial capital Ho Chi Minh City to adopt a “sponge city” approach.
Real estate developers have faced criticism in state media for improper construction practices, such as building on low-lying land or on roads unconnected to storm sewer systems and treating water bodies as “landscape features” rather than as methods to drain storm water.
Some of Vietnam’s largest property developers have begun to adapt. In the coastal tourism center of Nha Trang, Sun Group is building a new township known as a “Sponge City” with wetlands covering 60 hectares (148 acres), designed to store and reuse rainwater to reduce flooding and absorb heat.
City planners must take future climate risks into account, said Anna Beswick, who studies climate adaptation at the London School of Economics.
“If we plan based on past experience, we will not be flexible in the future,” he said.