Flood Governance in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam: Implications of Social Learning for Household and Institutional Adaptation

Abstract

This thesis is an empirical study into the complex flood governance system in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, focusing on how social learning occurs across the interface of flood management and adaptation. It involves the multi‐disciplinary theories of environmental governance, rural development, knowledge management, and political ecology. Drawing on Pahl‐Wostl’s conceptual framework of social learning in resources management, this thesis attempts to investigate how social learning influences household and institutional adaptation to the delta’s forced adaptation complexities characterised by incremental impacts of climate change, local flood management policies, and hydropower dam development upstream. Based on this empirical understanding, it investigates how the adaptive co‐management approach could inform the long‐term adaptation strategies to address the social‐ecological challenges of forced adaptation. A mixed methods approach was employed as the main strategy of inquiry. This thesis makes an important contribution to the knowledge of social learning and the role it plays in facilitating household and institutional adaptation, and improving the implementation of flood management policies in the delta. The research findings suggest two main social learning patterns: external learning (communication and social interactions) and internal learning (reflective learning), which take place across household groups. According to the multiple linear regression results, these social learning patterns have significant positive effects on adaptive capacity. This thesis reveals the emergence of strategic alliances and their interaction patterns across the formal and informal interaction boundaries. In the formal flood management boundary, there is little evidence of social learning. The top‐down governance approach inhibits opportunities for innovative thinking and democratic processes in support of policy change. In contrast, the flexibility of the informal interaction boundary promotes collaborative learning in adaptive livelihood practices. This thesis highlights the significance of ‘shadow systems’ that are forged in the learning interactions between farming households and extension officials. While farming households are knowledge brokers, the extension officials play a role as policy brokers who facilitate the incorporation of local knowledge (farming initiatives) and specialised knowledge (scientific knowledge) into organisational knowledge (government policy). In the rural governance context of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, policy change often arises from such bottom‐up endeavours. This thesis argues that the adaptive co‐management approach is continuously linked to the flood management and adaptation processes in the delta. The research findings reveal that the flood management and adaptation practices, through the delta’s ‘opening‐up and closing‐off’ processes, have evolved towards the adaptive and collaborative approach. Drawing on the empirical understanding of these evolutionary processes, this thesis suggests that the adaptive co‐management approach should play an essential role in guiding the long‐term adaptation strategies to address the ongoing complexities of forced adaptation in the region.