Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

144 environment, it brings enormous benefit. Compared to two rice crops, this farming practice generates greater benefits. In 2007, he earned a net benefit of VND 70 million ($3,500) from prawn (in-depth interview on January 06th 2010). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This study has identified the key characteristics of households that determine the capacity of households to cope with, adapt to, and benefit from floods. As discussed by de Vaus (2002) it is better to use multiple items to measure a multidimensional concept. Although resilience is a multidimensional concept, it can be grouped into three different components in the context of living with floods in the MRD. Three factors found by this study include: (1) the capacity of households to secure food, income, health of their family members during the flood season, safe evacuation during future extreme flood events, and recovery after extreme floods if they are affected, (2) the capacity of households to secure their homes during large floods such as the historic flood of 2000, (3) the level of interest in learning and carrying out new flood-based livelihoods during the flood season to improve their livelihood security. These three factors are consistent with general resilience theory and practices. A novel point of this study is to identify the capacity to learn from disturbance for genuine adaptation to floods. The ways that farmers use floodwater for growing prawns, fish, eels, and vegetables are very innovative and transformative. The first factor of resilience in this study related to the degree to which households are capable of self-organization. This characteristic has been mostly accepted by resilience researchers (Klein et al. 2003, Carpenter et al. 2001, Folke 2006). However, it is difficult to translate the term “capacity for self-organization” into the real context of living with floods in the MRD. In particular, the capacity for self-organization comprises several dimensions of livelihoods with people being mostly concerned about the impacts of previous flood events. These dimensions are confidence that they have sufficient food to eat during the flood season, confidence that they do not need to borrow informal credit during the flood season and can find a safe place to evacuate to during future extreme flood events; and confidence that the health of their family members is secured. Because the flood season often disrupts income streams of some socioeconomic groups, borrowing money from local informal credit is the common way of coping with six months of flooding. Accessing informal credit with high interest rates is the fear of most poor households during the flood season. Landless households are the most vulnerable groups from being in chronic debt with informal credit providers because they do not have land title to borrow against for formal credit to survive during the flood season. However, if households are confident that they will not borrow this type of credit, they may be able to borrow from their relatives, family members, and the banks with low interest. These sources of support are important for them to maintain their livelihoods during the flood season. Health of family members, especially children, is the most serious concern during floods. Many children died because of drowning. If households are confident that they can keep their children secure in the face of flooding, they are more likely to be resilient. In particular, rice is the most important staple food for rural households in the MRD. If the households do not have enough rice to eat, they feel very anxious about coping with the flood season. In the developing country context, especially Southeast Asia, food sources are often at the backdoor in nearby ponds and with close neighbors and do not require access to highly developed Western-style transport and communications systems. A medium well-off woman, aged 44, living in Phu Duc commune, said that a good neighbor used his small ferry to evacuate people, animals, and supply food to people when the large flood of 2000 submerged most houses in the village. He mobilized local resources (food and clothes) from the less affected villages to help them. She said that transportation by boat is the most effective means during the large flood season. Rural-urban remittances may help some people to maintain their income during the flood season. But in some cases, migration does not necessarily help some households to improve their income because the living cost in Binh Duong or Ho Chi Minh City is relatively high. So, many migrants reported that they return homes without money and sometimes are in debt. As a result, they become more vulnerable to future flood events. A poor woman in Phu Duc commune, aged 38, with nine years of schooling, said that she has lived in this village for 30 years. She originated from Cao Lanh district of Dong Thap province. She used to live by an internal canal subjected to annual flooding. Her income is mainly from fishing and collecting. However, the floods have been small in the past several years and she could not catch much fish. She decided to go to Binh Duong to work in a factory. However, the salary was not sufficient for her family to survive. She decided to return homes and her livelihood is difficult now. The second characteristic of resilience is related to the amount of disturbance that a system can cope with, while still maintaining its function in terms of the housing sector. This characteristic has been widely accepted in recent natural hazards literature. In this study, the amount of disturbance is seen as the amount or magnitude of flood events in the MRD. The historic flood of 2000 was perceived as the most serious, destructive flood of the last century in the MRD. Thousands of homes were submerged, damaged, and swept away by the flood. Since that event, local people upgraded their house floors or raised the house foundation above the flood level. However, not all households can adjust their home to a certain level of stability because of financial barriers. The capacity to secure their homes