Northern Vietnam's landscapes.

1. Ban Gioc Waterfall - one of the most beautiful waterfall in the world.

The waterfall originates from Quay Son River. On the Viet Nam side, the river has a picturesque scenery, fresh environment with grass cover, evergreen forest, bobbing white clouds mingling with the peaceful atmosphere of villages of mountainous ethnic minorities. On the other side is the neighboring country of China.

With a height of 53m and a width of 300m, the waterfall is divided into 3 layers consisting of small and large upper flows. Large water blocks fall into limestone steps, making a curtain of white sprays. From the distance, visitors can hear the roaring of waterfall echoing through a large area.
Rising from middle of the waterfall is a large water mound covered with trees, splitting the river into three spouts that look lie three white silk strips. At the foot of the waterfall is a large river that is calm as glass surrounded by many precious flowers. On hot summer days, it is still cool here. Every early morning, the sun shines through steam creating a sparkling rainbow.

Ban Gioc waterfall has gone into the plastic arts through excellent works of painting and photography. As a companion of the mountains, rivers and absorbing grottoes around it such as Nguom Ngao, Ban Gioc waterfall is and appealing site for tourists.

2. Ha Long Bay - is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Appeared in the first epoch as a huge limestone scattered in the delta of the Red River full of alluvium and located in Quang Ninh province abundant in open coal mines, Ha Long Bay looks like a paradise due to its charm and beauty. Ha Long Bay is a bay in the Gulf of Tonkin comprised of regions of Ha Long City, the township of Cam Pha, and a part of the island district of Van Don. Ha Long Bay borders Cat Ba Island in the southwest, the East Sea in the east, and the mainland, creating a 120 km coastline.
Legends said that a huge dragon and its children descended there to help the Vietnamese fight against the Northern invaders. After the victory, these dragons decided to stay with the local people. Since then this area has been called the "descending dragon" region. The local junks moving gently along the islets in the sunset bring a strange experience.

With its 3,000 islands on an area of 1,500 km2 rising from the crystalline emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, the Ha Long Bay has been a major attraction for tourists and film makers alike. It is one of the natural wonders of Viet Nam and is now listed as a World Heritage site.

Ha Long Bay affords some of Vietnam's most spectacular scenery, including beautiful limestone formations, rock arches, gin-clear water, virtually scenery lagoons, eerie caves, peaceful coves, sheer cliffs, secluded strips of white, powdery sand, and thousands of limestone islets. Like sculpted cartoon characters, these islets are fancifully named: Frog Island, Face Island, Isle of Surprise, etc. Among thousands of caves of all sizes and shapes, Hang Dau Go (Grotto of Wooden Stakes), known to the French as the Grotte des Merveilles (Cave of Marvels) is a huge one consisting of three chambers which you reach via 90 steps. Among the stalactites of the first hall, scores of gnomes appear to be holding the meeting. The walls of the second chamber sparkle if bright light is shined on them. The cave derives its Vietnamese name from the third of the chambers, which is said to have been used during the 13th century to store the sharp bamboo stakes, which Tran Hung Dao planted in the bed of the Bach Dang River to impale the Kublai Khan's invasion fleet. Other well-known caves in Ha Long Bay include the Grotto of Bo Nau and 2 km long Hang Hanh Cave.

3. Sapa - "the Tonkinese Alps"

Located 38km from Lao Cai City, Sapa is a mountainous district of Lao Cai Province. Sapa District is very well-known with Sapa Townlet, a beautiful and romantic resort. At the height of 1,600m above sea level, the average temperature of the area is 15-18oC. It is cool in summer and cold in winter.
Visitor to Sapa in summer can feel the climate of four seasons in one day. In the morning and afternoon, it is cool like the weather of spring and autumn. At noon, it is as sunny and cloudless as the weather of summer. And it is cold in the evening. With no advance warning of a thunderstorm short and heavy rains may come at noon on any summer day. Subsequently, a rainbow appears, transforming Sapa into a magic land, which for years has been a constant source of poetic inspiration, lights up the whole region. The best time to witness the scenic beauty of Sapa is in April and May. Before that period, the weather might be cold and foggy; after that period is the rainy season. In April and May, Sapa is blooming with flowers and green pastures. The clouds that settle in the valley in early morning quickly disappear into thin air.

Sapa has many natural sites such as Ham Rong Mountain, Silver Waterfall, Rattan Bridge, Bamboo Forest and Ta Phin Cave.Sapa is also the starting point for many climbers and scientists who want to reach the top of Fansipan Mountain, the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143m. Hoang Lien Mountain Range is also called the Alps of the North Sea area since Fansipan Mountain is not only the highest peak in Vietnam, but also in the Indochina Peninsula. The pyramid-shaped mountain is covered with clouds all year round and temperatures often drop below zero, especially at high elevations. Fresh and cool air in Sapa is an idea climate condition for growing temperate vegetables such as cabbage, chayote, precious medicinal herbs, and fruit trees such as plum, pear...
Sapa is home to various families of flowers of captivating colours, which can be found nowhere else in the country. When Tet, the Lunar New Year Festival, comes, the whole township of Sapa is filled with the pink colour of peach blossom brought from the vast forests of peach just outside the town. Sapa is regarded as the kingdom of orchids. Here, orchid lovers are even amazed by the choice, when trekking in the forest filled with several hundred kinds of orchids of brilliant colours and fantastic shapes, such as Orchid Princess, Orchid of My Fair Lady's Shoe. Some orchids are named after lovely singing birds such as the canary, salangane's nest, and more.
Sapa is most beautiful in spring. Apricot, plum and cherry flowers are splendidly beautiful. Markets are crowded and merry, and are especially attractive to visitors. Minority groups come here to exchange and trade goods and products. Market sessions are also a chance for locals to promenade and young men and women in colorful costumes to meet, date or seek sweethearts.




http://www.vietnaminfotravel.com/
http://www.vietnamtourism.com/e_pages/tourist/travel.asp

Vietnam - Weather and Climate

Vietnam’s weather varies from the sub-tropics in the North to the tropics in the South. The humidity is high, with average ranging around 84% a year. Moderated by two monsoons, the average temperature (from 22 to 27) is lower than other countries also in the equatorial regions. The weather varies greatly from North to South, depending on elevation and type of landscape.
Vietnam is located between 9 and 23 degrees north. Eastern Vietnam has a long coastline on the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea. It has a tropical monsoon type of climate; from May-Sep the south monsoon sets in, and the country is dominated by south to southeasterly winds. From Oct-April, the north monsoon is dominant with northerly to northeasterly winds affecting the country. There is a transition period between each monsoon season when winds are light and variable.
The country is mountainous in the northwest and in the central highlands facing the South China Sea, with peaks reaching up to 8000ft (2450m) In the north around Hanoi and in the south around Ho Chi Minh City, there are extensive low-lying regions in the Red River delta and the Mekong delta respectively.

Northern Vietnam (from Hue up North) has four seasons with a cold winter and hot summer. The temperature ranges from 5-6C in winter to up to 35C in summer. The further North it is, the colder it gets. In mountainous regions in the far North (such as Sapa) the temperature sometimes drops below zero. Rainy months are August, October, November. February and March have persistent, light, drizzling rain. The northeast monsoon effects the north bringing lower temperatures to Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Sapa and the the coastal strip as far south as around Hue. Temperatures only drop to what could only be considered cool in Hanoi, the mountainous north and the Central Highlands (in the evening). For the majority of the country, the temperature swings between the mid 20s to low 30s year-round.

Temperatures of Central Vietnam are high all year round. The temperature tends to be warmer and more humid than the South in the middle of the year and cooler during the dry season from November to April. Flooding may occur from October to December. The southwest monsoon brings primarily effects Southern Vietnam -- warming up the Mekong Delta through Saigon and all along the coastal strip as far north as between Qui Nhon and Da Nang. It also covers the Central Highlands region. On the coast and in those parts of the Central Highlands that face northeast, the season of maximum rainfall is between September and January. This area often receives heavy rain from typhoons, or severe tropical storms, which develop in the western Pacific at this time of year. This is also a time of much cloud and frequent drizzle (called locally the mua bui, sometimes crachin).

Southern Vietnam has a distinct dry season (from November to April) and wet season (from May to October). Average temperature ranges from 25-30C. During wet months, heavy and short downpours may occur in mid-afternoons. The general features of the climate of VietNam also apply to the two adjoining countries, Laos and Cambodia; all three countries are often grouped together under the name Indo-China. Over most of Indo-China there is a single rainy season at the time of the south monsoon between May and September.

Water is VietNams most important factor for domestic use, animal feeding, cultivating and for industrial production. Being a tropical, monsoon and redundant rainfall-country, Viet Nam has a blooming agriculture, especially in water rice cultivation. Recently, yielding the 'doi moi' policy, and modern technology, agricultural extension and agriculture production achieve number of valuable results. From a country which had to import food stocks in the past, VietNam is now becoming the second country in the world for food stocks exporting. Agriculture extension and yield improvement for rice as well as for other crops require water irrigation at right cropping time, with proper quantity and good quality due to crop water requirement.

According to geographical and climatologic conditions, rainfall distribution in VietNam is not equal both in space and time; the difference amount of rainfall between high-rain area and low-rain area is tremendous; in high-rain area, annual amount of rainfall may reach to 5000 mm while 800 mm in low-rain area. This is one of causes of drought. Recently, climate changes and environment deterioration by human which cause protective forest destruction, surface and ground water reduction and result in drought. Thought must be given to the role of water in agriculture production, the State of VietNam pays much attention to water resources construction to take part in agriculture development, to hold fast the food security of country, to solve the problem of clean water for people and animals in mountainous area and in frequent-drought area. With the support of the UNDP Ha Noi - a United Nations Agency, and the former Ministry of Water Resources (the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development instead), 'Strategy and Action Plan for water disaster mitigation in VietNam' has been built and participated in water disaster mitigation in VietNam.

Reference:
http://www.vietnamembassy.org.uk/climate.html
http://www.travelfish.org/vietnam-weather.php
http://www.wompom.ca/vietnam/vnclimat01.htm

Live with floods: The settlements of the Vietnam Mekong Delta

Floods often occur in rivers, when flow exceeds the capacity of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they are placed in natural flood plains of rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is evidence that the perceived value of living near the water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.

About one million hectares of the Delta is inundated by more than a meter of water every year. Learn how theVietnamese government has tried to manage this natural phenomenon. Same same but different,” is the common Vietnamese phrase that means similar but not the same. In many aspects, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam looks similar to rural.

The water related natural disasters in the Mekong Delta can be divided into "flood (or submergence)" and "saline intrusion" roughly. The word, "flood" means a phenomenon that excess river waters originated from upper stream submerege the area of inner dike in general. However under the condition of the strong didal influence toward inland rivers and canals like the Mekong Delta, the flood tide also could cause a flood. Therefore both of flood waters from fresh water basin and saline intrusion make the same output of "flood" to the society, whereas the mechanism of each natural phenomenon are completely different. As an essential major premise, the saline intrusion is very characteristic and important phenomenon to understand the natural status in the Mekong Delta.

The coastal sea of the Mekong Delta, the South China Sea, is well known with its large tidal difference in seawater level, and the differential exceeds 4.0m in maximum. Under the condition that the most area of the Mekong Delta has only several meter in the height above the sea level, this large tidal movement has great influence to inland area, especially in the rainy season when the river waters from upper stream also increase. While the change of water level due to tidal movement extend to Kompong Cham in Cambodia which is located at the upper 410km point from the sea along the main rivers, the intrusion of seawater itself can reach about 60km far from the sea2). In the meantime, Thailand Bay that face to the west coast of the Mekong Delta has only less than 2.0m in its tidal differential, therefore, the waters from the South China Sea thuroug the rivers and inland canals easily flow into Thailand Bay (from a specialist in irrigation teaching at a collage in Can Tho City).

At the above figure, the area intruded by seawater all the year around is the coastal edge from the estuary of Dong Nai River (Can Gio District which is well known as a UNESCO's natural reserved are) to Ha Tien near the Cambodian boder. Particularly in the Ca Mau peninsular, the area over 30km from the coastal line are influenced with saline, and it is very hard to produce agricultural crops. Meanwhile, the three inner belts are seasonally intruded by saline, and each degrees depends on the distance from upper side or main streams.

The Mekong Delta ofVietnam is a result of 10,000 years of gradual deposition of sediments carried by the Mekong River and its tributaries from as far north as Tibet on its way to the South China Sea. Located at the southern tip of the Mekong River system, the Delta has an area of 3.9 million hectares, expanding at the rate of 10 to 20 meters per year. It is home to almost a quarter ofVietnam’s population (16 million) with a density of more than 1.5 times the country’s average.About half of the land (1.9 million hectares) is inundated annually. During rainy season inundation above one meter covers about one million hectares of land. Within the river basin, the highest flood levels can reach up to six meters and last for six months. During the dry season, saline water intrusion spreads from the coast to 40 to 50 kilometers inland, covering an area of about two million hectares (20,400 square kilometers).

Land use in the Delta is dominantly agricultural (75 percent) while residential land covers only 2.5 percent.The agricultural production of rice and shrimp is noted along the banks of Hau and Tien rivers and the coast of South China Sea where alluvium (38.09 percent) and saline soils (18.04 percent) are found respectively.The unproductive and dominant acid sulphate soil (43.20 percent) occurs in the northern low-lying region of the periodically inundated Delta. Peaty soil (0.67 percent) in the south and western region are planted to melaleuca trees, a host to a high-value saprophytic snail raised for export, and home to migratory birds.

Though the Delta is a highly critical environment it still serves as the country’s rice bowl in the south. It also contributes 80 percent to the country’s total shrimp production area. Under the economic renovation policy, shrimp and rice exports are seen as the country’s ticket to economic recovery.The economic opportunities attract more people to live in the Delta and embark on shrimp and/or rice farming.

In support of its economic objectives, and the increasing population in the Delta, the Government resolved to “live with floods and aim at flood control,” in order to protect people and maintain normal lives during inundation. In this policy the approach is structural, aiming to control rather than work with nature, despite criticism from environmentalists. Flood control structures include: dams, dikes, sluices, and canals built to protect crops and properties; and residential clusters/dykes.A residential cluster is a dike protected region of two to three hectares in area provided with foundations elevated 0.60m above the highest flood line, roads and drainage, and basic house and utility lines for resettlement of households in dangerous and flooded areas. A residential dyke is a linear development along a river, channel, or main road.

Non-structural measures to mitigate damage by floods include:
• Strengthening flood and storm preparedness organizations;
• Flood forecasting and warning on the flood situation in each area;
• Emergency relief during and after flooding to stabilize people's livelihood as soon as possible and get prepared for the forthcoming floods.
• Training courses and workshops on disaster preparedness and mitigation for disaster management officers.
• Improvement of public awareness on disaster management and mitigation through leaflets; and
• Research on disaster mitigation measures such as study on the shifting of cultivation timing to mitigate crop losses.

The government formulates a master plan (a strategic non-structural plan) to apply collective preparedness, response, adaptation, and evacuation measures.Vietnam learns from disasters by undertaking timely damage assessment, flood level monitoring, and updating its hydrologic and topographic data as tools for better disaster preparedness and disaster risk management.

The coastal area of Southern Vietnam is a wetland. With minimum infrastructure, materials for houses (such as mangrove branches) are collected around the area.Water comes from a deep well and electricity is provided by transmission lines from the city carried over rivers by towers. Life is simple and strongly related to water.

The Hoa Binh Resettlement Project is located at the confluence of three rivers,Tien, Hau and Vam Nao in Phu Tan District,An Giang, a part of Lower Mekong Basin. It is subjected to inundation of up to four meters for a maximum of six months. It is part of the North Vam Nao Flood Control Project. Resettlement approaches here include:
• Project design readjustment to minimize impact;
• Near-site resettlement to minimize dislocation; and
• Land and house compensation in residential cluster.
The Gia Vet Resettlement Project is part of the Coastal Wetland Protection and Development Project in Duyen Hai District, along the coast of Tra Vinh. Households were relocated from Full Protection Zone (FPZ) to a Buffer Zone.The resettlement approach here include:
• Land and house compensation in residential dyke;
• Integrated shrimp production;
• Provision of utilities and school; and
• Mangrove reforestation to restore marine ecology and provide wind and storm buffer.

The Ho Gui Resettlement Project is for households located in erosion and landslide prone areas (near the confluence of Ho Gui River and the South China Sea). It is the poorest settlement in Nam Can District, Ca Mau.The resettlement approach here includes:
• Disaster-resistant house design;
• Provision of wind/storm buffer;
• Raised mound/foundation;
• Inner channel construction;
• Provision of utilities and amenities such as health clinic, primary school, and market

The Vietnamese approach to settlements in the Delta is strongly influenced by structural flood mitigating measures. Site development is guided by the up-to-date information on flood levels taken from gauging stations, typhoon path and tidal flows. Houses are built on engineered sites and are assumed to be on safe ground. Hence, design is typical and does not consider the presence of water.

Structural measures immediately address the impact of flooding to life and property. But these can disrupt natural processes, resulting in adverse environmental impacts such as:
• Disruption of natural overbank flows, and the periodic flooding deposit of fertile soil to rice fields. Dike construction deprives fields of natural fertile soil suitable for farming which may result to increased use of fertilizer.
• Exposure of potential acid sulphate soils to air during canal and sluice excavation, resulting in acidification of soil and eventually water.This may result in the depletion of soil nutrients making it unsuitable for farming. Canals and sluices also block seasonal fish migration depriving schools of fish of a spawning sanctuary which may lead to a reduction of fish species in the Delta;
• Increased water flow results in rapid sedimentation at river mouths causing channel bank erosion on one side and accretion on the opposite bank, resulting in channel migration that causes changes in the course of water ways.
• Construction of canals facilitate increase in salt water intrusion through faster subsurface penetration of saltwater, affecting agricultural production. For settlements development to be sustainable, it must consider social development, economic development and environmental preservation.

The socio-economic considerations for sustainable settlements development in river basin and coastal areas include: provision of access to material and financial resources, services and amenities; maintenance of social structure that provides support in times of crisis; and the maintenance or improvement of quality of life. Considerations for environmental preservation include: the protection/rehabilitation of mangrove forests; provision of environment-friendly flood mitigation measures that allow natural ecological processes to take place; application of organic riverbank erosion control measures to avoid sedimentation and rapid bank erosion; and waste management.

Physical considerations include site conditions, such as surface water level, volume, source and direction of flow, and quality; climatic conditions influencing wind speed and direction; soil bearing capacity; presence or provision of buffer zone in environmentally sensitive sites; provision of basic services and amenities; accessibility to water or land and limited mobility; and use of light weight materials for construction. It is also important for a team of specialists to work together to have a better understanding of the coastal and river basin environments and together formulate possible solutions.

Reference:
http://www.tao-pilipinas.org/files/taoshelter/issue2/2-mekongdelta.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/552802.stm