Faced with increasingly extreme natural disasters: storms, floods, landslides, etc., Vietnam is accelerating its change. Artificial intelligence, modeling and digital transformation are becoming key tools for anticipating risks and protecting populations.
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In recent years, climate change has made natural disasters both more unpredictable and more extreme, causing heavy human and material losses, while also weighing heavily on the economy. This situation requires accelerating the application of science and technology, digital transformation and the establishment of databases in order to strengthen forecasting, warning and decision-making capabilities.
| Storms, record rains and landslides marked the year 2025 in Vietnam. |
| Photo : VNA/CVN |
In 2025, natural disasters were particularly severe, with successive storms, record rains and large-scale landslides.
According to Pham Duc Luân, director of the Department of Dyke Management and Natural Disaster Prevention, these phenomena caused 468 deaths and missing people, 741 injured and economic losses estimated at nearly 98.7 trillion VND. Beyond the material damage, the consequences on the lives and livelihoods of populations are lasting.
Faced with this reality, the use of modern technologies in disaster prevention and management is a priority. This includes ensuring the safety of hydraulic and hydroelectric infrastructure, dams and dikes, while improving the capacity to combat flooding, particularly in urban areas. The modernization of these infrastructures must also meet multiple objectives, by promoting citizen participation in their management and operation.
With this in mind, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Nguyên Hoàng Hiêp, underlines the need to move from a fragmented approach to a global strategy, focused on resolving the major challenges linked to irrigation, water resources and disaster prevention. This orientation constitutes an essential lever for modernizing governance, guaranteeing water security and improving the efficiency of management of the sector.
Advanced technologies and proactive prevention
According to him, it is essential to reorganize scientific missions, to clearly distinguish fundamental research from applied research and to concentrate on removing the main “bottlenecks”. Projects must produce directly operational results, particularly in disaster monitoring, flood warning, reservoir management and control of hydraulic systems. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen support mechanisms, mobilize the necessary resources and put in place incentive policies to encourage business involvement.
In the short and medium term, the water resources sector will need to consolidate smart governance policies, accelerate digital transformation and strengthen water security. The application of technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence and modeling will need to be intensified in observation, forecasting and decision support activities.
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| Improving early warning systems, risk and damage assessment is essential to ensure rapid and accurate decision-making. |
| Photo : VNA/CVN |
Furthermore, the implementation of water resources accounting, the publication of water security indices and the restoration of degraded resources appear to be priorities. In the field of dikes and disaster prevention, it is essential to modernize technical infrastructures, to move from a reactive logic to a proactive approach and to strengthen the use of technologies in the management and protection of structures, as well as in the fight against floods and storms.
At the same time, improving early warning systems, risk and damage assessment is essential to ensure rapid and accurate decision-making.
In the longer term, the establishment of an integrated forecasting and warning system, associated with optimized operation of hydraulic structures, will make it possible to strengthen water saving and adaptation to climate change.
Finally, the development and application of new technologies and environmentally friendly materials, as well as the creation of sectoral databases integrated with digital transformation, will contribute to improving the quality of governance. The issues linked to water pollution, the restoration of watercourses and the recharge of groundwater tables must be addressed in a coordinated manner, with the participation of authorities, research institutes and experts.
Strengthened coordination between public, scientific and economic actors now stands out as the key to taking full advantage of technological advances, mitigating the effects of natural disasters and building a sustainable and resilient development model.
Xuan Loc/CVN
