Natural disasters have negatively affected all countries, people in all terrains and regions without warning to anyone. In the past time, the world has suffered from heat waves, floods, earthquakes with a rare intensity and impact in history, raising concerns about extreme weather.

The reinsurance group Swiss Re recently announced that natural disasters in the world caused an estimated total of 72 billion USD in economic losses in the first half of 2022. The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) announced As of mid-August 2022, although summer in Europe has not ended, the current record of forest fires in this region has broken the record for the number of forest fires with nearly 660,000 hectares of forest destroyed. canceled as of January 2022.

In Asia, Korea recently faced a historic heavy rain during the past 115 years, causing a lot of damage to people and properties for Korean people in general and for Seoul in particular. On August 14, 2022, China continued to issue a red warning about hot weather, which is considered the most severe warning level in the country's 4-level weather warning system in color. In Vietnam, 2017 and 2020 recorded many natural disasters and great loss of life and property. In 2017, 386 people died and went missing, nearly 60,000 billion VND in damage; In 2020, there are 357 dead and missing people, nearly 40,000 billion VND in damage.

According to Mr. Le Quang Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation (General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control), the analysis of scientists shows that, despite the application of more advanced warning systems, help reduce human losses, but the economic losses are still very large. Storms, droughts, floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires and increasing extreme heat events, causing massive damage will be the biggest challenge to humans in 10 years coming, especially in less developed countries.

The Sendai Framework of Action encourages the participation of stakeholders to participate in natural disaster prevention and control. After the Sendai Framework was announced in 2015 in Japan, many global and regional forums in many cooperation blocks related to disaster prevention and control have promoted activities to apply technology to minimize the impact. community and socio-economic development activities. In Vietnam, from the block of state management agencies in charge of natural disasters, to the block of international and non-governmental organizations, the block of research organizations, scientists to the business sector and the community. The communities vulnerable to natural disasters all have activities to promote cooperation in order to strengthen the application and transfer of scientific advances to increase resilience for the community.

Strengthen international cooperation

In ASEAN cooperation, Vietnam has performed well its role as the national focal point, joining the position of Vice Chairman of the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) in 2022. The General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control is the national focal point. in co-decision with representatives of member countries in all important programs, actions, projects and tasks of ACDM, including cooperation and sharing of experience in applying science and technology for work. rapid assessment of disasters in ASEAN, training program for trainers on standards and certification of ASEAN regional experts in disaster management (ASCEND), Information and communication technology program, sending representatives to participate in the Council. chaired the ACDM Global Leadership Working Group together with Indonesia and Singapore.

In 2017, as the host economy of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC), at the Conference of Senior Officials on Disaster Management in Vinh City, Nghe An Province, Vietnam together represented member economies, unanimously approved the "Vinh Joint Recommendation on strengthening cooperation activities to promote the application of scientific advances in disaster risk reduction", approved by leaders of these economies. APEC economy recognizes and highly appreciates and directs the relevant authorities to base the Recommendations on to integrate the implementation.

The Disaster Risk Reduction Partnership, which has been re-established since 2019 is one of the activities highly appreciated by donors. Through joint activities such as organizing risk assessment teams and determining needs after each disaster to provide emergency support and relief. The Partner Office regularly shares information, experiences and unifies support activities in the localities. In 2020, through the coordination of the Partner Office, member organizations mobilized and supported the central provinces to overcome the consequences of hurricanes and floods with a total support budget of more than 25 million USD.

Over the past 5 years, there have been 8 bilateral and multilateral technical assistance projects implemented by partners in collaboration with the General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control, in which many projects support science promotion. technology and tools to support technical and decision-making such as completing the database on disaster damage, supporting the database on people's livelihoods, mainstreaming gender in natural disaster prevention and control, supporting based on early warning, child-focused climate change and disaster management, early warning-based support, urban risk reduction, etc. of partners from the United Nations (UNDP, UNICEF) , UNWOMEN, FAO, UNFPA…).

"Especially recently, Jica has coordinated with the General Department to implement a project on technical assistance to transfer Sabo dam technology to reduce risks caused by flash floods and landslides in some mountainous provinces. The Department continues to mobilize, manage and implement technical assistance projects from partners such as: GCF, GIZ, APDC, UNPFA, CRS to promote many other technical assistance cooperation in prevention work. , against natural disasters in Vietnam", Mr. Le Quang Tuan emphasized.

The General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote practical application of products and results of scientific research projects at ministerial/state level chaired by research institutes and universities. presently. Up to now, the General Department is coordinating with Institutes, Universities and functional units of the Ministry to manage 15 ministerial-level projects across 5 specialized groups, including: Policies, criteria to ensure disaster safety ; Safety of dike works; Preventing and combating riverbank and coastal erosion; Solutions to prevent and combat floods, flash floods and landslides; Disaster damage assessment tool. The research process has always closely followed and supported the State management tasks of the General Department in the field of natural disaster prevention and control. At the same time, managing to develop 14 technical standards and preside over the development of economic and technical norms related to disaster prevention activities.

With the orientation of promoting the application of information technology to support the direction and operation of disaster prevention and control nationwide. Since 2018, the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control has urged, poured all resources and determined to build the Vietnam Disaster Monitoring System (referred to as VNDMS). This is a system of disaster monitoring and timely retrieval of information according to needs, serving the direction and administration of natural disaster prevention and control, supporting decision-making of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control on the basis of Department of integration, data analysis and real-time online monitoring with many specialized data groups - said Mr. Bui Quang Huy, Deputy Director of DMPTC.

Currently, VNDMS has been developed on the Web and Apps interface used on smartphones, warning the community, automatically connecting Storm and tropical weather data from the Central Hydrometeorological Forecasting Center; building a login interface for disaster prevention agencies, effectively supporting the work on duty and monitoring natural disasters. Instead of using traditional communication tools, sharing information between officers on duty, staff of the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and the Provincial Steering Committees for Disaster Prevention and Control at all levels has become convenient. more convenient than ever.

In addition to the VNDMS system, which is operated on an online basis, decision support tools have also been paid attention to by the General Department, developed, gradually applied and adjusted appropriately to directly serve the task of directing. administering disaster prevention and control nationwide, such as: Inter-reservoir operation support tool connected to real-time online data of reservoirs built on webgis platform, along with calculated data. The audit of 6 consulting units has supported the effective operation of the inter-reservoir according to the process approved by the Prime Minister; riverbank and coastal erosion management tools to support the investment in landslide prevention works, online maps and cameras to monitor key points on dike routes across the country.

Identifying the application of disaster warning technology as one of the top priority tasks in the application of science and technology, in 2019, through the cooperation between the Institute of Geology and Minerals and the University Feng Chia (Taiwan), the General Department coordinated and directed the Lao Cai province's disaster prevention and control agency to coordinate and install the real-time mud and rock landslide early warning system. installed in Ban Khoang commune, Sapa district. Currently, the system is still operating and promoting well the warning effect for the community in Khoang commune.

According to Mr. Le Quang Tuan, every year, the General Department regularly organizes professional exchanges on flash flood and landslide warning solutions with the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism to update progress. new techniques and share them with Vietnamese partners. Through Jica organization, Japan has also transferred 2 Japanese standards on planning and design of works to prevent and control mud, rock and driftwood. On April 18, 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Decision No. 1261/QD-BNN-PCTT on the approval of the two standards mentioned above in the pilot projects to build dams to prevent the flow of mud and rock. in Vietnam for a pilot period of 6 years (from 2019-2024).