Flood precautionary behaviour of private households in Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta

Flood risk is high and it is projected to increase in many places due to the effects of climate change and the on-going intensification of human activities in risk-prone areas. These projections and the considerable uncertainties associated with these developments increasingly require integrated approaches in flood risk management. In addition to flood protection, private precautionary measures aim at reducing the potential negative consequences of floods. Thus, insights into flood precautionary behaviour are important. This study is grounded on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), which refers to the cognitive process that people undergo when evaluating their own ability to avoid a certain risk. Results of a survey among 858 flood-prone households in Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam are presented. It is shown that flood-coping appraisal is an important variable in terms of precautionary behaviour. Thus, risk communication should focus more on the potential of precautionary measures to effectively reduce flood damage, as well as on information about how to implement such measures in practice.