Designing a National Landslide Risk Information System for Vietnam

Vietnam faces substantial landslide risk, with the highest number of reported landslide-related fatalities in Southeast Asia. Approximately 70% of the country’s territory is mountainous or hilly, and landslides recur annually during the rainy season from June to November, particularly in northern and central provinces. The severe impacts of Typhoon Yagi in September 2024, which caused 323 fatalities and an estimated USD 3.47 billion in damages, further highlighted systemic gaps in landslide risk information and early warning. 
In response, the Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and GIZ initiated a scoping study to explore the development of a national landslide risk information system. The study’s primary objective is to assess the feasibility of establishing a landslide risk information system in Vietnam through a systematic review of existing data, tools, systems, and methodologies. It seeks to define a practical framework covering technical design, institutional arrangements, and capacity-building needs, and to develop a phased roadmap with indicative cost estimates and implementation timelines to guide future investment and system development
The aim of this contribution is to document the first stage of the scoping study, including initial stakeholder consultations and preliminary findings, and to define how these will inform the subsequent assessment and development of recommendations. The study applies a data maturity assessment framework based on a structured questionnaire covering seven dimensions of a landslide risk information system: data access and sharing, digital applications and services, information and communication technology infrastructure, staff competencies, institutionalisation and partnerships, governance, and disaster risk reduction collaboration. 
The inception phase confirms that effective landslide early warning in Vietnam requires a multi-level system that links national technical capacity with provincial coordination and commune-level action. At the national level, the Department of Geology and Mines has been identified as a potential nodal agency for maintaining a national landslide database, working in coordination with the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre for forecasting, the Disaster Management Policy and Technology Centre for capacity development, and the National Remote Sensing Department for satellite-based monitoring. At the provincial level, significant capacity strengthening is needed to digitise commune-level data, integrate scientific and community-based risk maps, and translate national warnings into village-specific advisories. At the communal level, priorities include the use of simple smartphone-based reporting tools, the development of community-based disaster risk management maps, and the dissemination of warnings through established platforms such as Zalo.
Several structural and technical challenges constrain the development of such a system. These include restrictions on data sharing and protection, limited and short-term funding arrangements, high staff turnover, the absence of unified technical standards, and regulatory constraints that limit innovation. Critically, the lack of systematic and georeferenced landslide reporting impedes the development of reliable thresholds and evidence-based risk assessments. In addition, the absence of digitised village-level risk maps and real-time monitoring capacity limits local decision-making and increases the likelihood of overly generalised or inaccurate warnings at the commune level.