Between 2021 and 2025, Cao Bang experienced 90 natural disaster events, causing estimated losses of nearly 5.918 trillion VND. Most alarming was 2025 alone, when 22 disaster episodes generated over 4.2 trillion VND in damages, devastating infrastructure, disrupting livelihoods, and exposing the province’s vulnerability to extreme weather. Two consecutive floods in late September and early October 2025 submerged major urban zones, including central wards, after approximately 520 million cubic meters of upstream water surged through Cao Bang’s steep terrain and short river systems in a compressed period. These events revealed that conventional drainage and administrative planning models are no longer sufficient for emerging climate realities.
Recognizing this, provincial authorities, in partnership with national planning experts and scientific institutions, are now promoting a new philosophy: “living with water” rather than simply fighting it. This approach marks a strategic departure from fragmented, site-by-site flood control toward integrated watershed-scale risk management. Instead of planning solely by administrative boundaries, experts argue urban and infrastructure systems must be organized according to entire river basins, hydrological corridors, and ecological carrying capacity.
A central priority is protecting flood escape corridors and restricting urban expansion into high-risk zones. In mountainous provinces like Cao Bang, where topography can rapidly intensify runoff, preserving natural water pathways is essential to reducing catastrophic flood concentration. This means land use planning must become more predictive, ecological, and data-driven.
Technology is also becoming a cornerstone of Cao Bang’s climate adaptation strategy. Experts at the province’s April 17 scientific conference emphasized integrating GIS systems, CIM platforms, Digital Twin urban models, and artificial intelligence into disaster monitoring and planning. These tools can provide real-time flood simulations, infrastructure vulnerability assessments, and early warning systems—transforming disaster governance from reactive management into anticipatory control.
Equally important is governance reform. Climate-resilient urbanization requires stronger institutional coordination across sectors including planning, transport, housing, hydrology, and emergency management. This systemic approach is especially crucial for mountainous cities where environmental pressures and development demands intersect sharply.
Cao Bang’s challenge also presents an opportunity. By pioneering adaptive planning for mountainous urban systems, the province could become a national model for other northern midland and upland regions facing similar threats. The concept of a “smart territory—living with water” offers not only local resilience but potentially a replicable framework for climate adaptation across Vietnam.
Ultimately, Cao Bang’s experience underscores a broader truth: climate change is not just an environmental issue—it is an urban design challenge, a governance challenge, and a survival challenge.
In the years ahead, the cities that endure will not be those that resist nature blindly, but those that learn to design intelligently around it. For Cao Bang, building with climate in mind may be the key to transforming vulnerability into resilience and turning disaster lessons into a safer urban future. |