The fast economic growth in Vietnam’s urban areas and the the lack of control of polluting sources are causing public health problems and significant environmental degradation, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, undermining the potential for sustainable socioeconomic development of the country and impacting the poor.
Any cost-effective set of policy interventions to improve air quality in a city like Hanoi needs to address emissions from a wide range of sources in many different economic sectors, not only within the city domain, but also in the surrounding provinces. This poses new challenges to environmental management and governance systems, where often necessary communication and coordination channels across-economic sectors and regional administrations are less developed. In addition, the design of effective policy interventions must be informed by scientific information covering a wide range of scientific disciplines, including technology research, economics, atmospheric science, and epidemiology, and by systems thinking that distills relevant information from different disciplines. Traditionally, such integration is less developed in the scientific world, hampering an effective interactions between science and decision makers.
A new form of collaborative systems research with outreach to decision makers
As a new form of collaborative research between IIASA and its National Member Organizations, a collaborative project between IIASA’s AIR and ESM programs and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) aims to develop the scientific infrastructure for a long-lasting science-policy interface for air quality management in Vietnam. In particular, the project will
- develop a multi-disciplinary research community in Vietnam on integrated air quality management, and
- provide local decision makers with the capacity to develop cost-effective management plans for the Hanoi metropolitan area and surrounding regions and, in the longer-term, the whole of Vietnam.
Key activities
- Implementation of the GAINS model tool for five regions in Northern Vietnam, i.e. Hanoi, Bac Ninh,
- Compilation of corresponding databases on economic activities, emissions, emission control options, and demography, as well as emission source apportionments for these five regions
- Development of a citizen-science GEO-WIKI tool to facilitate a bottom-up assessment of emissions from craft villages, which are poorly documented (in cooperation with IIASA's ESM program)
- Illustrative cost-effectiveness analyses of policy intervention options
- Training of technical personal of the responsible administrations
Progress
- The kick-off meeting for the project took place in Hanoi from 18-21 December 2017.
- A report on the first phase of the project was presented at a workshop held in Hanoi on 26 October 2018, which also marked the formal launch of the GAINS-Vietnam model.
Project partners
- The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST)