Abstract

Vietnam is considered one of the countries most affected by climate change, which is imposing increasingly serious impacts on the natural environment in eight agricultural ecological regions in Vietnam, including the Northwest, Northeast, Northern Delta, North Central, South Central, Highland, Southeast, and Southwest regions. Assessing the resilience of the natural environment is important to identify solutions to cope with climate change for these regions. Therefore, this article aimed to research and develop a methodology for calculating indicator sets that reflect and assess the resilience of the natural environment toward climate change and conduct pilot calculations for the North Central region (including Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien Hue provinces) in 2017. The four main indicators that constitute the resilience of the natural environment of the North Central region are (1) diversity of natural environment; (2) anthropogenic pressures within carrying capacity;(3) flexible management of the natural environment, and (4) the ability to continue providing natural environment ecosystem services in the North Central region. The results of those indicators were 0.42, 0.75, 0.45, and 0.41, respectively, and the indicator of the resilience of the natural environment in the North Central region in 2017 was 0.50. The findings show that the resilience of the natural environment in the North Central region is average, and there is a need for adaptive measures that prioritize the ability to provide ecosystem services because that indicator had the lowest value (0.42) among the four indicators.