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Introduction
Inhabitation of floodplains is not unusual ([19] Park and Miller, 1982; [7] Handmer, 1995; [5] Granger and Hayne, 2001) especially in Vietnam, where almost all cities and towns are located in riverside or coastal areas ([24] Tinh and Herath, 2005). However, an unusual overdevelopment of floodplains outside dyke is happening in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The city is highly vulnerable to flood and has thousand years history of building dyke to protect its inhabitants. Nevertheless, due to the rapid urbanisation during the last two decades, rapid inhabitation has taken place in the floodplain areas outside the dyke without proper planning. The overdevelopment of these areas, displacing places for flood inundation and obstructing the river flow, is considered as one of the main reasons for increasing the flood vulnerability of not only the riverside urban areas (RUA) but also the whole city ([25] Uyen, 2002). Hence, RUA of Hanoi forms the present case study.
Rapid population growth of 1.6 times was recorded in these areas during 2000-2004 ([25] Uyen, 2002). This development has continued even after the approval and implementation of construction regulations dealing with illegal construction, and Ordinances on Dyke protecting the dyke and regulating the growth of the RUA.
Among major reasons (other reasons such as availability of options, public participation and policy are beyond the scope of this paper) for the rapid increase of population and their building activities in the RUA were some related to location's advantages such as low land price and cool summer breeze that comes from the river. In addition to these, it was likely that the institutional measures such as regulating policies and implementation processes, which ignored community perception of flood risk, were unsuccessful in changing people behaviour. Thus, the question arises about what should be done to seek enhanced perception that changes residents' behaviour? This question has not yet been answered in the past studies of the RUA. As the problem is accelerating and residents are becoming more vulnerable, it is high time to investigate the role of community perception of catastrophic flood risk in the overdevelopment of the RUA.
This article provides an insight into flood risk, community structure and the unsustainable trend of urban development of Hanoi and the RUA; and analyses results...