Sustainability assessment of coastal ecosystems: DPSIR analysis for beaches at the Northeast Coast of Vietnam

The Northeastern coastal zone of Vietnam possesses high biodiversity and rich ecosystems like coral reefs, seagrasses, beaches and mangroves. It also includes the Ha Long Bay Natural Heritage site (UNESCO 1994) and the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve (MAB/UNESCO 2004) as well as hosts the Economic Development Triangle (Hai Phong−Ha Noi–Quang Ninh) established by the Government of Vietnam. As one of the coastal ecosystems, sandy beach ecosystems attracted more attention during recent decades because of their essential role for human welfare and in environmental protection. A few studies concentrated on sustainable management of sandy beach based on environmental and ecological protection and enhance the beach quality for recreational use. The DPSIR (Driving force Pressure State Impact Response) framework describes the logical interaction among systems and finds out the cause and consequence of social-economic development activities to the environment and resources. In this study, the DPSIR was applied on the sandy beaches in the Northeastern coast of Vietnam to reveal the main environmental problems on sandy beaches including the decline of the natural landscape around the beaches and the degradation of the environment. It also pointed out that tourism development in association with urbanization and sea reclamation is the main driving forces for environmental degradation of the sandy beaches. Therefore, local authorities of Hai Phong and Quang Ninh should take into account several main responses to policies on inter-province coordination and managerial measures with a wider scope, which integrate socio-economic and physical factors, proximity, accessibility, and neighborhood to manage healthy coastal ecosystems and sandy beaches in particular. An integrated coastal management program for the Northeastern coast of Vietnam needs to be developed and carried out to follow the laws of Vietnam as well as to meet local urgent requirements.