Note: Intro -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Abstract -- Zusammenfassung -- 1. Introduction and rationale -- 2. Theoretical background and thematic embedding -- 2.1 Relevant discourses on risk in human- environment interactions -- 2.1.1 Vulnerability and hazards -- 2.1.2 Adaptation and adaptive capacity -- 2.1.3 Resilience in coupled social ecological systems -- 2.2 Relations between concepts of vulnerability, adaptation and resilience -- 2.2.1 Vulnerability and resilience -- 2.2.2 Adaptive capacity and resilience -- 2.2.3 Vulnerability and adaptive capacity -- 2.2.4 Coping and adaptation -- 2.2.5 The role of exposure -- 2.2.6 Taxonomies of risk and vulnerability -- 2.3 Theoretical underpinnings of action related to vulnerability and adaptation -- 2.3.1 Deciphering action through agency, structure and structuration -- 2.3.2 Vulnerability as product of habitus and social fields -- 2.3.3 Relevance for this study -- 2.4 Vulnerability, adaptation and resilience in cities: Particularities, challenges, opportunities -- 2.4.1 Why do we need an urban focus? -- 2.4.2 Cities, hazards and risk: underemphasized perspectives and knowledge gaps -- 2.4.3 Urbanization as an agent of risk -- 2.4.4 Conceptualizing and assessing urban risk and vulnerability -- 2.4.5 Specific challenges in low and middle income countries -- 2.4.6 Urban potential for risk reduction and mitigation -- 2.5 Governance and management of urban risk and adaptation -- 2.5.1 Governance and risk management concepts -- 2.5.2 Entry points for governmental urban risk management -- 2.5.3 Relevance of urban governance perspectives -- 2.5.4 Challenges for (urban) risk and adaptation governance -- 3. Integrative framework for vulnerability and adaptation analysis. , 3.1 Synthesis on the deficits in hitherto approaches to vulnerability and adaptation -- 3.2 Setup and structure of the advanced integrative framework -- 3.3 Innovations, strengths and limits of the framework -- 4. Research context: Risk and transformation in Vietnam -- 4.1 Natural hazards and disaster risk management -- Natural hazards and disasters in the Mekong Delta and in Can Tho City -- Disaster risk management in Vietnam -- 4.2 Projected climate change impacts and adaptation policy -- Projected climate change (impacts) in the Mekong Delta and in Can Tho City -- Emerging climate adaptation policy in Vietnam -- 4.3 Socio-economic and political transformation: two parallel worlds? -- Đổi mới: its origin, progression and vulnerability effects -- 4.4 The political and administrative system revisited -- 4.5 State-society relations - under transformation? -- 4.6 Urbanization in Vietnam and the Mekong Delta -- Urban growth and expansion - driver of vulnerability? -- Root causes of social vulnerability in Vietnam's cities -- Urban upgrading projects and resettlement -- Local urban risk governance under transformation -- 4.7 Why focusing on Can Tho City? -- 4.8 Current state of risk assessments in Can Tho City, remaining knowledge gaps and resulting rationale -- 5. Methodology -- 5.1 Epistemological approach and research design -- 5.2 Applied mix of methods for data collection and analysis -- Fieldwork procedure -- Open and semi-structured household interviews -- Semi-structured expert interviews -- Standardized household surveys -- Focus group discussions -- Participatory Urban Appraisal -- Secondary data collection and analysis -- 5.3 Selection of case study areas -- 5.4 Obstacles and limits of data collection -- Research permissions and access to the field -- Political control and the difficulties of open discourse. , Language barriers and translation -- Quality and trustworthiness of secondary data -- 6. Analysis of primary empirical data -- 6.1 Governmental risk management in Can Tho City: Achievements and deficits -- 6.1.1 Disaster risk management -- 6.1.2 Urban planning and management -- 6.1.3 Formal climate change adaptation -- 6.1.4 Interim synthesis: synergies and gaps in formal risk management -- 6.2. Vulnerability and adaptation at household level -- 6.2.1 Hazard exposure -- 6.2.2 Susceptibility -- 6.2.3 Coping capacities and measures -- 6.2.4 Adaptive capacity and implemented adaptation measures -- 6.2.5 Interim synthesis: vulnerability, adaptive capacity and adaptation action at household level -- 7. Synthesis, discussion and reflection -- 7.1 Empirical and Contextual results -- 7.1.1 Governmental risk management: current and future capacities -- 7.1.2 Causal fabric of vulnerability and adaptive capacity at household level -- 7.1.3 (Dis-) integration of state and non-state adaptation action? -- 7.1.4 Climate risk narratives - environmental determinism reloaded? -- 7.1.5 Potentials and limits of hard vs. soft adaptation measures -- 7.1.6 Dynamic impacts of transformation on vulnerability and adaptive capacity -- 7.1.7 Implications for future vulnerability pathways -- 7.2 Epistemological and methodological Approach -- 7.2.1 Mixed method approach: usefulness and achievements -- 7.2.2 Remaining limits and black spots -- 7.3 Conceptual and theoretical Contributions -- 7.3.1 Advancing the reach and coherency of vulnerability and adaptation concepts -- 7.3.2 Accommodating dynamic developments and future-oriented assessments -- 7.3.3 Integrating new epistemic elements into adaptation concepts -- 7.3.4 Bridging between scales and actors in vulnerability and adaptation science. , 7.3.5 Linking development and adaptation agendas through generic and specific capacities -- 7.4 Recommendations for practitioners and policy makers -- 8. Conclusions and Outlook -- 9. References -- 10. Appendix -- 10.3. Lists of interviews -- 10.4. Summary of the flood hydrology in the Mekong Delta -- 10.5. Content of digital supplementary appendix.