Dr Thong Tran
Areas of expertise
- Social Change 160805
- Environmental Sociology 160802
- Natural Resource Management 050209
- Human Geography 1604
- Rural Sociology 160804
Research interests
- (Transboundary) environmental governance
- Human-environment relationships
- Environment and development nexus
- State-society interactions in environment and development
- Social learning
- Climate change adaptation
- Institutional change
- Rural livelihoods
- Mainland Southeast Asia
Biography
Dr Thong Tran is an Honorary Lecturer at Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Science, The Australian National University, where he obtained his PhD in Human Ecology in 2017. His research agenda focuses on climate-development dynamics and sustainability in mainland Southeast Asia. He works on interdisciplinary areas of environmental governance with a particular focus on (transboundary) environmental commons, rural agricultural innovations, climate change adaptation, social learning, livelihood resilience, environmental justice, and institutional change. From January 2018 to May 2021, he was a Research Fellow at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, working on transboundary water challenges driven by upstream hydropower development and climate change in the Mekong region. Currently, he is a Research Fellow (Human Geography) at School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, engaging in an ACIAR-funded project "Next generation agricultural extension: Social relations for practice change" led by Associate Professor Brian Robert Cook. The project aims to reconceptualise agricultural extension as social relations and develop a social model of agricultural extension, focusing on Battambang and Pailin provinces in Cambodia.
Dr Thong Tran serves as an Associate Editor for (1) Society and Natural Resources and (2) Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of (1) Journal of Flood Risk Management providing an international platform for knowledge sharing in all areas related to flood risk, and (2) International Journal of Water Resources Development publishing developments in water management and policy-making for water resources.
Researcher's projects
Research fellow in the research project "Next generation agricultural extension: Social relations for practice change", funded by ACIAR and led by Associate Professor Brian Robert Cook, The University of Melbourne, August 2022-present.
Co-investigator in the research project "Between vulnerability and resilience: Hydrosocial and agrarian transitions in the Mekong Delta from An Giang Province, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia" with Dr Ming Li Yong, East-West Centre, the US in partnership with Asian Vision Institute, Cambodia, funded by Luce Foundation and NASA, July 2022-July 2026.
Project partner to the EEKN (Estuarine Ecological Knowledge Network) research project endorsed by the United Nations Ocean Decade Program and the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, led by Associate Professor Grant S. McCall, Department of Anthropology at Tulane University, the U.S.
Consultant to the research project "To flood or to flee? A comparative study on flood-driven migration as a way to adapt to climate change in the Lower Mekong River Basin" funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan and led by Assistant Professor Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak, Department of Geography of National Taiwan Normal University, February 2020-February 2024.
Research fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Education’s Social Science Research Council (SSRC) grant titled "Sustainable governance of transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia" co-led by Professor David Taylor (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore) and Professor Jonathan Rigg (School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, the UK), hosted at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, January 2018-May 2021.
Co-investigator in the research project "Evaluating social and environmental impacts of intensive rice production and pesticide use on water quality in the Lower Mekong Region: Case studies of An Giang, Vietnam and Chiang Rai, Thailand" funded by SUMERNET (Sustainable Mekong Research Network), June 2020-December 2022.
Principal investigator in the research project “Freshening salinity areas: Implications of Ba Lai irrigation scheme for agro-ecosystems and household adaptation in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province" funded by SEARCA's (Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture) Seed Fund for Research and Training Program, January-December 2020.
Principal investigator in the research project “Impacts of pesticides on hired applicators’ health in Chau Thanh district, An Giang Province, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta” funded by the Research Center for Rural Development, An Giang University, Vietnam, June 2011-June 2012.
Co-investigator in the research project “Implications of hydropower projects in the Mekong mainstream and the role of sediments and wild fish to rural households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: A case study in An Giang province" funded by VRN (Vietnam Rivers Network), Vietnam, June-December 2011.
Principal investigator in the research project “Impacts of saline intrusion on poor households’ livelihoods in the coastal areas of Ben Tre province, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta” funded by the SIDA/SAREC-funded project on sustainable rural development (RDViet) under the Department of Urban and Rural Development (SOL), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF), Vietnam, January-December 2010.
Principal investigator in the research project “Women’s role in their livelihood activities in flood seasons – A case study in Tan Chau, An Giang, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta” funded by the Research Center for Rural Development, An Giang University, Vietnam, January-December 2010.
Publications
- Tran, T A & Pittock, J 2024, 'When water policies derail livelihood aspirations: Farmers agency in everyday politics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Environmental Sociology, 1-12.
- Tran, T A & Cook, B R 2024, 'Water retention for agricultural resilience in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Towards integrated ‘grey-green’ solutions', International Journal of Water Resources Development, 40(3), 532–553.
- Le, V T H, Tran, T A & Rola-Rubzen, M F 2023, 'How subjectivities and subject-making influence community participation in climate change adaptation: The case of Vietnam', Climatic Change, 176(156), 1–23.
- Tran, T A 2023, Solutions for Vietnam's water scarce Delta. East Asia Forum.
- Bayrak, M M, Hieu, T V, Tran, T A, Hsu, Y -Y, Nien, T & Quynh, D T T 2023, 'Climate change adaptation responses and human mobility in the Mekong Delta: Local perspectives from rural households in An Giang Province, Vietnam', Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1–14.
- Tran, D, Park, E, Tran, T A, Vo T T & Le, P T 2023, 'Socio-hydrological trade-offs arising from triple cropping in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Revisiting environmental impacts and adaptation pathways', Environmental Technology and Innovation, 29, 102987.
- Keovilignavong, O, Tran, T A & Bounyasouk, T 2023, 'Tea farming communities' perceptions of Fairtrade and COVID-19 in Phongsali district of Laos', Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society, 54(2), 271–291.
- Tran, T A 2022, The Mekong delta's transboundary water problems. East Asia Forum.
- Tran, T A, Rigg, J, Taylor, D, Miller, M A, Pittock, J & Le, P T 2022, 'Social memory in the Mekong’s changing floodscapes: Narratives of agrarian communities’ adaptation', Human Ecology, 50, 879–893.
- Tran, T A, Tran, H, Pittock, J & Cook B R 2022, 'Political ecology of freshening the Mekong's coastal delta: Narratives of place-based land-use dynamics', Journal of Land Use Science, 17(1), 471–486.
- Tran, T A & Tortajada, C 2022, 'Responding to transboundary water challenges in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: In search of institutional fit', Environmental Policy and Governance, 32(4), 331–347.
- McCall, G, Akpan, A, Banaduc, D, Figueroa, D, Fontoura, N, Hitchcock, R, Horn, S, Kar, D & Tran, T A 2022, 'The estuarine ecological knowledge network makes progress: International project sites and potential ways forward', Marine Technology Society Journal, 56(3), 116–117.
- Tran, T A, Dang, T D, Nguyen, T H & Pham, H T V 2021, 'Moving towards sustainable coastal adaptation: Analysis of hydrological drivers of saltwater intrusion in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Science of the Total Environment, 770, 1–11.
- Poelma, T, Bayrak, M, Nha, D V & Tran, T A 2021, 'Climate change and livelihood resilience capacities in the Mekong Delta: a case study on the transition to rice-shrimp farming in Vietnam's Kien Giang Province', Climatic Change, 164(9), 1–20.
- Tran, T A, Pittock, J & Tran, D D 2020, 'Adaptive flood governance in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: A policy innovation of the North Vam Nao scheme, An Giang Province', Environmental Science and Policy, 108, 45–55.
- Dang, T & Tran, T 2020, 'Rural Industrialization and Environmental Governance Challenges in the Red River Delta, Vietnam', Journal of Environment and Development, 29(4), 420–448.
- Tran, T A & Suhardiman, D 2020, 'Laos' hydropower development and cross-border power trade in the Lower Mekong Basin: A discourse analysis', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 61(2), 219–235.
- Tran, T A, James, H & Nhan, D K 2020, 'Effects of social learning on rural farmers' adaptive capacity: Empirical insights from the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Society and Natural Resources, 33(9), 1053–1072.
- Tran, T A 2020, 'From free to forced adaptation: A political ecology of the 'state-society-flood' nexus in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 61(1), 162–182.
- Nguyen, H Q, Tran, D D, Dang, K K, Korbee, D, Pham, L D M H, Vu, L T, Luu, T T, Ho, L H, Nguyen, P T, T. Ngo, T T, Nguyen, D T K, Wyatt, A, van Aalst, M, Tran, T A & Sea, W B 2020, 'Land-use dynamics in the Mekong delta: From national policy to livelihood sustainability', Sustainable Development, 28(3), 448–467.
- Tran, T A & Le, A T 2020, 'Policy transfer into flood management in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: A North Vam Nao study', International Journal of Water Resources Development, 36(1), 106–126.
- Tran, T A 2020, 'Learning as an everyday adaptation practice in the rural Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Climate and Development, 12(7), 610–613.
- Pham, H T V, Febriamansyah, R, Afrizal, A & Tran, T A 2020, 'Adapting to saline intrusion: Empirical insights from two coastal areas in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 28 (2), 1553–1566.
- Tran, T A & Rodela, R 2019, 'Integrating farmers' adaptive knowledge into flood management and adaptation policies in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: A social learning perspective', Global Environmental Change, 55, 84–96.
- Tran, T A 2019, 'Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Land Use Policy, 88, 104157.
- Tran, T A, Nguyen, T H & Vo, T T 2019, 'Adaptation to flood and salinity environments in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Empirical analysis of farmer-led innovations', Agricultural Water Management, 216, 89–97.
- Tran, T A, Pittock, J & Le, A T 2019, 'Adaptive co-management in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Examining the interface between flood management and adaptation', International Journal of Water Resources Development, 35(2), 325–341.
- Tran, T A & James, H 2019, 'Changing livelihood options as adaptation: A comparative analysis of three flood control schemes in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', in Helen James (ed.), Population, Development, and The Environment: Challenges to Achieving the Sustainable development goals in the Asia Pacific, Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore, 137–154.
- Tran, T A, James, H & Pittock, J 2018, 'Social learning through rural communities of practice: Empirical evidence from farming households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 16, 31–44.
- Pham, H T V, Febriamansyah, R, Afrizal, A & Tran, T A 2018, 'Government intervention and farmers' adaptation to saline intrusion: A Case study in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 8(5), 2142–2148.
- Tran, T A & James, H 2017, 'Transformation of household livelihoods in adapting to the impacts of flood control schemes in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta', Water Resources and Rural Development, 9, 67–80.
- Vo, T T, Tran, T A & Luong, D 2017, 'Water governance for sustainable development: International practices and implications for the Mekong Delta region', Journal of Economic Development, 24(4), 99–120.
