Building urban resilience in Vietnam’s built environment sector
Project facts
- Partner
- International Finance Corporation (IFC)
- Location
- Vietnam
- Date
- 01/2023 - 06/2026
- Challenge
- Vietnam’s buildings face rising climate hazards but lack the tools and standards needed to assess resilience.
- Solution
- The Building Resilience Index (BRI) Programme provides a simple system to assess hazards, verify resilience, and strengthen resilience capacity within the built-environment sector.
At IFC’s request, Haskoning partnered with IFC during the piloting of its BRI tool in Vietnam in evaluating location-specific climate-related risks for a number of real estate projects in the country.
The impact in numbers in association with Haskoning
The challenge
Vietnam’s built environment sector is increasingly exposed to climate induced hazards such as typhoons, extreme rainfall, flooding and landslides. Recent events like Yagi Storm in 2024 and the severe urban flooding in Phu Yen in 2025 highlight how climate extremes are becoming more intense and unpredictable. With climate impacts escalating, local norms alone are no longer sufficient, and despite growing awareness of climate risks, the sector still lacks consistent, standardised tools and methodologies to assess and enhance building resilience, underscoring a widening gap in the adoption of international frameworks and standards. As climate conditions evolve, developers, financiers, and regulators struggle to integrate resilience measures into design, construction, retrofitting, maintenance, and emergency planning leaving critical infrastructure increasingly vulnerable and heightening the likelihood of significant financial losses.
Through IFC's Building Resilience Index project, we are not only assessing and verifying projects but actively shaping a safer, climate-resilient future for construction sector. Our work demonstrates how global best practices can be adapted locally to deliver lasting impact.
The solution
The Building Resilience Index (BRI) tool is a structured, web-based framework developed by IFC to assess the resilience features of buildings.
Haskoning has supported the piloting and refinement of the BRI tool, drawing lessons from its application in Viet Nam since 2023. This work began with validating and updating global hazard maps for Vietnam, evolved to strengthening the BRI’s technical criteria and application in-country, and has now expanded to supporting broader application and market-wide scaling of the BRI.
During the early rollout of the BRI in Vietnam, our focus was on guiding developers and property owners through the self assessment process, delivering accredited verification assessments, and providing expert technical feedback to improve the tool’s functionality and relevance in the local context. Through detailed design reviews, site visits, and close technical engagement, we have contributed directly to IFC’s ongoing refinement of the BRI framework, helping ensure it is both technically robust and practically applicable for the Vietnamese market.
Building on this foundation, our work has expanded to support wider market uptake and scaling of the BRI. This includes embedding consistent, high quality resilience assessment practices across a diverse range of building types and functions, helping stakeholders move from isolated assessments toward a more systematic, market wide approach to climate resilience.
Investing early to make buildings more resilient and erecting them in more secure locations are crucial ways to save lives, minimize costs, and protect development investments.
The result
The IFC's BRI program delivered resilience evaluations for multiple building types, including commercial, residential, industrial, and infrastructure projects. These evaluations addressed wind, water, fire, and geo-seismic hazards, using a consistent and IFC-aligned resilience assessment framework. Verified projects received practical, actionable recommendations to strengthen design and operational practices, improving climate-proofing and reducing overall risk exposure over the asset lifecycle.
By mainstreaming standardised resilience assessments and independent verification, the initiative enhances the credibility and comparability of resilience outcomes for the market. In parallel, it builds local technical capacity among engineers and practitioners, benefiting developers, insurers, financiers, and communities. Additionally, the program contributes to safer, more resilient cities and supports Vietnam’s climate adaptation objectives by embedding resilience into routine project planning, design and investment decision making.
Case Study: Kingspan Factory Vietnam
- Location: Phu Mu, Tan Thanh, Ba Ria – Vung Tau (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
- Project Developer: Kingspan Vietnam
- Project Type: Industrial
- BRI Rating: B
The Kingspan Factory Vietnam earned a B rating under the Building Resilience Index (BRI), showing that it incorporates essential resilience measures at a foundational level. The project demonstrates Kingspan’s commitment to advancing climate and disaster resilience in Vietnam’s industrial sector.
Resilient design in Southeast Asia
Delivering climate-resilient impact
Local adaptation with global standards
Our approach integrates globally recognised best practices with comprehensive local hazard data, ensuring that resilience strategies are both internationally benchmarked and tailored to local climate and geo-seismic challenges.
Climate-proof design expertise
We support advanced resilience assessments and recommendations to safeguard buildings against wind, water, fire, and geo-seismic hazards, ensuring long-term climate adaptation.
Capacity building for climate resilience
We empower stakeholders through training, case studies, and verifier exam development, fostering a skilled workforce for sustainable resilience adoption.
Proven partnership with International Finance Corporation
Trusted by the International Finance Corporation, we deliver impactful projects that enhance building resilience and attract investment in climate-proof development.
How we Enhance Society Together
SDG 9
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: BRI reduces vulnerability and improves the reliability of built assets by advancing climate‑informed, innovative engineering and verification practices, while making resilience assessment accessible to key stakeholders.
SDG 11
Sustainable Cities and Communities: The project promotes resilient urban development by integrating climate-proofing measures into building design and verification, ensuring safer and more sustainable infrastructure.
SDG 13
Climate Action: By addressing climate-related hazards and implementing adaptation measures through the Building Resilience Index, the project supports proactive climate action and risk reduction.
