Topographies of Resistance, Resilience, Bathymetrical Realities, and Dynamics of the Mekong and Sài Gòn-ồng Nai Deltas

The Mekong Delta (across Cambodia and Vietnam) and the Sài Gòn-Đồng Nai Delta (where Ho Chi Minh City is embedded), like most deltas, are typically considered a vast, relatively flat water-dominated and dynamic territory characterized by always evolving variations of wetness, multiplying by that multitudes of biotopes. Ancient and modern engineering developed with this overly simplified preconception and subsequently radically transformed the entire ecotones into sharp and categorical distinctions of wet and dry, primarily to create productive and protective landscapes for humankind within abstractly ordered and static landscape structures. Fluid gradients in elevation and humidity were systematically replaced by fixed elevations. Extractive monocultures on massive scales resulted simultaneously in gigantic harvests but also the loss of ecology and biodiversity that is largely irrecoverable. The paper critically unravels the historical development of the deltas in relation to their homeopathic topography: how its manipulation framed development agendas—of productive landscapes, of settlement, and of infrastructure—and was linked to both cosmological worldviews and territorial geo-politics. The micro-topographies of the deltas were significantly altered by the mighty Khmer Empire and Nguyễn Dynasty and since the 19th century by French and American occupiers and subsequently by Cambodians and Vietnamese projects. The paper utilizes several case studies to reveal that IKSP (indigenous knowledge systems and practices) have harnessed topographical manipulation for context-specific socio-cultural reproduction. A host of local practices, often in peripheral geographies, has either escaped the relentless “modernization” process or locally adapted to and/or intelligently subverted the imposed supra-order. There is a strong resistance and resilience (subversive by humans and geological by the forces of nature including sea level rise and subsidence) to imposed topographical manipulation. The cases, arranged from the least to the most intrusive and controlling land management practices, underscore that the deltas remain a territory that is culturally, religiously, and productively nuanced by topographical transformation. At the same time, there is clearly an innate, ever-changing nature of deltaic physiography and topography, which is simultaneously an asset and a vulnerability.