Multi‐Scale Assessment of Population Exposure to Landslides in Vietnam

ABSTRACT Vietnam's complex terrain and monsoon climate create extensive landslide‐prone conditions, yet the population exposure patterns of its urban, rural, and demographic groups remain insufficiently quantified. This study combines the Global Landslide Non‐Susceptibility Map (GLNSM), high‐resolution population layers, urban–rural settlement data, and GADM administrative boundaries in ArcGIS 10.8 to estimate population exposure to landslide‐prone areas from the national scale to the district scale. Areas outside the GLNSM non‐susceptible class were treated as potentially landslide‐prone and overlaid with population grids. Results show that landslide‐prone zones cover approximately 107,491 km 2 , or 32.63% of Vietnam's land area, mainly in the Northeast, Northwest, North Central, South Central, and Central Highlands regions. Approximately 4.35 million people, or 4.47% of the national population, are exposed. Rural exposure is broader than urban exposure, while district‐level hotspots such as Mong Duong, Bai Chay, and Ward 7 reveal local concentrations that can be masked by provincial aggregation. Demographic overlays indicate differential exposure among men, women, women aged 15–49, adolescents, older adults, and children under five, and children under five showed the highest exposure rate among the examined demographic groups. The study demonstrates how multi‐scale GIS overlay can support spatially targeted landslide mitigation in data‐limited settings.