Content-Type: text/html

# Vietnam/Geography

HomePage | Vietnam | RecentChanges | Preferences
You can edit this page right now! It's a free, community project

Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the [Gulf of Thailand]?, [Gulf of Tonkin]?, and [South China Sea]?, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia

Geographic coordinates: 16 00 N, 106 00 E

Area:

     total: 329,560 sq km
     land: 325,360 sq km
     water: 4,200 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than [United States/New Mexico]?

Land boundaries:

     total: 4,639 km
     border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km, China 1,281 km, Laos 2,130 km

Coastline: 3,444 km (excludes islands)

Maritime claims:

     contiguous zone: 24 nm
     continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin
     exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
     territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (mid-May to mid-September) and warm, dry season (mid-October to mid-March)

Terrain: low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest

Elevation extremes:

     lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
     highest point: Ngoc Linh 3,143 m

Natural resources: phosphates?, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate?, offshore oil and gas deposits, forest?s, hydropower?

Land use:

     arable land: 17%
     permanent crops: 4%
     permanent pastures: 1%
     forests and woodland: 30%
     other: 48% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 18,600 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: occasional typhoon?s (May to January) with extensive flooding?

Environment - current issues:

Logging? and [slash-and-burn agricultural]? practices contribute to deforestation and [soil degradation]?; [water pollution]? and overfishing? threaten [marine life]? populations; [groundwater contamination]? limits [potable water]? supply; growing [urban industrialization]? and [population migration]? are rapidly degrading environment? in Hanoi? and [Ho Chi Minh City]?

Environment - international agreements:

party to: Biodiversity?, [Climate Change]?, Desertification, [Endangered Species]?, [Environmental Modification]?, [Hazardous Wastes]?, [Law of the Sea]?, [Ozone Layer Protection]?, [Ship Pollution]?, Wetlands?

signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, [Nuclear Test Ban]?

HomePage | Vietnam | RecentChanges | Preferences
You can edit this page right now! It's a free, community project
Edit text of this page | View other revisions
Last edited March 27, 2001 6:41 am (diff)
Search: