Damming the Mekong: Impacts in Vietnam and Solutions

Nhân, Nguyễn Hữu; Nguyen, Ba Cao

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-814003-1.00019-8

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Sustainable development (S7-SD): this scenario explores the possibility of countering the effects of climate change and effective sea-level rise on flood hazard with sustainable development measures. The planned hydropower development was excluded, because it is a non-sustainable development causing a series of problems on delta sediment equilibrium, river bank erosion, flood dynamics (Kondolf et al, 2014;Anthony et al, 2015;Pokhrel et al, 2018a;Pokhrel et al, 2018b;Schmitt et al, 2018;Hecht et al, 2019;Nhan and Cao, 2019). S7-SD is the combination of the scenarios S2-FR, S4-CC and S5-SLR.…”

Section: Business As Usual (S6-bau)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Future projections of flood dynamics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Triet

Dũng

Hoang

et al. 2020

Science of The Total Environment

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The annual flood pulse of the Mekong River is crucial to sustain agriculture production, nutrition, and the livelihood of millions of people living in the Vietnamese part of the Mekong Delta (VMD). However, climate change impacts on precipitation, temperature and sea-level combined with land subsidence, upstream hydropower development, and water infrastructures (i.e. high-dykes construction) are altering the hydrological regime of the VMD.This study investigates future changes in flood hazard and agricultural production caused by these different scales of human-induced stresses. A quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) hydrodynamic model was used to simulate eight scenarios representing the individual and compound impacts of these drivers for a baseline and future (2036-2065) period. The scenarios map the most likely future pathway of climate change (RCP 4.5) combined with the best available Mekong upstream hydropower development, and land subsidence scenarios as well as the current delta development plan. We found that sea-level rise and land subsidence would cause the highest changes in flood hazard and damage to rice crop, followed by hydropower and climate change impacts. Expansion of high-dyke areas in two northernmost delta provinces (An Giang and Dong Thap) would have the smallest impact. The combination of all modelled drivers is projected to increase delta inundation extent by 20%, accompanied with prolonging submergence of 1-2 months, and 2-3 times increase in annual flood damage to rice crops in the flood-prone areas of the VMD. These findings of likely increasing risk of tidal induced flood hazard and damage call for well-planned adaptation and mitigation measures, both structural and non-structural. Highlights Climate change, hydropower, dyke development, sea-level rise and delta land subsidence strongly alter the delta future flood hazard and damage.  Higher flood extent (22-26%) and prolong inundation (1-2 months) are mainly driven by effective sea-level 5 rise and climate change.  Hydropower development might counteract the increase flood hazard and damage driven by climate change.  A reliable seasonal flood forecast (by August) would effective help to minimize agriculture flood damage.  Emerging call to develop flood management plan with focus on tidal induce inundation hazard.

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Section: Business As Usual (S6-bau)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Future projections of flood dynamics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Triet

Dũng

Hoang

et al. 2020

Science of The Total Environment

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“…This would displace agriculture, in spite of efforts to adapt cropping systems to elevated levels of Similar tradeoffs between agriculture and aquaculture extend across Asia, including Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Taiwan [68,88,99,103,[106][107][108] and are being exacerbated-often across great distances-by the construction of hydroelectric dams. The hydrological changes brought on by impoundment of rivers such as the Mekong inevitably lead to conflicts between energy and other economic interests [109], including agriculture and aquaculture [110][111][112][113][114][115]. Although these dynamics have been considered within a WEF framework [116,117], most attention has focused on pairwise interactions of energy and agriculture or energy and aquaculture rather than the role of hydroelectric infrastructure as a mediator of the relationship between agriculture and agriculture [118,119].…”

Section: Tradeoffs Between Semi-closed Aquaculture and Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Water and Land as Shared Resources for Agriculture and Aquaculture: Insights from Asia

Pueppke

Nurtazin

2020

Water

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Although agriculture and aquaculture depend on access to increasingly scarce, shared water resources to produce food for human consumption, they are most often considered in isolation. We argue that they should be treated as integrated components of a single complex system that is prone to direct or indirect tradeoffs that should be avoided while also being amenable to synergies that should be sought. Direct tradeoffs such as competition for space or the pollution of shared water resources usually occur when the footprints of agriculture and aquaculture overlap or when the two practices coexist in close proximity to one another. Interactions can be modulated by factors such as hydropower infrastructure and short-term economic incentives, both of which are known to disrupt the balance between aquaculture and agriculture. Indirect tradeoffs, on the other hand, play out across distances, i.e., when agricultural food sources are diverted to feed animals in aquaculture. Synergies are associated with the culture of aquatic organisms in rice paddies and irrigation waters, seasonal rotations of crop cultivation with aquaculture, and various forms of integrated agriculture–aquaculture (IAA), including jitang, a highly developed variant of pond-dike IAA. Policy decisions, socioeconomic considerations, and technology warrant increased scrutiny as determinants of tradeoffs and synergies. Priority issues for the future include guiding the expansion of aquaculture from its traditional base in Asia, taking advantage of the heterogeneity that exists within both agricultural and aquaculture systems, the development of additional metrics of tradeoffs and synergies, and adapting to the effects of climate change.

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“…The focus of this paper is on the impacts of natural hazards, land use patterns and climate change on rice agriculture in the Mekong and Red River Deltas in Vietnam. While we focused on rice agriculture, these two deltas, like many other mega-deltas worldwide, are also major production hubs for fruits and vegetables (Day et al, 2016;Nhan and Cao, 2019). Hence, the natural hazards and anthropogenic factors listed will have an effect on other agricultural produce as well.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interacting effects of land-use change, natural hazards and climate change on rice agriculture in Vietnam

Yuen

Hanh

Quynh³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Vietnam is a major rice producer and much of the rice grown is concentrated in the Red River Delta (RRD) and the Mekong River Delta (MRD). While the two mega-deltas are highly productive regions, they are vulnerable to natural hazards and the effects of human related environmental change. The natural hazards that affect Vietnam include typhoons, floods and droughts while the major anthropogenic developments happening in Vietnam include dike development, sand mining, dam construction and groundwater extraction. Outbreaks of pests and diseases are also common. Although there is a substantial volume of work investigating the environmental impacts of these natural hazards and anthropogenic interventions, few studies have examined the implications of these on food security. To show that the processes and issues affecting food security are reinforcing and interdependent, we used a systems thinking approach to represent the ways in which natural hazards, anthropogenic land-use and climate change affect rice production in the two mega-deltas. A key finding is that anthropogenic developments meant to improve agricultural productivity or increase economic development create many unwanted environmental consequences such as an increase in flooding, saltwater intrusion and land subsidence which in turn create other negative feedbacks on rice production and quality. In addition, natural hazards may amplify the problems created by human activities. In future, besides creating new environmental threats, climate change may exacerbate the effects of natural hazards by increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters. Our meta-analysis highlights the ways in which a systems thinking approach can yield more nuanced perspectives to tackle complex and interrelated environmental challenges. Given that mega-deltas worldwide are globally significant for food production and are highly stressed and degraded landscapes, a systems thinking approach can be applied to provide a holistic and contextualized overview of the threats faced in each location.

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Damming the Mekong: Impacts in Vietnam and Solutions

Cited by 17 publications

References 36 publications

Future projections of flood dynamics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Future projections of flood dynamics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Water and Land as Shared Resources for Agriculture and Aquaculture: Insights from Asia

Interacting effects of land-use change, natural hazards and climate change on rice agriculture in Vietnam

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