The Mekong River Basin

Ecohydrological Complexity from Catchment to Coast

1st Edition - April 22, 2024
Editors: Hong Quan Nguyen, Heiko Apel, Quang Bao Le, Minh Tu Nguyen, Venkataramana Sridhar
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 0 8 1 4 - 6
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 1 4 5 0 - 5

The Mekong River Basin: Ecohydrological Complexity from Catchment to Coast, Volume Three presents real facts, data and predictions for quantifying human-induced changes throughou… Read more

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The Mekong River Basin: Ecohydrological Complexity from Catchment to Coast, Volume Three presents real facts, data and predictions for quantifying human-induced changes throughout the Mekong watershed, including its estuaries and coasts, and proposes solutions to decrease or mitigate the negative effect and enable sustainable development. This is the first work to link socio–ecological interaction study over the whole Mekong River basin through the lens of ecohydrology. Each chapter is written by a leading expert, with coverage on climate change, groundwater, land use, flooding drought, biodiversity and anthropological issues.

Human activities are enormous in the whole watershed and are still increasing throughout the catchment, with severe negative impacts on natural resources are emerging. Among these activities, hydropower dams, especially a series of 11 dams in China, are the most critical as they generate massive changes throughout the system, including in the delta and to the livelihoods of millions of people and they threaten sustainability.

Cover image
Title page
Table of Contents
Copyright
Contributors
About the editors
Foreword
Preface
Introduction chapter
1. Eco-hydrology—a new approach to sustainable river basin management
2. Eco-hydrological issues in Mekong River Basin
3. The eco-hydrological frameworks applied in the book
4. Book chapters outline and storyline
Section I
Chapter 1. Hydroclimate variability and change over the Mekong River Basin
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Data and methods
1.3. The normal regional hydroclimate
1.4. Tropical cyclones
1.5. Changing climate and decadal trends
1.6. Impact of ENSO and low-frequency modes in the Mekong hydroclimate
1.7. The Mekong River Basin water budget
1.8. The Mekong streamflow and a basin-integrated model
1.9. Summary
Chapter 2. Hydrology and water resources in the Mekong River Basin
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Motivation
2.3. Mekong hydrology
2.4. Challenges in eco/socio hydrology perspectives and solutions
2.5. Summary
Chapter 3. Changes in flood characteristics of the Mekong River Basin
3.1. Overview of the Mekong River Basin
3.2. Floods situation in the Mekong Region
3.3. Climate change and hydropower development
3.4. Hydrological modeling and analysis
3.5. Future extreme flood
3.6. Summary and synthesis
Chapter 4. Droughts in the Mekong Basin—Current situation and future prospects
4.1. Introduction/problem
4.2. Literature review
4.3. Lessons from the past droughts and future perspectives
4.4. Challenges in eco/socio hydrology perspectives (human-induced changes)
4.5. Challenges that exist in studying/understanding drought and solutions
4.6. Synthesis
Chapter 5. Diverse aspects of sediment assessment in the Mekong River Basin under current and future conditions
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Sediment transport observations
5.3. State of the literature—Human effects on sedimentation in the LMB
5.4. Challenges in “eco-/socio-” hydrology perspectives
5.5. Solutions and the way forward–Policy initiatives for an international sediment management
5.6. Synthesis of the chapter
Section II
Chapter 6. Hydropower in the Mekong River Basin: Status of development and ecological impacts
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin
6.3. Impacts on hydrology
6.4. Impacts on sediment load
6.5. Impacts on fishery
6.6. Addressing ecological impacts of hydropower development
6.7. Conclusions
Chapter 7. Regional collaboration for water development projects for strengthening the governance of transboundary rivers in the Mekong countries
7.1. Overview of the Mekong River Basin
7.2. Histories of conflicts
7.3. Water cooperation projects in Mekong countries and China
7.4. Conclusions
Chapter 8. Trans-boundary water governance in the Mekong countries
8.1. Overview of Mekong water distribution and development
8.2. Transboundary water governance issues
8.3. Challenges in “eco-/socio-” hydrology perspectives
8.4. Solutions for the way forward and synthetic conclusion
Chapter 9. The evolution of Vietnam's water diplomacy in Mekong River Basin
9.1. Introduction
9.2. A continuum of transboundary water cooperation
9.3. The Mekong Delta crisis
9.4. Doi Moi economic reform—New development context for VMD (1986–2005)
9.5. Intensified effort in transboundary water cooperation (2006–2016)
9.6. Prime Minister Resolution 120—Adapting to the nature (2017–now)
9.7. Discussions and conclusion
Section III
Chapter 10. The two decades of water quality changes in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
10.1. Introduction
10.2. History of the Mekong water quality
10.3. Main anthropogenic drivers of pollution
10.4. Water pollution impacts on socio-ecology system
10.5. The water quality management approaches
10.6. Conclusions
Chapter 11. Biodiversity in the Mekong River Basin: Dynamics of planktonic communities and fishes in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
11.1. Introduction
11.2. Status of phytoplankton and zooplankton biodiversity
11.3. Status of the fish biodiversity
11.4. Potential risks of human activities and climate change of aquatic biodiversity
11.5. Impacts of dams on ecosystems and aquatic biodiversity in general and in the Mekong basin
11.6. Summary
Chapter 12. Morphological changes in the Mekong Delta and their implications for livelihoods
12.1. Introduction
12.2. Morphological changes in the Mekong Delta
12.3. The drivers of change
12.4. Socio-economic impacts
12.5. Discussion and conclusion
Chapter 13. Groundwater resource challenges and abstraction-induced land subsidence in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
13.1. Introduction
13.2. Overview of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
13.3. Dynamic of groundwater system in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
13.4. Recommendations for groundwater management to minimize land subsidence
13.5. Conclusions
Chapter 14. Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta: Causes, future prospects and recommendations
14.1. Introduction
14.2. Current state and future projections of mean saltwater intrusion
14.3. Modeled results on mean saltwater intrusion
14.4. Extreme events—extreme salinity intrusion
14.5. Recommendation
Chapter 15. Erosion of mangrove-mud coasts, resilience of coastal protection, and outlook on nature-based solutions in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
15.1. Introduction
15.2. Degradation of mangrove-mud coasts in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
15.3. Toward nature-based protection against erosion in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
15.4. Conclusions
Chapter 16. Farmers’ livelihoods and adaptation in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Current practices and policy implications
16.1. Problem and scope
16.2. Overview of climate change impacts in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
16.3. Hydrological changes under upstream development activities
16.4. Farmer’s livelihoods under climatic and hydrological change
16.5. Policy drivers in recent years
16.6. Adaptive capacity of farmers
16.7. Socio-economic development in terms of livelihoods transformation across delta
16.8. Solutions and the way forward
16.9. Synthesis
Acknowledgements
Chapter 17. Agricultural transformation in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta in the new era
17.1. Introduction
17.2. Evolution of agricultural systems in the VMD over the past 50 years
17.3. Key drivers of agricultural transformation
17.4. Sustainable and resilient agricultural transformation pathways
17.5. Key constraints for agricultural transformation
17.6. Policy recommendations
17.7. Conclusion and recommendations
Section IV
Chapter 18. Synthesis and the way forward
18.1. Synthesis
Index

Hong Quan Nguyen

Dr. Hong Quan NGUYEN is currently an associate professor at the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM). He is leading a newly established Institute for Circular Economy Development (ICED) and also is affiliated with socio-hydrology group at center of Water Management and Climate Change (WACC), Institute for Env. and Res. (IER), VNU-HCM. He has a special interest in solving environmental related issues based on inter/trans-disciplinary study and by a strong partnership among academia-industry-government. He has been working in water modeling (e.g. surface/ground- water modelling, saline intrusion, flood/drought, water pollution) in southern Vietnam over the past 15 years and expanded his expertise in other disciplines e.g. climate change adaptation/mitigation, circular economy, socio-ecological system, sustainability science. He has published actively at various (inter-)national journals, conferences/workshops including (co-)authored 35 ISI/Scopus indexed articles in the last 5 years.

Affiliations and expertise

Associate Professor, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), Vietnam

Heiko Apel

Dr. Heiko Apel is senior scientist in the section Hydrology of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience in Potsdam, the national public research centre for Geosciences in Germany. His interests and specializations are in flood risk and drought research and hydrological processes, particularly sediment dynamics, and hydraulic modelling. He has led several research projects in the Mekong Delta for the last 13 years, dealing with a wide range of scientific topics: flood hazard and the impact of climate change and human activities, river-floodplain-groundwater interactions, sediment dynamics in the Mekong delta with future projections, salinity intrusion modelling, and drought/salinity intrusion forecasting. He (co-)authored 22 international peer reviewed papers publishing the results of these projects in the Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong Basin.

Affiliations and expertise

Senior Scientist, Hydrology of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience in Potsdam, the national public research centre for Geosciences, Germany

Quang Bao Le

Dr. Quang Bao Le is a senior scientist on Agricultural Livelihood Systems and Operational Integrated System Research at International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). Before joining ICARDA he was a senior postdoctoral researcher (2009-2011) and Senior Scientist (2011-2015) at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. With a coupled human–environment system perspective, for the past 15 years his research has focused on the development and application of human-environment system methodologies to integrate multi-disciplinary scientific expertise with societal decision-making processes to foster sustainable agricultural livelihood systems. He received Breheny Prize 2013 for the best paper in Environment and Planning B journal and the Awards of Swiss Academy of Arts and Sciences 2013 for "Distinguished Achievement" in transdisciplinary research. He published more than 90 reviewed publications and supervised or co-supervised successfully 13 graduate students.

Affiliations and expertise

Senior Scientist, Agricultural Livelihood Systems and Operational Integrated System Research, International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Cairo, Egypt

Minh Tu Nguyen

Minh Tu Nguyen is a senior researcher at the Institute for Circular Economy Development (ICED), Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (VNU - HCM). He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Bonn and a master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, both in Germany. His main research interests focus on drivers of agricultural changes, resilience assessment of social-ecological systems facing natural hazards, and application of the circular economy concept and principles in agriculture. Dr. Nguyen is author/co-author of several journal articles in Environmental Science and Policy, Ecology and Society, Journal of Flood Risk Management, and Agricultural Water Management.

Affiliations and expertise

senior researcher at the Institute for Circular Economy Development (ICED), Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (VNU - HCM)

Venkataramana Sridhar

Dr. Venkataramana Sridhar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. Dr. Sridhar earned his Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University in 2001. Dr. Sridhar is a hydrologist and conducts modeling research to understand the impact of climate change on hydrology and water resources, water management, drought and flood modeling. His projects inform improved solutions to avoid water demand conflicts and improve potential yields from agriculture, ensuring a vibrant agricultural industry and enhancing food security. He has published more than 160 research articles, including 75 peer-reviewed journal articles and 85 technical papers at conferences and several invited talks nationally and internationally. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Idaho and Nebraska and a member of American Society of Civil Engineers, and Diplomate of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers

Affiliations and expertise

Diplomate, American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, Biological Systems Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

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The Mekong River Basin

Ecohydrological Complexity from Catchment to Coast

Purchase options

Institutional subscription on ScienceDirect

Hong Quan Nguyen

Heiko Apel

Quang Bao Le

Minh Tu Nguyen

Venkataramana Sridhar