The Mekong Future Project: First draft report on the hydrological simulation

by To Quang Toan, Nguyen Hieu Trung, Dang Kieu Nhan (2012)

Introduction

This study aims to analyze how successful investments in water infrastructure in response to Sea level rise are. The study emphasizes the need to put such adaptation strategies into the larger context of land use change and upstream developments. In particular upstream developments such as hydropower, irrigation and water diversion can substantially offset the effect of hard adaptation measures such as dikes and sluice gates. Most importantly, the results emphasize the need to understand combined effects, such as the combination of sea-level rise, upstream dams, upstream irrigation and drought. Adding climate predictions (i.e. more dry years) into the equations suggests that negotiating how upstream dams are operated can have much larger effects than expensive investments in water infrastructure.