The impacts of flash floods, droughts and the effects of climate change have become a topic of strong political and public interest in Vietnam. Studies have shown that the Mekong Delta is very vulnerable to floods and droughts, which will intensify due to climate change. With more extreme weather events such as typhoons, the delta is more vulnerable to floods and droughts, affecting people’s livelihoods and reducing agricultural productivity. The past year’s floods and droughts have cost the government of Vietnam millions of dollars.

Currently, these threats are not adequately monitored and information on such threats is inconsistent and only scattered available. As a result, no nationwide policy is made and mainly local measures are taken. Therefore Vietnam is in need of data sharing systems and advanced models in the water sector, where space borne imagery and state of the art water-models support on predicting future behaviour of the water resources. Vietnam has selected the Mekong Delta as one of their four main priority areas and is investing in (international) knowledge and products to resolve this urgent problem.

The objective of this project is to develop, implement, and demonstrate an integrated information portal of the river basins in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. It will supply an integrated approach to water management. The pilot project aims to improve water management in a pilot area in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta by providing a web-based information portal and decision support system for flood control and water resources management. The system gives access to scattered information, analyses and various monitoring data on the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Because of its online access and real-time modelling possibilities, the platform is not only a valuable instrument to support policy development in water management, but at the same time it can be used as a decision support system during calamities and other operational conditions.

Nelen & Schuurmans takes the lead in this project. FutureWater will develop a Drought Monitoring and Impact Assessment Toolbox app as part of the integrated information portal.