Detail Abstract

Proposed mitigation for salinity intrusion in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta plays an extremely important and central role in the country\'s food security. Due to the influences of the upstream dam\'s development, sea level rise and complicated tidal regime in the dry season that have caused barriers and constraints for local agricultural activities. Once these causes combined climate change, the salinity intensity is more severe and the length of salinity intrusion is likely further in Hau River and Co Chien Rivers. This paper aims to propose mitigation and adaptation measures of drought and salinity intrusion for a sustainable agricultural development in the Mekong’ estuary areas. In order to achieve these purposes, the numerical model is used to simulate scenarios of salinity changes for the drought years and medium water years and mitigation scenarios. The results of salinity concentration from numerical model may be an important information for an appropriate land use planning or crop plants corresponding to various salt tolerance thresholds. Besides, the location of salinity monitoring stations as well as the kinds of salinity control works are also discussed to serve the operation of saline control works on the basis of analysis of field measurement data. The study will be very meaningful for local farmers to develop agriculture sustainably, especially, the farmers can select crops which are suitable for the salt concentrations or change land use and cultivation models for higher yields. That means agricultural productions increase the efficiency toward a sustainable agriculture-based economy.