Climate change in Mekong Basin

- Providing information about Mekong River basin.. - Understand about overview of Mekong River General topographic, climate, vegetation, etc - Improving knowledge of people about consequ

Mekong River basin

Name: Bùi Quỳnh Trang Class: 57 advanced program

ID Student: 1253090035

- River length: 4,800 km.

- Basin area: 795,000 km2

- Relevance:

+ Livelihoods/ecosystems adapted to hydrological

cycle

+ Biodiversity

- Mekong Challenges:

+ Irrigation

+ Hydropower

+ Climate change

1 Introduction.

- Providing information about Mekong River basin

- Understand about overview of Mekong River (General topographic, climate, vegetation, etc)

- Improving knowledge of people about consequences of climate change in Mekong River

- Find out solutions to reduce impacts of climate change on Mekong River

 General topographic feature:

- The basin of the Mekong River drains a total land area of 795,000 km2 from the eastern watershed of the Tibetan Plateau to the Mekong Delta

- Flows approximately 4,909 km through three provinces of China, continuing into Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam before emptying into the South China Sea.

2 Overview:

 Climate:

- Temperature:

Temperatures in the lower Mekong basin are uniformly warm

throughout the year Daily highs at Phnom Penh average 89 °F (32 °C), and lows average 74 °F (23 °C)

- Rainfall:

- Flow:

+ The mean annual flow of the river at Krachéh in Cambodia is about 500,000 cubic feet (14,200 cubic metres) per second.

 Vegetation types, soil types:

- Forest area in the Mekong River countries totals 54 millions hectares and accounts for 43 percent of the land area

 Current and historical land use condition:

In northest Thailand, more than 80% of cultivated area is used for growing rice or a mix

of rice and upland crops Rice is likely to remain the basis for agriculture in the LMB over coming decades

 Water use:

The irrigation sector is the largest water use in Mekong River, consuming an estimated 41.8 million cubic metres of freshwater resource per year

 Population, economic, and recreation:

- The Mekong river basin is a diverse region, in 2007 approximately 70 million people lived across the six countries (CDRI, 2008)

- Agriculture is the key economic factor in the Mekong River Basin Approximately 75% of the MRB population is directly dependent on agriculture and fisheries

 Wildlife and fishes:

- Mekong Region include 20,00 plant species, 430 mammal, 1200 bird, 800 reptile and amphibian and 850 fish species

- People living within the Mekong river system generate many other sources of food and income from what are often termed ‘other aquatic animals’ (OAAs) such as freshwater crabs, shrimp, snakes, turtles, and frogs

3.1: Water supply:

− The irrigation system that will supply water to the irrigation – based communities may be suffered from water shortage, as the peak rainfall during the rainy season will be reduced by about 20%

- The runoff will be reduced => the erosion along the mountain slopes

- The longer dry season => water demand increase while climate change leads to reduce

water available

3 Impact of climate change in Mekong River

3.2: Natural Wetland and Ecological:

- Some of the timing of seasonal events during the yearly cycle would have strong negative impacts for many species

− Various species of bird and fish that migrate through these areas and use the wetland in these areas inhabitable or not providing shelter, food, etc…

− Species with narrow tolerance to environmental variability would be most vulnerable to change and most threatened by climate change

3.3: Agriculture:

- Some of very low land may have to be abandoned as the flood level and duration may be too long for any crops to be survived or productive

- Much of the study on the impact of climate change on rice had emphasized on the effects from UV, atmospheric CO2 and temperature

- Crop production, especially the reinfed rice cultivation will be strongly affected by

hydrological change caused by atmospheric CO2 elevation

3.4: People, communities and economies:

- The rapid urbanization and spread of suburbs increase the vulnerability of cities

− Out – migration and displacement of peoples are already occurring

− Large human population living in lying coastal areas and floodplains make the region highly vulnerable to floods, saltwater intrusion and rising sea levels

− Disasters (flooding, drought, etc…) occur more often

- The potential impacts of climate change should be assessed for each of the scenarios included

in Basin Development Plan

− Solutions to the problems of climate change should be sought within the framework of

sustainable development

− The region’s governments and people need to identify a way to sustainably develop their economies, poverty, and converse the region’s extraodinary species and ecosystem

4 Concluding remarks.

∗ Solutions:

- Coordination is important to plan holistically and to ensure that governance structures support, implement and monitor these issues

- Emphasize ecosystem – based adaptation approaches that maintain the resilence of the region

- Ensure adequate resources are available for adaptation initiatives

- Protecting, maintaining, sustainably managing standing forests sesquester carbon and reduce GHG emission

- Improving people’s knowledge about climate change and its impacts on their lives

- http://www.slideshare.net/wwf/climate-change-impacts-in-the-greater-mekong-region?

related=1

- http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1010704/River-flow-modeling-of-the-Mekong-River-Basin

- http://www.mrcmekong.org/about-mrc/programmes/climate-change-and-adaptation-initiative/

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http://www.mrcmekong.org/news-and-events/news/mrc-introduces-publication-on-transboundary-cooperation-at-world-water-week-2014/

5 Reference:

Thank you for your attention