Author(s)

Trieu Anh Ngoc^*

Faculty of Water Resources Engineering, Thuyloi University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The Lower Mekong Delta in Vietnam experiences widespread flooding annually. About 17 million people live in the Delta with agriculture as the major economic activity. The suspended sediment load in the Mekong River plays an important role in carrying contaminants and nutrients to the delta and changing the geomorphology of the delta river system. In recent decades, it is generally perceived that the flow and sediment transport in the Mekong River have changed due to climate change and development activities, but observed sediment data are lacking. Moreover, after natural floodplains, the sediment deposition has replaced by dense river systems as resulting in floodplain compartments protected by embankments. This study is aimed to investigate impacts of changing water flow on erosion/deposition in the Lower Mekong Delta. We used Mike 11 hydrodynamic model and sediment transport model for simulating the flow and sediment transport. Various scenarios were simulated based on anticipated upstream discharges. Our findings provide the positive and negative impacts to the changes in sediment transport on agriculture cultivation in the Lower Mekong Delta.

Dong Thap Muoi, Sediment Transport, Lower Mekong Delta, Mike Model

Ngoc, T. (2017) Assessing the Effects of Upstream Dam Developments on Sediment Distribution in the Lower Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 9, 822-840. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2017.97055.