SERVIR-Mekong Showcases New Water Management Tool in Vietnam
Vietnam Water Week
On March 23, as part of World Water Day under the theme Leaving No One Behind, SERVIR-Mekong convened a session on Earth Observations for Water Management at the Vietnam International Water Week in Hanoi, Vietnam. Dr. Karthikeyan Matheswaran, a SERVIR-Mekong hydrologist chaired the session and presented a case study on the Srepok River Basin that is based on the Supporting Water Resources Management (SWARM) tool framework that is currently under development.
The presentation highlighted the utility of using remote sensing datasets for long-term water resources planning; application in data scarce environments like the Srepok Basin; and advantages of the proposed web-based tool and its contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Discussions focused on the stakeholder-centric co-development process with Vietnam’s National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation (NAWAPI) to apply the SWARM tool for long term, integrated water resources planning and management and as a basis for promoting water cooperation.
Participants and presenters consisted of researchers from governmental organizations and universities in Vietnam, regional developmental institutions, along with universities and research organizations from the United States and Australia. The session presentations focused on host of remote sensing applications for water management.
Capacity building on WEAP Model for SWARM tool
As a part of the collaboration between SERVIR-Mekong and NAWAPI, a two-day training on the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software was organized on 24-25 March 2019 in Hanoi. The WEAP software serves as the basis for the web-based SWARM tool in which the Srepok River Basin case study is currently being developed.
The last session of the training focused on applying SWARM to support the ongoing river basin management planning in Vietnam. The SERVIR-Mekong team demonstrated the experimental Ca River basin case study in the SWARM tool and showcased the initial outputs from Srepok case study to the participants. There are further discussions on how the SWARM platform can support NAWAPI in compliance with Vietnam's current regulations on water management.
SERVIR-Mekong plans to apply the WEAP model for operational water resource allocation and management with the NAWAPI planning department. As a result of this training, an academic from the National University of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Engineering in Hanoi expressed interest in integrating the WEAP model into their master’s degree curriculum on water management. As next steps, SERVIR-Mekong will invite academics from other universities in Vietnam to attend future trainings to ensure knowledge transfer and tool adaptability to other catchments in Vietnam.
