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Basin-Wide Assessment on Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystem Services in the Lower Mekong Basin
Citation:
Trisurat, Y., A. Aekakkararungroj, H. Ma, AND JohnM Johnston. Basin-Wide Assessment on Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystem Services in the Lower Mekong Basin. ACES 2016, Jacksonville, FL, December 05 - 09, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at ACES 2016
Description:
The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) covers parts of riparian countries of Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Thailand and supports over 60 million people for food and livelihood. Recently, the LMB is threatened by climate change. This paper aims to quantify water yields and sediment retention at current and in short and long-term climate scenarios. The InVEST model was used to spatially assess both ecosystem services. The results indicated that the estimated annual water yield in the entire LMB in 2010 was 639 km3 and the average soil erosion was 43.2 ton/ha/year. In addition, 175 million tons of sediment were predicted to export from the LMB. The predicted annual water yields in 2030 and 2060 derived from a drier overall projection in combination of medium and high emissions indicated a substantial reduction of predicted water yields by 9-24% from the baseline and a reduction of soil erosion of 7-10% was predicted. The effects of the severe drought were forecasted in northern and southern Lao PDR and central Cambodia due to these areas lack of irrigation system. In contrast, the increased seasonality and the wetter rainfall scenarios in connection with high emissions would result in an amplification of 5-26% from the current runoff and would produce greater amount of soil erosion in the watershed and sediment load transported to the outlet. The research results are being embedded in the Mekong Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan 2020.
