Adaptation to climate change in the countries of - Mekong River ...

Adaptation to climate change adaption in the countries of the Lower Mekong Basin
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training and knowledge upgrading; collecting and utilizing the data on climate change;
developing tools/methodologies for analysis and adaptation with the climate change, are
important activities that should be done immediately.
• Relevant knowledge. Climate change is a long-term issue, the impact of the climate
change are very complex including present impact and potential impact in the future. The
knowledge of the world and Viet Nam on the trend of the climate change and its impacts
to socio-economic activities is still limited.
9.5 Regional
Improved knowledge base of climate change predictions and impacts: The understanding of
how climate change may threaten the natural environment (e.g. water resources, biodiversity,
soils) and the populations that depend upon it in the Mekong River riparian countries is limited.
Past initiatives on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for the lower Mekong Basin
(LMB) have mostly been based on low-resolution projections of future climate conditions.
Some recent studies have attempted to use higher resolution regional climate scenario and
analysed impacts of climate mean and variability on the water regime, agricultural crops, and
some ecosystems (SEA START, 2004, Chinvanno & Choengbunluesak, 2006, Veijalainen,
Kummu and Lauri, 2007). However, these studies have been limited to a few selected pilot
sites and do not capture basin-specific characteristics in the process, such as landforms, land
cover and aerosols. Further, because there have been only few such studies there is a lack of
diversification of scenarios to address the uncertainties of future climate changes. There is also
a lack of analysis of SRES scenarios and GCMs. There is a need to build on these studies and
expand the area coverage to other parts of the LMB.
Facilitated collaboration amongst LMB countries: Considering the commonality of problems
related to climate change, as well as many economic, social characteristics, and institutional
capacity limitations, increased cooperation and information sharing amongst LMB countries
in relation to existing experiences on assessment of impacts and vulnerability and adaptation
would be highly useful. The sharing of experiences on disaster risk reduction and preparedness
and integration of climate change into disaster risk reduction is also necessary.
Consolidated information on climate change activities: There is an ad-hoc approach to the
collection and storage of information on climate change activities throughout the region. A
consolidated information collection, storage and network system would better allow LMB
countries and regional stakeholders to understand the status of climate change modelling,
assessment and adaptation activities. Availability of some data is limited, such as the data
needed for meaningful down-scaling of global models, calibration and validation. Close
cooperation with national line agencies and regional and international academia shall provide a
network for data acquisition.