Monitoring and DSF CEO, 11 May 2016 Nexus Workshop, Melia, Hanoi, Vietnam

Lancang-Mekong Basin Confidence in making decisions Additional infrastructures Further economic development Extra money for water and environment management Mitigation of socio- economic and environmental impacts Best way to balance different interests, risks and opportunities among neighbor countries

Mekong River Commission (MRC) Monitoring System 1995 Mekong Agreement Sustainable Mekong Water Level and Rainfall 49 hydro-meteorological stations 17 mainstream 32 tributary Every 15 minutes Sediment and discharge measurements - Since 2009 Water Quality - 48 sites Ecological Health - 41 stations since 2011 Social Impact - Social impact and vulnerability assessment since 2011 Fisheries – since mid 1990 Abundance, diversity, lee trap, dai, larvae drift, prices

The MRC Near-realtime Hydro-met Stations Network have been established in There are 49 stations located in Mekong Basin including: 2 stations in China and 47 stations located in LMB countries. MRC river monitoring map have been developed in 2012 for monitoring water level, precipitation, flood and low flow situation in the basin. It provides the information on flood situation in every 15 min as available at: time-monitoring-map Near-Real Time Monitoring System

Discharge and Sediment Monitoring Project Project started in 2009 Hydrologic & sediment monitoring at 17 sites includes: At Mainstream – 10 river sites: Chiang Saen to Kratie – 2 tidal sites in Mekong – 2 tidal sites in Bassac – 1 site in Tonle Sap At Tributary – 1 tributary (3S)

MRC Modelling under a Decision Support Framework (DSF) DSF since 2001, 3 elements Knowledge base Basin modelling package Impact assessment tools DSF Aim Transparent modelling system Use by member countries Check proposals and strategies for water resource developments Being used to assist basin modelling and to assist impacts Assess over the Mekong basin Changes of flow Sedimentation Nutrient Modelling package - most important and official tools for MRC and member countries in decision making during national and regional planning

MRC Use of Monitoring Data and DSF Intensively to produce assessments Basin Development Scenario assessment to formulate the Basin Development Strategy (BDS) Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative (CCAI)’s basin-wide assessment of climate change impacts to formulate the Mekong Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (MASAP) Study on sustainable management and development of the Mekong River, including impacts of mainstream hydropower projects (the Council Study) Impacts of projects on hydropower, navigation, flood protection etc. Most recently - the Vietnam’s Study of the Impacts of Mainstream Hydropower on the Mekong River (the Delta Study)

MRC Information System – MRC-IS Facilitate and manage the data and information exchange and sharing mechanism for the implementation MRC related activities Information, data and knowledge management services to the public Established during 2005 under the framework of Procedure for Data and Information Exchange and Sharing (PDIES) The core data are drawn from the NMCs and/or other official in- country databases or from the existing MRCS databases and monitoring system “National Information Systems (NIS)” has been successfully established in each member country National database systems are interlinked with MRC-IS database system.

Publications & Products Primary Custodians, MRC Programmes/Projects Models, Tools, and Applications MRC Programmes and Member States Analysis, Planning & Decision Supports MRC Web Portal MRC - Information System (MRC-IS) QA/QC Integrated MRC MekongInfo

Summary Monitoring, data and information sharing, decision support framework help improving our understanding and minimizing the socio-economic and environmental impacts We must invest in continuous maintenance and development of our monitoring and decision support services Further strengthening the monitoring and assessment systems is being done in parallel with decentralizing the monitoring and assessment functions that the member countries have sufficient capacity to handle We continue developing tools to monitor and assess fisheries and hydrology relationship, fisheries yield per habitats, species vulnerability to climate change, shift of bioclimatic zones due to climate change, socio-economic impacts and vulnerability to climate change, etc. We welcome further cooperation and partnerships with you to strengthen DSS for water & environmental management