Integrated River Basin Management in the Vu Gia Thu Bon Basin

Abstract

The Vu Gia Thu Bon River basin sustains important functions and services, which provide water, food, and energy resources for the people living in the basin as well as for people beyond the basin boundaries. Furthermore, the river basin system provides regulating services like flow attenuation, and various cultural and recreational services. During the last decades, significant infrastructure, like reservoirs, channels, water treatment, and distribution networks, was built to increase the benefits generated from the basin in a reliable and secure way. In order to maintain these functions many institutions are responsible to manage certain sectorial aspects of natural resources, often depending on each other to perform their tasks adequately. During the last decades an intensification of resources uses occurred and the trade offs between different sectors like hydropower, agriculture and urban water has increased—in particular during years or seasons which are characterized by climate extremes like droughts or floods . This situation calls for a more coordinated management approach leading to the collaboration of different sectors throughout the river basin. Providing the right information for decision support is a crucial element of river basin management. In this line, Vu Gia Thu Bon River Basin Information Center (VGTB-RBIC) was established by the research consortium making a reliable scientific database available for all different stakeholders as a first but crucial step toward a coordinated approach to river basin management.