Assessing Climate Change Impacts on River Flows in the Tonle Sap Lake Basin, Cambodia

Oeurng, Chantha; Cochrane, Thomas A.; Chung, Sarit; Kondolf, G. Mathias; Piman, Thanapon; Arias, Mauricio E.

doi:10.3390/w11030618

Cited by 52 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Observation‐based studies have reported a shift in flow patterns after the construction of dams (e.g., Räsänen et al, 2012; Sabo et al, 2017; W. Wang et al, 2017); however, these studies have not examined the dynamics of inundation extent, due to data limitations. There has been an increase in model‐based studies in the past decade; however, those studies have focused on some parts of the MRB such as the UMRB (e.g., Dang et al, 2019; Han et al, 2019; Räsänen et al, 2012), Lower MRB (LMRB) (e.g., Dang et al, 2018; Trung et al, 2018), the 3S‐river system (e.g., Wild & Loucks, 2014), Mun river basin (e.g., Akter & Babel, 2012), and TSL and the Mekong Delta regions (e.g., Arias, Piman, et al, 2014; Duc Tran et al, 2018; Minh et al, 2019; Oeurng et al, 2019; Smajgl et al, 2015). There are some basin‐wide modeling studies (e.g., Lauri et al, 2012; Piman et al, 2013; Sridhar et al, 2019; W. Wang et al, 2016), but to the authors' best knowledge, none of those have simulated the inundation dynamics of both natural river‐floodplain systems and manmade‐reservoirs over the entire MRB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Resolution Modeling of River‐Floodplain‐Reservoir Inundation Dynamics in the Mekong River Basin

Shin

Pokhrel

Yamazaki

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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Numerous studies have examined the changes in streamflow in the Mekong River Basin (MRB) using observations and hydrological modeling; however, there is a lack of integrated modeling studies that explicitly simulate the natural and human-induced changes in flood dynamics over the entire basin.Here we simulate the river-floodplain-reservoir inundation dynamics over the MRB for 1979-2016 period using a newly integrated, high-resolution (~5 km) river hydrodynamics-reservoir operation model. The framework is based on the river-floodplain hydrodynamic model CaMa-Flood in which a new reservoir operation scheme is incorporated by including 86 existing MRB dams. The simulated flood extent is downscaled to a higher resolution (~90 m) to investigate fine-scale inundation dynamics, and results are validated with ground-and satellite-based observations. It is found that the historical variations in surface water storage have been governed primarily by climate variability; the impacts of dams on river-floodplain hydrodynamics were marginal until 2009. However, results indicate that the dam impacts increased noticeably in 2010 when the basin-wide storage capacity doubled due to the construction of new mega dams. Further, results suggest that the future flood dynamics in the MRB would be considerably different than in the past even without climate change and additional dams. However, it is also found that the impacts of dams can largely vary depending on reservoir operation strategies. This study is expected to provide the basis for high-resolution river-floodplain-reservoir modeling for a holistic assessment of the impacts of dams and climate change on the floodpulse-dependent hydro-ecological systems in the MRB and other global regions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Resolution Modeling of River‐Floodplain‐Reservoir Inundation Dynamics in the Mekong River Basin

Shin

Pokhrel

Yamazaki

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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“…Siem Reap River is a tributary of the Tonlé Sap (Great Lake) [1]. The Siem Reap River has played a crucial role in supplying the Angkor Temple Complex and the surrounding population for hundreds years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent work by Chim et al (in press) used downscaling of climate change models to show that there is likely to be a continuing, increasing trend in temperatures (max, avg, min), and a decreasing trend in precipitation in the twenty-first century for the upper Siem Reap watershed. Moreover, Oeurng et al [1] undertook an assessment of future climate trends for the tributaries of the Tonlé Sap Basin more broadly, applying three different General Circulation Models (GCMs). They discovered that the future annual average flows (2021-2100) in the Siem Reap River were likely to decrease significantly, from 40 to 70% relative to baseline (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was adopted to examine these individual and collective impacts of landscape and climate changes on river flow. SWAT has been employed to assess solely the impact of land use [24] and solely the effect of climate change on hydrology [1,25]. The model also has been widely applied to model the combined effects of both land cover and climate changes on hydrology in river basins across the globe, including the EU [26], USA [27] and Vietnam [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainable water management in the Angkor Temple Complex, Cambodia

et al. 2021

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The headwater catchment of the Siem Reap River has supplied the Angkor Temple Complex and surrounding communities since the twelfth century. The Angkor Temple Complex area consists of historical moats and barays (reservoirs) which are currently used to store the water from the Siem Reap River to maintain temple foundation, irrigate cultivation areas and provide floodwater storage. The Angkor Wat Temple, which is located in the complex, was constructed on a sandy alluvial substrate and needs a stable supply of water to avert land subsidence and destabilization of the temple foundation. In light of changing climate, land use and land cover (LULC) trends, it is crucial to examine the wide-ranging implications of reduced water supply for the Angkor Temple Complex. Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, this study seeks to assess the conditions necessary to provide sustainable streamflow to the Angkor Temple Complex. We modelled 30 scenarios of co-varied LULC and precipitation regime under a changing climate. The results show that under most LULC scenarios, sufficient water resources can be harvested to supply the complex—however—any further loss of forest cover is likely to impact groundwater conditions, flood management and dry season shortages. Conversely, the water supply to the complex is shown to be sensitive under the range of climate scenarios explored; a reduction of more than 10–20% in mean annual precipitation was enough to put the water supply under stress for the current and future conditions of the complex.

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“…Hydrological modeling is an effective approach to extrapolate and interpolate missing information over time and space between observations for hydrological assessment [6]. Oeurng et al [7] studied Tonle Sap sub-basin of MRB using the SWAT model. Try et al [8] applied the RRI model for a single flood event in the LMB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of gridded precipitation datasets for rainfall-runoff and inundation modeling in the Mekong River Basin

Try

Tanaka

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Precipitation, as a primary hydrological variable in the water cycle plays an important role in hydrological modeling. The reliability of hydrological modeling is highly related to the quality of precipitation data. Accurate long-term gauged precipitation in the Mekong River Basin, however, is limited. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to assess the performances of various gridded precipitation datasets in rainfall-runoff and flood-inundation modeling of the whole basin. Firstly, the performance of the Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model in this basin was evaluated using the gauged rainfall. The calibration (2000-2003) and validation (2004-2007) results indicated that the RRI model had acceptable performance in the Mekong River Basin. In addition, five gridded precipitation datasets including APHRODITE, GPCC, PERSIANN-CDR, GSMaP (RNL), and TRMM (3B42V7) from 2000 to 2007 were applied as the input to the calibrated model. The results of the simulated river discharge indicated that TRMM, GPCC, and APHRODITE performed better than other datasets. The statistical index of the annual maximum inundated area indicated similar conclusions. Thus, APHRODITE, TRMM, and GPCC precipitation datasets were considered suitable for rainfall-runoff and flood inundation modeling in the Mekong River Basin. This study provides useful guidance for the application of gridded precipitation in hydrological modeling in the Mekong River basin.

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Assessing Climate Change Impacts on River Flows in the Tonle Sap Lake Basin, Cambodia

Cited by 52 publications

References 28 publications

High Resolution Modeling of River‐Floodplain‐Reservoir Inundation Dynamics in the Mekong River Basin

High Resolution Modeling of River‐Floodplain‐Reservoir Inundation Dynamics in the Mekong River Basin

Sustainable water management in the Angkor Temple Complex, Cambodia

Comparison of gridded precipitation datasets for rainfall-runoff and inundation modeling in the Mekong River Basin

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