The Mekong Deltaic Coast: Past, Present and Future Morphology

According to the future development plan, discharge sluices will be constructed at three main branches of Tien River to prevent salinity intrusion. To evaluate the consequences of these constructions to the Mekong Delta Estuaries, the empirical relationship between tidal prism and river cross-section is estimated in this study. It is found that the two open branches of Tien River will deepen by more than 10 meters when all three other branches are closed. Due to the need of land for agriculture and other economic sectors, sea dikes are always built close to the mangroves forest. Along the Southern Coast of Viet Nam there are many places where mangrove degradations and coastline erosions are observed on a large scale when sea dikes are built too close to the mangroves forests. Based on the relationship found for mangroves width and coastline evolution, it is concluded that the critical value of 300 to 400 meters of mangroves width is necessary for the stability of the East Coast of Viet Nam. Results from the SWAN model also show that mangroves have a significant effect on wave height attenuation only at cross-shore widths greater than 300 to 400 m and that an increase in width beyond 1000 m does not make much of difference.

Subject

Mekong Delta
mangroves
morphology

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master thesis

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