Climate projections for Vietnam
As a result of the Vietnam Regional Projections project, decision makers in industry and government in Vietnam will better understand the likely effects of climate change throughout their country.
The CSIRO scientist leading the project, Dr Jack Katzfey, explained that improving knowledge of climate change impacts will help identify the people and sectors at risk and, in doing so, will support Vietnam in the challenging task of prioritising its climate change response.
“Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, particularly in the Mekong Delta where rising sea levels, salt water intrusion and flooding are already impacting on vulnerable coastal communities,” said Dr Katzfey.
“Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change … “
said CSIRO’s Dr Katzfey.
Funded by the Australian Government’s aid program, AusAID, the project is delivered by CSIRO in collaboration with IMHEN and Hanoi University of Science. CSIRO is internationally recognised for its climate change modelling and has undertaken similar downscaled projections to support climate change planning in the Pacific and in Indonesia.
“The project builds on existing relationships between CSIRO and scientists from Vietnam’s Ministry for Natural Resource and Environment and the Hanoi University of Science,” said Dr Katzfey.
“It will include capturing and analysing existing climate data to better understand the current climate and existing trends. CSIRO scientists will then develop high resolution downscaled projections and analyse what these mean for different regions of Vietnam,” said Dr Katzfey.
Throughout the project Australian scientists and Vietnamese scientists will work together to share knowledge of the Vietnamese climate system and to ensure that Vietnamese scientists are able to develop such projections for their country in the future. This will include hosting Vietnamese PhD students who will help analyse data and undertake climate modelling at the CSIRO in Australia.
Key stakeholders in government and industry will also be involved throughout the project to ensure that the climate projections can be used to plan strategies for responding to climate change.
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The Mekong Delta region of Vietnam is already experiencing climate change impacts of increased inundation.