On 26/3 - 27/3/2018, Can Tho University (CTU) and TU Delft University have organized a workshop on scoping mission of the project "Socially inclusive adaptive pathways for urbanizing Deltas" at the College of Environment and Natural Resources. This is the first phase of the project aiming at understanding key development issues in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). Specifically, the scoping mission has five objectives:

• Aligning project scope (including the geographical scope of the case study) and objectives
• Discussing key hydrological, development, and inclusiveness issues in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta in general and zooming in into the case study area
• Getting a grip of the actual condition of the case study area through a field trip
•  In-depth discussion of the coupled hydrological-land use modeling
•  Deciding on next steps

The participants of the workshop come from different fields from CTU and Institute of Policy Social Agriculture and Rural Development - (IPSARD), including: 

• Socioeconomics, development, and inequality
• Land use planning
• Long-term regional planning
• Climate change
• Hydrology
• Agriculture

During the workshop, the project's members and experts have presented and discussed on different issues faced in the VMD, in general, and in Dong Thap and Tien Giang, in specific, such as climate change, land use changes, water resources changes, and socio-economic changes. 

The experts present and discuss the problems in the VMD 

 

Besides, the research group also visits the study areas at Dong Thap and Tien Giang province to discuss with local government officers ( Development of Agriculture and Rural Development - DARD) and local farmers to understand the current physical and socio-economic conditions under the impacts of the on-going climate change and water resources changes in the local areas.

Discussing with local government officers - DARD (left) and farmers (right) in Dong Thap Province

 

Discussing with local government officers - DARD (left) and farmers (right) in Tien Giang Province