scholarly journals Transboundary River Basin Governance: A Case of the Mekong River Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mak Sithirith
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Transboundary River ◽  
Conflict And Cooperation ◽  
Transboundary River Basin ◽  
Hydropower Dams ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Chinese Company ◽  
The Rise Of China

Conflict and cooperation are key governance challenges in transboundary river basin governance, especially in the Mekong River Basin. Hydropower dams have been at the center of such a conflict and cooperation that are useful metrics to assess the level and intensity of conflict and cooperation in transboundary river basin governance. This study examines transboundary river basin cooperation in the Mekong through the lens of hydropower dam projects. It uses a literature review and a case study of the Lower Sasan 2 (LS2) Dam to analyze the conflict and cooperation in the Mekong region, from the era of the US influence in the Cold War, the post-Cold War period, and the present-day with the rise of China. It concludes that Mekong river basin cooperation has evolved as a result of external influences and internal competition by riparian states over Mekong resources. The LS2 was identified in 1961 by US-supported hydropower studies and then by the GMS/ADB in 1998, but left unattended until 2007 when Vietnam signed an agreement with Cambodia to undertake a feasibility study in 2008. It took 16 years to get the LS2 built by a Chinese company in 2014 and completed it in 2017. Through the process, the states, powerful external actors, financial institutions, and private sector actors have politicized the LS2 studies, design, and construction. Cambodia, as a weak downstream state, has had to and must continue to position itself strategically in its relationships with these hydro-hegemons to compete for hydropower dam projects and protect its interests. The rise of China has induced the changing relationship between riparian states. Many hydropower dams were built with Chinese funding. Cambodia has also enjoyed its close ties with China, and the building of the LS2 dam by a Chinese company contributes to changing its positions in the Mekong cooperation but suffers environmental and social impacts.

Socio-Hydrological Modelling of Cooperation and Conflict in the Transboundary Lancang-Mekong River

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Lu ◽  
Iolanda Borzi ◽  
Liying Guo ◽  
Repush Patil ◽  
Yujie Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Transboundary River ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transboundary River Basin ◽  
Operation Rules ◽  
Dam Operation

<p>The transboundary Lancang-Mekong River Basin has experienced both cooperation and conflict over the past several decades. Downstream countries (Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) rely on Mekong River for fisheries and agriculture, while upstream countries including China and Laos have been constructing dams to generate hydropower. The construction and operation of dams in upstream countries has changed the seasonality of streamflow in downstream countries, affecting their agriculture and fishery benefits. More recently, cooperation between upstream and downstream countries has led to benefit sharing and improved international relations throughout the river basin. In this presentation, we introduce a socio-hydrological model that simulates the hydrological changes in downstream countries resulting from upstream dam operation, based on collection of hydrological, economic and social data in Lancang-Mekong river basin. Our model captures the cooperation and conflict feedback loops which impacts the operation rules of upstream dams. In this way, our study generates understanding of the connections between water resources management and hydro-political dynamics underpinning cooperation and conflicts mechanism in this transboundary river basin.</p>

scholarly journals Water-Energy-Food Nexus in a Transboundary River Basin: The Case of Tonle Sap Lake, Mekong River Basin

Water ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 5416-5436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Keskinen ◽  
Paradis Someth ◽  
Aura Salmivaara ◽  
Matti Kummu
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Transboundary River ◽  
Transboundary River Basin ◽  
Tonle Sap Lake ◽  
Tonle Sap

Hydropower dams of the Mekong River basin: A review of their hydrological impacts

2019 ◽  
Vol 568 ◽  
pp. 285-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jory S. Hecht ◽  
Guillaume Lacombe ◽  
Mauricio E. Arias ◽  
Thanh Duc Dang ◽  
Thanapon Piman
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Impacts ◽  
Hydropower Dams

scholarly journals Socio-hydrologic modeling of the dynamics of cooperation in the transboundary Lancang–Mekong River

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 1883-1903
Author(s):  
You Lu ◽  
Fuqiang Tian ◽  
Liying Guo ◽  
Iolanda Borzì ◽  
Rupesh Patil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Model ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Reservoir Operations ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transboundary River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Variability ◽  
New Framework

Abstract. The transboundary Lancang–Mekong River basin has experienced dynamics of cooperation over the past several decades, which is a common emergent response in transboundary coupled human–water systems. Downstream countries rely on the Mekong River for fisheries, agriculture, navigation and ecological services, while upstream countries have been constructing dams to generate hydropower. The dam construction and operation in upstream countries have changed the seasonality of streamflow in downstream countries, affecting their economic benefits. More recently, cooperation between upstream and downstream countries has been enhanced throughout the river basin. In this study, we introduce a quantitative socio-hydrological model to simulate hydrological processes, reservoir operations, economic benefits, policy feedbacks and therefore dynamics of cooperation within the Lancang–Mekong River basin. The model reproduces the observed dynamics of cooperation in the basin revealed by sentiment analysis of news articles. Hydrological variability such as droughts and human activities associated with reservoir operations affect dynamics of cooperation between the riparian countries, with importance attached to indirect political benefits of upstream playing an important role in the enhancement of cooperation. In this way, our study generated understanding of emergent cooperation dynamics in this transboundary river basin, and the socio-hydrological model used here provides a useful new framework to investigate and improve transboundary water management elsewhere.

scholarly journals Socio-Hydrologic Modeling of the Dynamics of Cooperation in the Transboundary Lancang-Mekong River

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Lu ◽  
Fuqiang Tian ◽  
Liying Guo ◽  
Iolanda Borzi ◽  
Rupesh Patil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Model ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Reservoir Operations ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transboundary River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Variability ◽  
New Framework

Abstract. The transboundary Lancang-Mekong River Basin has experienced dynamics of cooperation over the past several decades, which is a common emergent response in transboundary human-water systems. Downstream countries rely on Mekong River for fisheries, agriculture, etc., while upstream countries have been constructing dams to generate hydropower. The dam construction and operation in upstream countries have changed the seasonality of streamflow in downstream countries, affecting their economic benefits. More recently, cooperation between upstream and downstream countries has been enhanced throughout the river basin. In this study, we introduce a quantitative socio-hydrological model to simulate hydrological processes, reservoir operations, economic benefits, policy feedbacks and therefore dynamics of cooperation within the Lancang-Mekong River basin. The model reproduces the observed dynamics of cooperation in the basin revealed by sentiment analysis of news articles. Hydrological variability such as droughts and human activities associated with reservoir operations affect dynamics of cooperation between the riparian countries, with importance attached to indirect political benefits of upstream playing an important role in the enhancement of cooperation. In this way, our study generated understanding of emergent cooperation dynamics in this transboundary river basin, and the socio-hydrological model used here provides a useful new framework to investigate and improve transboundary water management elsewhere.

scholarly journals News media coverage of conflict and cooperation dynamics of water events in the Lancang–Mekong River basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 1603-1615
Author(s):  
Jing Wei ◽  
Yongping Wei ◽  
Fuqiang Tian ◽  
Natalie Nott ◽  
Claire de Witt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Water Conflict ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
Conflict And Cooperation ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sentiment Score

Abstract. Riparian countries have their respective values and priorities for water management, and their values of shared water have fundamental impacts for their propensity to be involved in cooperative management and adhere to treaties/agreements. However, there is limited understanding of the changing values and interests of each riparian country. Taking the Lancang–Mekong River basin as a case study, this paper aims to analyse the evolution of water conflict and cooperation dynamics from the perspectives of multiple countries. Newspaper articles were used as the key data source as they provide insights into events reported on by the media that are representative of each country/sector they are published within. The results depict a trend of cooperative sentiments towards water events occurring within the region. The six riparian countries (China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) had a greater average sentiment score (0.5) for cooperation than international countries (0.16) for the majority of the study period. The trend also shows that countries further downstream showed lower cooperative sentiments, except for Vietnam (China 0.86, Myanmar 0.58, Laos 0.46, Thailand 0.34, Cambodia 0.13, Vietnam 0.91). Dam infrastructure was often negatively reported (60 % of negatively reported articles), which is therefore a major contributor to conflict for the Lancang–Mekong River basin. Events that are positively reported are those that aid in connecting leaders and project developers between riparian countries including meetings, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and development projects. These findings provide the basis for further revealing the mechanism of cooperation and conflicts as well as more proactively managing cooperation and conflict in the Lancang–Mekong River basin and beyond.

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