Vietnamese city probes climate risks to development plan
The coastal city of Quy Nhon in central Binh Dinh province is conducting a hydrology study, with support from the U.S.-based Rockefeller Foundation, to look into the risk of infrastructure development in a flood-prone district in view of climate change, reports Thin Lei Win for Reuters AlertNet.
The 18-month study will first document the 2009 floods in detail according to the journalist. It will then feed information into a hydrological model to simulate water flows and predict how floods could play out in a future with higher sea levels, looking at scenarios both with and without urban development.
"With climate change, what you're likely to see is potentially more intense storms ... and then higher sea levels extending the period of inundation, because it's slower to drain that water off the land," said Karen MacClune, a scientist with the U.S.-based Institute for Social and Environmental Transition which is providing technical support for the project.