Donors: CGIAR   |    Duration:   2010-2013    |    Location: Mekong Regional: Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam
About: The Mekong  Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) is a research and management initiative improving management of water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment. The Mekong Basin is one of nine international basins selected and focuses on hydropower, agriculture and fisheries. The objective is to reduce poverty and foster development through integrated water management of reservoirs and cascades and planning for climate change impacts. ICEM is involved in three of five Mekong projects in consortium with IWMI and WorldFish.

• Project 1 assesses the potential for multiple use reservoirs and develops alternative land & water management strategies to enhance livelihood benefits of hydropower development. ICEM is leading on defining environmental flows for the three catchments and the feasibility assessment of constructed wetlands in maintaining aquatic productivity in catchments under extreme development.
• Project 2 undertakes an economic valuation of catchment water resources for user groups. ICEM leads the development of a model approach to quantify water availability to each group under different strategies.
• Project 3 – ICEM is the lead firm for Project 3, scaling up catchment level methods to optimize management of hydro-power reservoirs by developing hydrological and sediment transport modeling.

Project 3 seeks to understand cumulative upstream & downstream consequences of cascade reservoirs and includes an assessment of land degradation, land use changes and reservoir siltation processes and their effects target sectors.  Reservoir operations are optimized against a set of sustainability criteria that also accounts for climate change impacts. ICEM will develop a Decision Support Framework (DSF) based on modelling tools used in predicting impacts of management planning. Key stakeholders will participate in multi-year training programs designed by ICEM in the use DSF for assessing impacts of hydropower development and climate change on target sectors.