Project Description
The Mekong Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) is a regional research and management initiative focused on improving water resource management in the Mekong Basin to support food security, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability. One of nine international CPWF sites, the Mekong Basin program emphasizes integrated water management amid growing hydropower, agriculture, and fisheries development. ICEM, in partnership with IWMI and WorldFish, contributed to three of the five core projects within the Mekong program, addressing multiple-use reservoirs, economic valuation of water resources, and hydropower cascade optimization.
Objectives, Activities and Results
In Project 1, ICEM defined environmental flows and assessed constructed wetlands to sustain aquatic productivity in hydropower-impacted catchments. In Project 2, ICEM led the development of economic models to evaluate water allocation strategies for user groups under varying management approaches. For Project 3, ICEM directed efforts to scale up catchment-level methods, applying hydrological and sediment transport modeling to optimize hydropower reservoir operations. This project addressed cumulative impacts of cascade dams and incorporated climate change scenarios. A Decision Support Framework (DSF) was developed for multi-sectoral impact analysis, and capacity building programs trained key stakeholders in using the DSF to guide sustainable hydropower planning and water resource management.
