PhD results phase 1

PhD candidate

PhD thesis

Tatjana Bauer

Center for Development Research (ZEF)

The Challenge of Knowledge Sharing - Practices of the Vietnamese Science Community in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta

Knowledge is seen “as the main driving force of innovation and development” (Evers and Gerke 2005: 5). According to the World Development Report of 1998/99 on ‘Knowledge for Development’ knowledge makes the difference between countries that are stuck in poverty and industrialized nations that have accumulated wealth. It points out that the most decisive problems facing developing countries are knowledge gaps. There is an unequal distribution of financial and human resources for research and development (R&D) which can be observed across countries but also within a state. It has been proved that scientific knowledge about health issues, financial investment or environmental matters can improve people’s lives dramatically (World Bank 1999: 1ff).

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Huu Pham Cong

Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Planning and Implementation of the Dyke Systems in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (MD) is the most vulnerable flooding region compared to other regions in Vietnam and in the Mekong River system (MR). Its very nature is the lowest part of the Mekong River. During the last decades, the Mekong Delta people have coped with and adapted to a number of “natural disasters” and “human disasters”. In fact, a number of people lost their assets and a few even died because of fl oods. According to a flood disaster summary, published by the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC) for the period 1991 to 2005, 2032 people were killed by floods; more than 3.6 million buildings were flooded and collapsed and more than 1.1 million ha of paddy fields inundated.

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Nguyen Viet Dung

German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)

Multi-objective automatic calibration of hydrodynamic models - development of the concept and an application in the Mekong Delta

Flooding is a global issue. Floods can be not only damaging, but also beneficial. However, recently, owing to the effects of climate change and other factors like demographic and economic developments, it is widely acknowledged that an increasing number of people are threatened by floods, especially in coastal and estuarine regions (Merz et al., 2008; Apel et al., 2009). Hence, assessing flood risk, preparing effective flood mitigation measures and utilizing flood benefits at the same time have thus become even more vital task in water resources engineering.

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Judith Ehlert

Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Living with Flood - Local Knowledge in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The thesis focussed on water-related local knowledge since water and seasonal flooding in the Mekong Delta have constituted the most important resource for the diverse agriculture and aquaculture based livelihoods in the region. Since economic liberalization of the mid-1980s, the Mekong Delta experienced an enormous economic boost thanks to agricultural intensification and the abundance of seasonal freshwater and high investments in flood and irrigation control. The Mekong Delta – as the ‘rice bowl’ of Vietnam – is the outcome of human actively interfering into the wetland ecology by water and flood control devices. This process of human shaping their natural environment is understood as one in which people gain new knowledge and practical experience.

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Nguyen Nghia Hung

German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)

Sediment dynamics in the Floodplain of the Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta is one of the largest and most intensively used estuaries in the world. It experiences annual widespread flooding, which provide the basis of livelihood for about 17 million people in the Mekong Delta, but they also pose a considerable hazard when extreme events exceed protection levels. Especially since the Delta in Vietnam is intensively used for agriculture, the pristine natural floodplains have been altered to channel networks, dike rings, paddy fields and aquaculture ponds. Sediment dynamics play an important role in carrying contaminants, bacteria, nutrients, heavy metals, phytoplankton, pesticides, etc. They are the primary source for the productivity of biota in floodplains as well as a sustainable agro-ecosystem within the Delta. However, little is known about the dynamics of these suspended sediments, including multi-processes erosion, deposition, and suspension in the complex channel network of the Delta. In particular, quantitative analyses are lacking, mainly because of lacking data about the inundation processes in the floodplains.

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Nadine Reis

Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Tracing and Making the State - Policy practices and domestic water supply in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

This study investigates how ideas and social relations as materialised in history and institutions shape policy practices in Vietnam, drawing on the case of domestic water supply in the rural areas of Can Tho City. Thereby, the study contributes not only to an understanding of ‘the everyday politics’ of domestic water supply in the rural Mekong Delta, but also to a theoretical debate on the ‘nature’ of policy practices in different historical contexts. The findings moreover allow conclusions regarding a broader discussion on globalisation, and the extent to which global ideas penetrate national states and the ideas that make them.

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