WISDOM contributed to the ‘INFORMATION DAYS ON INTEGRATED COASTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE MEKONG DELTA’ in Can Tho on the 13th of October 2010, organized by GTZ. The event took place in the context of the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The year 2010 was selected as the ‘German Year in Viet Nam’ and ‘Vietnamese Year in Germany’ and 50 activities have been organized by the German government to celebrate the success of this bilateral cooperation.

On August 30 DLR hosted a WISDOM workshop at the end of project phase I to bring together the project group to meet up with external Mekong experts. About 25 WISDOM scientists participated in the fruitful exchange with 5 external experts from Cambodia, Finland and Germany. The experts presented the outcome of Mekong Delta and Mekong related projects they contributed to within the past 10 years, as well as on-going projects related to MRC programmes. Furthermore airborne technologies concerning groundwater analysis were introduced.

On June 10th 16 experts from Bac Lieu Province (Head of the Peoples Committee, Directors of local environmental agencies etc.) jointly with local GTZ experts visited DLR to exchange ideas of collaboration between EZ funded projects such as a coastal protection project of GTZ in Bac Lieu and the WISDOM Project. Several participants had already been involved in the DARD, DONRE, DOST Workshop for Mekong Delta provinces, which was held in March 2009 in Can Tho. Coastal protection – and here especially the protection of remaining forest areas – are of highest priority in Bac Lieu.

On 16th of April the Kick Off meeting of the RICEMAN project, as small project associated to the WISDOM Project focussing on coastal protection and the management of two important man made and natural ecosystems in Vietnam - rice growing areas and mangrove ecosystems - took place at the premises of VAST-GIRS in HCMC on April 16th 2010. During the Kick Off directors of GIRS, FIPI and associated organisations were present. The German WISDOM coordination as well as WISDOM's CIM expert also joined the meeting.

During a week's visit in Hanoi the WISDOM project coordination lead several talks with Ministries in Hanoi informing about the current status of the WISDOM project, the submitted proposal for a possible extension with a second phase, and ongoing research work and project's progress. WISDOM has the strong support of MOST and MONRE, with Vice Minister Dr. Lai underlining that a key focus must be the user friendliness of the WISDOM Information System, and it simplistic design, so as to not become a 'scientific system ending up in the shelf'.

The WIDSDOM project and its preliminary results as well as the Mekong Delta Information System were presented during the 3rd German-Indian Conference on Research for Sustainability held in Delhi, India, on February 3rd and 4th, organized by DST, IIT Delhi and BMBF. The goal of the 3rd Indo-German Conference was to define strategic common areas between India and Germany in the fields of -water- and -waste management- research and development and to build a network between key actors. The networks are expected to generate research, development and innovation alliances for the better use of scientific and technological knowledge.

Considering a growing water contamination through expanding fresh water aquacultures in the upstream delta, ZEF recently conducted a field research in Can Tho City, aiming at exploring the linkages between fish farming and water-related environmental problems from a social science perspective. In Can Tho City, freshwater aquaculture has become a key sector for boosting the local economic development in recent years. Hundreds of new jobs have been created in commercial fish farms and processing companies and the rural scenery has altered accordingly in many places of the province. For instance, the Hau River Bank, which consisted of mainly rice fields and fruit orchards, has been transformed into

During the last weeks of December, IT experts of DLR installed the first version of the Information System prototype at the Southern Institute of Water Resources research in HCMC, as well as at Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta. The first test intallations were accompanied by hands on trainings. Purpose of Prototype installation was to firstly promote data sharing and technology transfer, analyse the challenges in Vietnam, and yield insights for further IT development.