CLIMDIS

CLIMDIS - Management of the water quality in Vietnamese coastal waters impacted by CLIMate change and human induced DISasters using a marine modelling tool

December 2019 - March 2024

Summary

Exploiting the ecosystem services of the World Natural Heritage of Ha Long Bay (HLB, North Vietnam) to develop tourism has contributed greatly to the socioeconomic development of Quang Ninh province. However, along with the socioeconomic development the water management of HLB became increasingly complicated. The water quality is rapidly declining; this reduces the attractiveness of HLB for tourists and threatens the sustainable development of the area. In the CLIMDIS project a 3D hydrodynamic model is used as a base to develop a toolkit that can be used to assess, forecast and monitor the water quality of the bay and provide real time information on dispersal trends of organic pollutants. A better understanding of the extent of the impact of pollutants and the effects of human activity and climate change on the water quality will help to better manage the health of the marine ecosystem of this area, to minimise the negative impact on the socioeconomic development of the region and to react adequately to rapid changes in the water and ecosystem quality of the region. All this serves the goals of sustainable development.

Team members involved

Geneviève Lacroix, Saheed Puthan Purayil (now in MFC team), Hugo Romanelli, Arthur Capet

ECOMOD tasks and responsabilities

• Coordination
• Implementation of COHERENS hydrodynamics on South China Sea
• Implementation of COHERENS hydrodynamics & BioGeoChemical (BGC) modules to Halong Bay (HLB)
• Model validation
• Capacity building (transferring the model and organising trainings to scientists and HLB managers)

Partners

1. RBINS (Geneviève Lacroix, Saheed Puthan Purayil, Hugo Romanelli, Arthur Capet
2. Institute of Marine Environment and Resources, Vietnam (IMER) (Dr. Vu Duy Vinh, Nguyen Minh Hai)
3. Ha Long Bay Management Department, Vietnam (Dr. Do Tien Thanh)

Funding and contract

This project is funded by the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) through the “Bilateral Call 2018 with Vietnam : ‘Climate Change and Disaster Resilience’ (Contract n°BL/36/VT43)

Dissemination CLIMDIS

• Policy brief CLIMDIS

  In preparation - coming soon

• Peer-reviewed publications

  • Vinh Duy Vu, Hai Minh Nguyen, Saheed Puthan Purayil, Geneviève Lacroix, Duong Thanh Nguyen. Seasonal variation of coastal currents and residual currents in the Cat Ba - Ha Long coastal area (VIET NAM): Results of COHERENS model. Regional Studies in Marine Science, 80:103874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2024.103874 PDF link

• Final project report

  The CLIMDIS final project report can be downloaded here: CLIMDIS Final report