ASSESSMENT THE VULNERABLE AREA OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON THE COASTAL REGION OF MEKONG RIVER USING GEOGRAPHIC

ABSTRACT: The coastal provinces of the Mekong River Delta (MRD) is considered the most effective climate change that will impact directly on people’s life, economy and food security in the region. This research was used GIS method to determine vulnerable riskon land use typesin the coastal areas based on inundation and saltwater intrusion scenariosto create for whole Mekong Delta region in current conditions of 2004 and sea level rise scenarios in 2030 and 2050. The result shows that the vulnerable areas affecting on one factor of flooding are focused on Long An and TienGiang provinces; while the effect of saltwater intrusion, the vulnerable areas are mostly distributed in the coastal provinces including KienGiang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, SocTrang, TraVinh and Ben Tre. Using both inundation and salinity factors, the most vulnerable areas is located in SocTrang province and next distribution in two provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, a small distribution on the province of Ben Tre, TienGiang and TraVinh with total area at 12,257 ha in 2015. Moreover, coastal impact for both flood and salinity instrusion affecting on land use in the coastal area not only on forest-shrimp and shrimp farming but also on double rice crop, triple rice crop, sugarcane and upland are vulnerable effect due to climate change scenarios. 1