Water Resources Evaluation in the Lower Mekong River Basin Influenced by the Flood Control

Abstract

A numerical model is developed for simulating floods and inundation in the Lower Mekong River basin. The model includes the groundwater analysis and shows good results about the temporal and special variation of inundation area around Phnom Penh. The results also show the inundation effects on the groundwater charge. The amount of ground water charge from inundated water was 52km³ in usual flood.
We simulate the case of small flood to evaluate the flood control effect on the water resources such as agriculture and groundwater. The simulated results are as follows. (1) Inundated areas are remained despite of flood control. (2) Although the flood control in the upper dams restricts cultivate area in inundation region, larger cultivate area can be gained from water storage. (3) The amount of ground water charge decreases due to flood control, and becomes 30km³ in the case of 44% flood control. However groundwater resource from inundation is sufficient for Cambodian people.