Mekong Environmental Symposium 2013 In Vietnam

In the upcoming year the German Earth Observation Center, EOC, of the German Aerospace Center, DLR, will organize a symosium funded by the German Ministry of Education and Science, BMBF.

The event in  Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, is a three-day platform for national and local decision makers, stakeholders, renowned scientists, and industry from all six Mekong riparian countries (China, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam), as well as from the international community to share their experience and knowledge. It will focus on relevant aspects of finding equilibriums between necessary economic development as well as the urgent need for environmental protection and the maintenance of the Mekong’s river ecology.
The first day will be devoted to an official opening of the conference with keynote talks on the most pressing environmental/political/economic issues in the overall Mekong Basin, as well as the hand-over of the extensive Mekong Delta Information System, which has been developed in the WISDOM project (www.wisdom.eoc.dlr.de).
The second and third day will focus on numerous scientific topics including:
■ Hydropower development and impacts on the river ecology

■ Hydropower development and impacts on the economy

■ Mekong Basin forest dynamics and REDD+

■ Mekong Basin landuse (non-forest) dynamics

■ Mekong Basin hydrology and hydrography

■ Hazards and disaster risk reduction in the Mekong Basin

■ Mekong Basin aquatic ecology, biodiversity and water quality protection

■ Tonle Sap Lake: ecology, biodiversity and rural livelihoods

■ Mekong Delta: Climate change related challenges

■ Impacts of urbanization and industrialisation on agriculture and water resources

■ Collaboration platforms in basin management: Information Systems and Spatial Infrastructures

■ Capacity building, education and outreach
 to name only a few selected. Please visit http://www.mekong-environmental-symposium-2013.org/ to submit your abstract.