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Informing Mekong River Basin Resiliency and Climate Adaptation

CASC experts are often requested to provide technical assistance to other Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of State, as well as national and international partners. The U.S. Consulate in Thailand solicited leadership and guidance from the CASCs to help develop community-supported recommendations for increasing resiliency for fishing communities in the Mekong River Basin. Thailand has recently faced historic water shortages and severe drought. Upstream hydropower development in China and Laos, climate change, a year of unusually little rainfall, and historically low and unpredictable Mekong River basin levels may all contribute to the historic water shortages Climate projections suggest increasing frequency and intensity of extreme high water-flow events, ) rising variability in seasonal rainfall ,and increasing temperature. These factors could increase the risk of drought and floods across the Mekong region. Rising surface temperatures and shifts in precipitation are also causing many detrimental impacts on infrastructure and fisheries. These issues may be further exacerbated by higher water demands to meet agricultural needs, especially in Northern Thailand. CASC experts will work collaboratively with the US Consulate in Thailand, local community members, Government of Thailand agencies, and partners to co-develop a synthesis of climate adaptation strategies appropriate for Mekong River fishing communities which will be summarized as a peer-review publication, summary infographic, and other communication products as appropriate. The resulting products will be locally driven but may have broader implications for other community-supported mechanisms to increase resiliency in riparian and fishing communities in response to climate change in the US as well as around the globe.CASC experts will serve in an international scientific authority capacity to fulfill a USGS-US Consulate agreement to help address the Mekong River basin’s environmental and economic challenges and generate good will towards the US in the region. Specifically, this project will advance two US foreign service priorities in East Asia and the Pacific: 1) address climate change through ingenuity and innovation, and 2) maintain US leadership by operationalizing the Indo-Pacific Strategy in the Mekong Region. The work also fulfills the US Consulate’s recent recommendation to embed US climate adaptation and fisheries experts in riparian communities. Additionally, the project aligns with Department of Interior’s conservation, equity, and environmental justice priorities.