Assessment of climate change impacts on water resources in Hong-Thai Binh river basin

Abstract. Rapid socio-economic development leads to a great increase in water demand of manysectors and conflicts between water users. Moreover, studies have warned about serious degree ofinfluence of climate change (CC) on Vietnam, particularly on the water resources. Therefore,assess CC impacts on water balances are very necessary task. The Ministry of Natural Resourcesand Environment has com pleted the appropriate clim ate change scenarios in Vietnam [1]. In thisstudy, water balance results will be presented including three scenarios: high emissions scenario(A2), medium emission scenario (B2), and low emission scenario (B1). The water balanced inHong-Thai Binh river basin was calculated, which is one of the largest basins in Vietnam. Thebasin is very complicated: Under the influence of flow regime of international rivers [2], a systemof reservoừs and irrigation structures serving diverse purposes, such as of water supply, irrigation,flood control and hydropower [3-5]. MIKE BASIN model was applied to describe exploitation,utilization and to identify ứie water shortage areas according to the climate change scenarios.Keywfords: climate change, water resources, Hong-Thai Binh river.