Improving flood and drought management in agricultural river basins: an application to the Mun River Basin in Thailand

• DOI: 10.2166/wp.2021.011
• Publication Date: 2021-08-31T16:21:53Z
• Authors: Saowanit Prabnakorn; Laddaporn Ruangpan; Natthachet Tangda...; F. X. Suryadi; Charlotte de Frai...
• Keywords: TC401-506; 2. Zero hunger; water supply; rice; Water demand; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; 15. Life on land; 6. Clean water; Farm pond; Water management; River, lake, and water-supply engineering (General); Water supply; farm pond; water demand; 13. Climate action; water management; 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; Rice

Agriculture productivity is regularly affected by floods and droughts, the severity likely to increase in future. Even if significant efforts are spent on water development projects, ineffective project planning often means that they continue occur or only partly mitigated, for example, Mun River Basin, Thailand, where 1,000 s of projects have been implemented. Despite this, basin experiences droughts. In this study, an analysis adverse impacts basin-scale droughts rice cultivation Basin conducted, estimation coping capacity existing measures. The results demonstrate while total storage in-situ ongoing would be sufficient tackle both hazards, it can achieved effectively utilised. Based proposed solutions region include small farm ponds, a subsurface floodwater harvesting system, oxbow lake reconnections. suggested measures practicable, economical, environmentally low-impact, their implementation (if executed with appropriate care) reduce flood drought problems basin. Notably, calculation methods also applied other crops regions.