On 15 February 2019 Philip Minderhoud will defend his thesis: The sinking mega-delta - Present and future subsidence of the Vietnamese Mekong delta.

PhD candidate Philip Minderhoud concludes in his thesis that large parts of the Mekong Delta will subside below sea level and that large scale problems can only be avoided reducing groundwater use, increasing groundwater recharge, installing smart combination of soft and hard measures again flooding and rising sea levels and re-enable sedimentation on the delta plain.

In the thesis, Minderhoud describes two mechanisms that are mainly responsible for the current rate of subsidence in the delta. First, sediment at shallow depth is compacting under the natural sediment load and this process is further enhanced by human constructions at the delta surface and drainage of the surface water level. Second, urbanization and intensification of agriculture withdraw increasing amounts of groundwater, thus causing increased subsidence.