Delta Alliance | Wing Activities Fund 2020
The purpose of the Delta Alliance | WING Activities Fund 2020 is to promote and strengthen cooperation between delta professionals and researchers within the Delta Alliance wings. This fund provides the opportunity to apply for a grant for organising workshops, excursions, visits and round trips, symposia, writing and publishing relevant publications, producing videos, policy briefs, infographics etc. More information is available via the Wing coordinators.
Argentina Wing
>> Webinars on Nature-Based Solutions (November 2020)
As part of the Delta Alliance Activity Fund 2020, the Argentina Wing co-organised three webinars on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as a follow-up activity of the Seminar organized earlier (“Territorios del Agua”, see WING Activities Fund 2019). The webinars created a space for internationally renowned experts to share their knowledge and experiences in the field. Likewise, attendees were able to share their views on the lessons learned and future challenges.
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Bangladesh Wing
>> Report on Delta Alliance Bangladesh Wing Training for Building Capacity on Coping with Climate Vulnerability (December 2020)
Under Delta Alliance Bangladesh Wing Strengthening activity, the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) organized a 5- day training program from 22 to 26 November, 2020 through Online by ZOOM. The objective of the training program was to build capacity on coping with climate vulnerability and climate change on a partnership approach.
Read more or watch webinar recordings.
Bangladesh Wing
Under the Wing strengthening fund 2020, the Bangladesh Wing is organizing a week-long training workshop on Building Capacity on Coping with Climate Vulnerability and Climate Change in November 2020 in Dhaka. Bangladesh is an agricultural country, which is deeply affected by the impacts of climate change. Heat stress, inadequate water supply, loss of forestation, degradation of ecosystems, sea-level rise and salinity intrusion are just among the effects that threaten the delta. In this context, the workshop aims to share lessons, knowledge, and experiences to help strategic stakeholders building their capacity towards adaptation to climate change. Experts from the Bangladesh Water Development Board, IWM, WARPO, BCAS, BUET, CEGIS, BIDS, DOE, LGED, BIDS, NGO Forum and other partner organizations will be presenting sessions on relevant topics.
Benin Wing
>> Participatory ecosystem service mapping to enhance community-based mangrove rehabilitation and management in the Ouémé Delta (July - October 2020)
In the Ouémé Delta, mangrove ecosystems constitute a valuable resource for community livelihoods. They provide habitats for flora and fauna species, protect the coast against erosion and flooding and supply various products for local communities. Over the last decades however, mangroves are overused and seriously degraded. In order to have an understanding of the environmental and livelihood importance of mangroves in the Delta, and to ultimately develop rehabilitation initiatives, assessing the mangrove ecosystem services is essential to understand and manage the contribution of these ecosystems to the well-being of local communities.
Indonesia Wing
>> Development of website as new information sharing gateway (July-November 2020)
In order to sustain lessons learned, share further knowledge and information, and provide hands on scientific resources for local governments in particular, the Delta Alliance Indonesia Wing will develop a website focusing on land subsidence, city resilience, and flood in delta cities of Java.
The website https://www.daiw.id will be presented during a launching event based at Geostech Laboratory, Kawasan Puspitek Serpong and will be online broadcasted to invited participants.
A diversity of stakeholders will be involved in this project, including Jan Sopaheluwakan from the University of Indonesia and a support team at PTRRB/BPPT, as well as Governmental bodies such as Bappenas; BKAT (Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources); Pusair (Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Housing); Coordinating Ministry of Marine and Investment and local governments of northern Java (Provincial and Kabupaten/Kota) as well as the NGOs LPBI/PBNU and Pattiro Semarang, Building with Nature Indonesia and the Nature Conservancy Indonesia.
Kenya Wing
>> Capacity building for local delta communities (November 2020)
Kenyan coastal areas are experiencing accelerated ocean level rise, intrusion of saline water on the coastal farm land thereby causing displacements of local communities, affecting local communities and accelerated degradation of delta biodiversity.
Through lobby and advocacy and the development of a policy brief, the Kenya Wing therefore intends to build capacity for local delta communities for effective planning and protection of endangered deltas ecosystems in Kenya. They aim to support decision making, lobbying and networking for ensuring effective delta planning involving all key stakeholders, ensure sustainable management and utilisation of delta resources, capacity and continental knowledge sharing.
Vietnam Mekong Wing
Report Workshop on Creating Flood Resilient Cities in the Mekong Delta: Opportunities and Challenges (December 2020)The workshop, held on 22 December 2020 in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, was a great opportunity for researchers and the authorities of the Mekong Delta Cities to improve their understanding to each other's work. Besides, the workshop was a perfect place for the different cities in the Mekong Delta to share and learn from practical experiences in urban flooding management, relevant policy, awareness improvement on the importance of the enhancing flood resilience for the cities.
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>> Seminar: “Creating Flood Resilient Cities in the Mekong Delta: Opportunities and Challenges” (October 2020)
The Mekong River Wing organizes a seminar “Creating Flood Resilient Cities in the Mekong Delta: Opportunities and Challenges” to present the results of studies on preventing, managing and enhancing the resilient ability for urban flooding of the Mekong Delta’s urbans, to share advantages, constraints and current contexts of flood management of each city by the authorities of the Mekong Delta cities, and to discuss on the general strategies and opportunities for the development of “Flood resilient Cities” for the Mekong Delta characteristics.
The total number of participants of the seminar is about 30 persons, these include amongst others
- The well-known professional researchers in urban flooding management, such as:
- Prof. Le Thanh Hai – Director of IER
- Assoc. Prof. Chau Nguyen Xuan Quang – Deputy Director of IER
- Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Hong Quan – Director of Institute of Circular Economic and Sustainability, VNUHCM.
- Mr. Ho Long Phi – Expert in urban flooding management, Former Director of Center of Water Management and Climate Change, VNUHCM
- Other researchers, lecturers in the universities, institute who have interested in flooding management are also welcome.
- The authorities which are responsible for flood management of the Mekong Delta provinces where flooding is one of the considered issued (such as: Can Tho, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, etc.), such as: the Deputy of Construction, Deputy of Natural Resources and Environment, Deputy of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Irrigation, etc…
- The representing of some newspapers, NGOs are also invited for more affection from the seminar results.
Vietnam Red River Wing
>> Study on plastic transport in the Red River (July 2020)
Plastic waste is a serious problem in the modern world because its low-recycling rate is alarmingly polluting the ocean. In Vietnam, media is constantly reporting the pollution of plastic waste on the beaches and coastal regions, it has changed the aquatic ecosystems and affects people's health and livelihoods. These facts have triggered the need for information about the severity of plastic waste being transported to the sea, mostly by in-land rivers. This is a very new topic, there has not been much research implemented to quantify the amount of plastic waste discharged into rivers from major cities in the Red River Delta, or to simulate the process of transporting plastic waste from the sources into the sea under a close interaction between plastic waste and water environment.
The Red River Wing will initially create a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of plastic waste in the Red River Delta region, and this background knowledge will set the stage for further careful studies on this topic by the researchers in the local DA Wing. HUNRE’s students and lecturers will be sent to different areas of the Red River to monitor the amount of plastic waste that flows on the river. These activities will be conducted continuously for about a week to quantify the amount of plastic waste transported in the river and other related characteristics such as classification, characteristics, variations of the plastics, etc.
Additionally, the initiated studies also help to improve the capacity of students and lecturers at HUNRE. Thi Van Le Khoa is taking his first steps in his PhD journey at WUR, the Netherlands with the topic of Integrated Monitoring of Plastic in Rivers, Estuaries and Seas (IMPRES), and the initial insights gained through the activities are very valuable to him and his colleagues at HUNRE as well as the Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group of WUR to build a rational plan for the study.