Journal ArticleDOI
Mekong Committee History and Lessons for River Basin Development
TLDR
In this paper, the history of the Mekong Committee in the light of the constraints imposed upon it, and progress made in spite of constraints is examined, and it is argued that these constraints, in some ways, have been a blessing for regional water development.Abstract:
One of the notable programmes in international cooperation in river basin development has been conducted in the Lower Mekong River Basin. Since its creation in 1957 the United Nations-sponsored Mekong Committee has been coordinating water resource development among the Lower Basin nations of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The region has undergone several environmental, political, and economic changes, yet the Mekong Committee has persisted and made several important contributions to regional water development. This paper examines the history of the Mekong Committee in the light of the constraints imposed upon it, and progress made in spite of constraints. It is argued that these constraints, in some ways, have been a blessing for regional water development. General principles from the Mekong of interest to geographers and others involved in river basin planning and water resources research are also discussed.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The politics of hydropower: developing the Mekong
TL;DR: In this paper, a brief examination of the discursive framing of Mekong hydrodevelopment is presented, which uncovers some of the implications of an emerging regional geopolitical imagination centred on the naturalising metaphor of the watershed.
Journal ArticleDOI
River Basin Development Planning and Management: A Critical Review
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review of river basin development planning and management to assess why problems occur, and then focus on possibilities for improvements, and discuss the potential for improvements.
Journal ArticleDOI
Water Resource Models in the Mekong Basin: A Review
Robyn Johnston,Matti Kummu +1 more
TL;DR: Future efforts should focus on optimising the use of existing model platforms for the Mekong, including structured comparison of multiple hydrological models to quantify errors and identify an optimum set of modelling tools for different applications.
Journal ArticleDOI
The shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong dams
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore and partially explain the re-emergence of hydropower development in the Mekong region, by outlining both the shifting geopolitics of river and region, and showing how Mekong as metaphor extends to much more than the materiality of the river from which the multiply constructed region derives its name.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Environmental Effects of the High Dam at Aswan
TL;DR: A post-audit study over the past decade is enough to warrant general observations on direct economic impacts and to suggest several possible lessons of importance to scientists engaged in predicting and tracing environmental linkages from major water projects as mentioned in this paper.
Book
Dams and the Environment: Considerations in World Bank Projects
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the relationship between dams and the environment, both the effect of dams on the environment and the effects of the environment on dams, and the economic analysis of these effects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contributions of Geographical Analysis to River Basin Development
TL;DR: The international experiment in river development in the Lower Mekong is unique not only in being the first attempt under United Nations auspices to bring several nations together in managing the waters of a large basin before contending claims arise, but also in seeking to relate the full array of scientific knowledge and method of planning before major construction begins as discussed by the authors.
River basin projects in Africa
TL;DR: While developers seek hydroelectric power to boost national economies and conservationists press for preservation of the natural resources and habitats on which riverside communities depend, each side's arguments, the possible compromises, as well as the likeliest solutions are presented.