Some of the world’s most fertile land lies on the southern tip of Vietnam. The Vietnamese Mekong Delta “is a very rich land for agriculture like rice farming and shrimp farming,” says Jonas Bauer, a PhD student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Vietnam is one of the world’s top rice and shrimp exporting nations, and 50 percent of the country’s rice and 70 percent of its aquaculture production comes from the Mekong Delta.

Why coastal protection is essential in the Mekong Delta

Over the past decades, the Mekong Delta has faced increasing pressure. Upstream dams and sand mining reduce the flow of sediments that feed the delta, causing it to recede, while farmers now pump water from the ground. Together with these activities, the creation of infrastructure such as buildings and roads is compacting the once loose (unconsolidated) sediments, causing the delta to sink.

Climate change and rising sea levels also affect the delta.

Read the full story Bolstering Vietnam’s coastal resilience with wave measurements at Nortek.