Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta is in the top ten areas affected by climate change. Therefore, assessing climate change impacts, social and economic activities require proposed solutions to respond to climate change. This study aims to (i) apply the MIKE 11 model (Hydrodynamic module and Advection-Dispersion module) to simulate the impacts of climate change scenarios on water resources in Can Tho city; (ii) calculate water balance in Can Tho city; and (iii) suggest climate change adaptation plan for sustainable social-economic activities of the city. The results show that when the rainfall changes due to climate change, the flow rate tends to decrease at high tide and increase at low tide. When the sea level rises due to climate change, the flow rate tends to increase at high tide and decrease at low tide. For 2030, the flow will decrease up to 15.6% and 14.3% at the low tide period for RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 compared to the present, respectively. The flow will increase up to 63.5% and 58.9% at the high tide period for RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 compared to the present, respectively. The water demand evaluation shows that the water resource reserve in Can Tho city meets water demands in current and future scenarios under climate change. While rainwater and groundwater can provide enough water in the rainy season, the city has to use surface water during the dry season due to a lack of rainwater. Of these, agriculture contributes the most water demands (85%). Eight adaptation measures to climate change for Can Tho city are developed from 2021 to 2050.
Keywords: Adaptation plan; Climate change; Mekong Delta; Water balance; Water flow.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.