Assessment of long-term changes in hydrological regime of river basins across Vietnam
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Abstract
Increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns in Vietnam due to climate change are likely to have significant impacts on flow regimes in river basins as well as on national water resources. This study investigated the changes in hydrological regime at 11 freshwater hydrological monitoring stations with good observation data (spanning 35 years, from 1987 to 2022) distributed across Vietnam. The study applied the Mann-Kendall statistical test and calculated Sen’s slope for three hydrological indices (annual mean flow, annual maximum flow and annual minimum flow) at selected monitoring stations. The assessment highlighted a dominant decreasing trend throughout the period under study, with data from four monitoring stations (distributed in different river systems) showing a decline in all three indicators. Two basins showed an increasing trend in all three assessed indicators, but most of these trends were not statistically significant. This result demonstrates the complex changes in the hydrological regime of Vietnam's river basins. Some important factors that may influence these trends are changes in land use, the expansion of dams and reservoirs and rapid urbanization (to support the national economic development since 2000s), which should be further investigated in future research.
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