Modeling tools may be a substantial support for River Basin Development, River Basin Planning and for the implementation &monitoring of the Action Plans. In the specific case of Lao PDR, modeling may proof its usefulness in the three following areas :
- During the preparation of the River Basin Management Plans, as a support for investments decision. Modeling may help to build strategies and road maps by providing analysis of complex cumulative impacts on water quantity, water quality and water related natural resources according to different scenarios of infrastructure development. Due to the complexity of the modeling exercise, it is particularly helpful when new, substantial and complex development are envisaged that may affect the global availability of water, modify the hydraulic regime and generate issues in terms of water quality and change in sediment transport. Developing such models is for example justified when dams or cascade of dams are envisaged to be constructed.
- During the preparation and implementation of the River Basin Management Plans, as a support for stakeholders coordination in the framework of Integrated Water Resources Management. Once infrastructures have been built or eventually planned, it is essential to provide adequate mitigation of the impacts. In this case as well, modeling can be helpful for providing robust analysis of complex issues. Here also, a very typical example for which modeling finds its full usefulness is the case of a cascade of dams. Although dams were designed with a mono-objective (Electricity production), water releases rules should be optimized considering especially climate change adaptation and more generally integrated flow management as well as ensuring safe flood management. In this case, modeling tools may help sectors coordination which is a key role of the River Basin Organizations, MoNRE and its decentralized institutions.
- During the implementation of the River Basin Management Plans, as a support for disaster management. The most usual case is the development of modelling tools to identify flood prone areas and to support early flood warning schemes.
