Drought in years 2015-2016 in the two major river basins in the Central Highlands

Abstract

In recent years, droughts and water shortages have occurred in many regions of Vietnam. Since late 2014, because of ELNINO phenomenon extension and abnormal climate variation, there is no rainfall during 2015 in various areas, resulting lower river flow than the average annual flow (AAF) in particular in the Central region and Central Highlands [1]. In the Central Highlands, river flow in 2015 tended to decrease by 30-70% comparing to the AAF, the storage volumes of irrigation reservoirs were thus lower than designed capacities, approximately 50-60% of the designed capacities, especially some reservoirs were dried or at dead level [2]. By early 2016, drought situation was more complicated and severe than that in 2015 with the expected rainfall of 20-50% lower than the AAF [3]. This paper presents an assessement of water resource features in the two major river basins in the Central Highlands to give a comprehensive assessment of drought and water deficit in the area in 2015-2016.