Development of an Efficient Modelling Approach to Support Economically and Socially Acceptable Flood Risk Reduction in Coastal Cities: Can Tho City, Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Flooding is one of the most frequently occurring and damaging natural disasters worldwide. Quantitative flood risk management (FRM) in the modern context demands statistically robust approaches (e.g. probabilistic) due to the need to deal with complex uncertainties. However, probabilistic estimates often involve ensemble 2D model runs resulting in large computational costs.Additionally, modern FRM necessitates the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders via co-design sessions. This makes it necessary for the flood models, at least at a simplified level, to be understood by and accessible to non-specialists. This study was undertaken to develop a flood modelling system that can provide rapid and sufficiently accurate estimates of flood risk within a methodology that is accessible to a wider range of stakeholders for a coastal city – Can Tho city, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A web-based hydraulic tool, Inform, was developed based on a simplified 1D model for the entire Mekong Delta, flood hazard and damage maps, and estimated flood damages for the urban centre of Can Tho city (Ninh Kieu district), containing the must-have features of a co-design tool (e.g. inbuilt input library, flexible options, easy to use, quick results, user-friendly interface). Inform provides rapid flood risk assessments with quantitative information (e.g. flood levels, flood hazard and damage maps, estimated damages) required for co-designing efforts aimed at flood risk reduction for Ninh Kieu district in the future.

Hieu Quang Ngo was born in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree and MSs' degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Water Resources University, Viet Nam (2007 - 2015). Thereafter he worked at the Hydraulic Construction Institute – Vietnam Academy for Water Resources. In this period, he functioned as an engineering designer, researcher and project leader, where he was involved in designing hydraulic engineering works and scientific research related to planning and designing hydraulic structures. In 2015, he was offered a PhD position in IHE Delft, in collaboration with Delft University of Technology. His research interests include: climate change impacts and human activities on flooding in coastal cities; development of efficient modelling systems to support constructing probabilistic flood hazard maps and, further, to support flood risk reduction management in coastal and estuaries cities; development of interactive tools for co-designing of risk reduction measures; remote sensing and GIS applications in flood management; river and coastal flood modelling at global, regional and local scales.