NexView

Increasing understanding and assessing impacts of development on social-ecological systems in the lower Mekong river basin by increasing access to integrated and visualized data, models, and decision-making tools.

The Science Issue and Relevance

In the face of economic development pressure, better and more explicit understanding of the interactions between social and ecological systems of the Lower Mekong River Basin will benefit the understanding and decision making between citizens and local and national governments. In order to assist in local, natural resource decision making, the U.S. State Department, through their Mekong-U.S. Partnership, is partnering with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to increase the availability and predicative capacity of existing social, economic, groundwater, surface water, and other biophysical data. Policy makers and technical users will have the opportunity to gain greater understanding of potential decision making outcomes by exploring dynamically integrated data and models in an immersive, visualized, environment that reflects the priorities and perspectives of each stakeholder.

Methodology for Addressing the Issue

Under the guidance of the U.S. State Department, the USGS and Arizona State University, in cooperation with Mekong River Commission and assistance from Vietnamese and Cambodian university faculties, will build on existing regional research efforts while collecting and creating new information. Arizona State University’s Decision Theater® will integrate and conduct data analytics while visualizing available models and information in order to facilitate informed discussions and decision/policy making. The Cambodia-Vietnam border area, from the Tonle Sap Great Lake to the sea, will be the initial geographic focus for groundwater, surface water, and socioeconomic data, information collection, and analysis.

The existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Shared Vision Planning (SVP), will be the first model adopted into the Decision Theater software framework. Ultimately, the existing USGS modular finite-difference flow model (MODFLOW), the macro-scale variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrologic model, and, a multi-year, daily time step, multi-crop simulation model (CropSyst) will be integrated into the overarching NexView project along with new data and information collected as part of the NexView program. Importantly, the NexView integrated framework will also include socioeconomic drivers and indicators (e.g. rice production and fishery catch). Using the Decision Theater integrated and visualized NexView, technical experts and policy makers alike will be able to manipulate and explore decision scenarios. The result will be a better understanding of the complex interrelated environment and social economic aspects of the Lower Mekong River Basin, as well as more informed stakeholder conversations regarding the consequences of decisions, before they are made.

Future Steps

This integrated and visualized social-ecological modeling approach, focusing on water resource management, is intended to increase international cooperation and informed decision making. Ultimately, it is intended to improve the livelihoods for the people living in and around the Cambodia- Vietnam border. Future efforts are expected to expand this pilot program’s geographic area of interest while identifying and filling information gaps, and adding other beneficial disciplines.