Mekong group upgrades flood forecasting tool

The commission's Flood and Drought Forecast and Monitoring page has recently been revitalized since the last improvement in 2018 with a new interface, the MRC, an inter-governmental organization that works with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to manage water resources and development of the Mekong River, said in a Tuesday statement.

The upgraded version provides an immediate update as well as overview of the current status of the river condition, including flood forecasting, risk of flash floods, drought forecast, and rainfall distribution over the Lower Mekong River Basin.

People who live along the mainstream river like in Chiang Saen in Thailand, Vientiane in Laos, Phnom Penh in Cambodia or Tan Chau in Vietnam, can now check the river conditions on the front page of the MRC's website.

A screenshot of the Mekong river monitoring and forecasting front page by the MRC.

River flood forecast is updated every morning. Districts at risk of flash floods are highlighted.

Drought information is forecasted weekly and the rainfall distribution over the basin is visualized from 144 hydrometeorological stations classified in different rainfall depths.

The Mekong River Basin supports nearly 70 million people, providing energy, transport, tourism and other income-generating development opportunities.

As climate and weather patterns become more volatile, flood and drought events in the Mekong have become more frequent and intense with growing potential to cause devastating damage to the region’s food security and economies, according to the MRC.