Award Date

5-15-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Geoscience

First Committee Member

Gabriel Judkins

Second Committee Member

Ganqing Jiang

Third Committee Member

Elisabeth Hausrath

Fourth Committee Member

Michael Nicholl

Fifth Committee Member

Jichun Li

Number of Pages

147

Abstract

The Mekong River Basin is vital to East and Southeast Asia, supporting over 60 million people and sustaining critical ecological systems. However, the basin faces dual threats from climate change and hydropower development, jeopardizing its ecological balance, hydrological patterns, and resource reliability. This research focuses on the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), where aggressive hydropower expansion and climate variability have intensified concerns about sustainable water management. The study is divided into three interconnected parts. Part I examines spatial and temporal precipitation patterns in the Chi-Mun Basin (CMB) and Lower Mekong River (LMR) from 1950 to 2008, using linear regression and Mann-Kendall analyses. Results reveal consistent precipitation trends, offering insights into climate variability. Part II integrates the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model (CMADS) to address the limitations of spatiotemporal meteorological data for simulating streamflow in the CMB and enhance hydrological modeling reliability. Part III evaluates the cumulative effects of the developments of hydropower infrastructures on the Mekong River in the LMB across various climate change scenarios, employing the SWAT model for analysis. Projections include baseline, near-future (2031–2050), and far-future (2061–2080) conditions of climate change under the average greenhouse gas emission level of (RCP 4.5) and a high greenhouse gas emission scenario of RCP 8.5.In the Chi-Mun Basin, precipitation trends exhibited slight decreases without significant patterns, suggesting localized climatic variations throughout the CMB. Employing CMADS datasets, SWAT simulations yielded dependable findings that align with observed data, facilitating hydrological modeling in ungauged basins. Future climate change projections of RCPs 4.5 and 8.5 indicate an increase in streamflow of up to 40.59% and a rise in sediment concentration of up to 50.44%, both of which are exacerbated by hydropower operations. The results emphasize the necessity for customized management strategies, sophisticated hydrological modeling, and thorough scenario analysis to handle changing climate and hydropower infrastructure development issues in the LMB. The research provides critical insights into hydrological trends and informs sustainable basin management, emphasizing the critical need for addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change and hydropower development.

Keywords

China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model; Hydrological modeling; Precipitation trends; Sediment concentration; Soil and Water Assessment Tools; Streamflow

Disciplines

Hydrology | Water Resource Management

File Format

pdf

File Size

16900 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS