Tracking the Mekong Delta’s Changing Waters

Do Van Long grew up in An Giang, a province where the Mekong River splits into a lattice of canals before reaching the sea. Every year without fail, the river rose in September and fell in December. That predictability shaped how millions of farmers planted their rice.

It no longer does. Since joining VinUniversity in 2019, Long has spent his research career trying to understand why the delta’s flood pulse has grown erratic, and what can be done before entire communities lose their planting calendar altogether.

Long’s team combines satellite altimetry with a network of low-cost river gauges his lab built and installed themselves. The gauges report water levels hourly, feeding a model that now forecasts flooding up to four months ahead — enough lead time for provincial authorities to adjust irrigation schedules and warn communities downstream.

Long’s forecasts are now shared directly with district agricultural offices in An Giang and Dong Thap. He’s begun training a small team of provincial staff to read the model themselves, so the warnings keep flowing long after any single research grant ends.