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Research project

BRAgS - Building Resilient Agricultural Systems: sustainable livelihoods in Mega-Deltas under environmental change

Project overview

The deltas of the global south are the world's rice baskets but they are under environmental stress as a consequence of rising sea levels: 20% of agricultural land will be lost by 2100 in the deltas of south and southeast Asia alone, bringing attendant problems of flooding and saline intrusion. The major drivers of sea-level rise are anthropogenic climate change, land subsidence caused by groundwater and hydrocarbon extraction, and anthropogenic interventions (such as damming) on the rivers that feed deltas. The BRAGS GCRF project is in its final stage having establish a new international and multidisciplinary collaboration between UK and Vietnamese universities, international agencies (UN FAO) and other key end-users (IRRI, IPSARD) that is capable of delivering new insight into the trade-offs between flooding, sediment and nutrient deposition, rice cultivation and associated livelihood strategies in the Vietnamese Mekong delta (VMD). We have developed new modelling tools that can evaluate whether alternative water management and rice cultivation practices allow for sustainable intensification (in terms of yield and socio-economic outcomes for different groups) under environmental changes such as upstream impoundment, land use and climate change, nutrient fluxes in the Mekong delta.

Staff

Lead researcher

Professor Steve Darby

Associate Dean Research

Research interests

  • River and coastal flooding - relationships between geomorphology and flooding in rivers and deltas
  • Biogeomorphology - interactions between river processes and life

Connect with Steve

Other researchers

Professor Guy Baverstock-Poppy

Professor In Biological Sciences

Connect with Guy

Mr Chris Hill

Geodata Institute Manager

Connect with Chris

Professor Craig Hutton

Director Sustainability&Resilience Inst.

Connect with Craig

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Ecology and Evolution

The Ecology and Evolution research group covers the interactions of species with their environment.

GeoData

We manage, analyse and process environmental data. Our consultancy services and interdisciplinary research projects range from managing river catchments and coastal zones to the wider fields of environment, social and economic development.

Landscape Dynamics and Ecology

Researching the changing environments and landscapes using the appliction of novel methodological approaches.

Research outputs

Save the Mekong Delta from drowning
G.M. Kondolf,
R Schmitt,
Paul Carling,
Marc Goichot,
M Arias,
S Bizzi,
A Castelletti,
T Cochrane,
Stephen Darby,
Matti Kummu,
& Philip Minderhoud
, 2022 , Science , 376 (6593) , 583--585
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm5176
Type: article
Quartz age extension applied to SE Asian cover sands
Cresswell A,
Sanderson D,
Paul Carling,
& Stephen Darby
, 2022 , Quaternary Geochronology , 69
DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101271
Type: article
Stakeholder expectations of future policy implementation compared to formal policy trajectories: scenarios for agricultural food systems in the Mekong delta
Craig Hutton,
Oliver M Hensengerth,
Tristan Berchoux,
Van Tri,
Thi Tong,
Nguyen Hung,
Harold Voepel,
Stephen Darby,
Duong Bui,
Thi Bui,
Nguyen Huy,
& D.R Parsons
, 2021 , Sustainability , 13 (10) , 5534
DOI: 10.3390/su13105534
Type: article
Fluvial sediment supply and relative sea-level rise
Stephen Darby,
Kwasi Appeaning Addo,
Sugata Hazra,
Munsur Rahman,
& Robert Nicholls
, 2020
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-23517-8_5
Type: bookChapter
Water quality modelling of the Mekong River basin: climate change and socioeconomics drive flow and nutrient flux changes to the Mekong Delta
P. Whitehead,
L Jin,
G Bussi,
Harold Voepel,
Stephen Darby,
Grigorios Vasilopoulos,
R Manley,
Harvey Rodda,
Craig Hutton,
Christopher Hackney,
Tri Pham Dang Van,
& Nguyen Hung
, 2019 , Science of the Total Environment , 673 , 218--229
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.315
Type: article
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