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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
  • River bank erosion processes
Other researchers

Professor Guy Baverstock-Poppy

Professor In Biological Sciences

Professor Chris Hill

Professorial Fellow-Enterprise

Professor Craig Hutton

Director Sustainability&Resilience Inst.

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

Effect of planning policies on land use dynamics and livelihood opportunities under global environmental change
Tristan Berchoux,
Craig Hutton,
Oliver Hensengerth,
Hal Voepel,
Van Tri,
Pham Vu,
Nguyen Nghia Hung,
D.R. Parsons,
& Stephen Darby
, 2023 , Land Use Policy , 131
DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106752
Type: article
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
A.J. Cresswell,
D.C.W. Sanderson,
P.A. Carling,
& S.E. Darby
, 2022 , Quaternary Geochronology , 69
DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101271
Type: article
Impact of dams and climate change on suspended sediment flux to the Mekong delta
Gianbattista Bussi,
Stephen E. Darby,
Paul G. Whitehead,
Li Jin,
Simon J. Dadson,
Hal E. Voepel,
Grigorios Vasilopoulos,
Christopher R. Hackney,
Craig Hutton,
Tristan Berchoux,
Daniel R. Parsons,
& Andrew Nicholas
, 2021 , Science of the Total Environment , 755 (Part 1)
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142468
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
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