A model assessing water management strategies for integrated land-use planning in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam

Challenges in land-use planning in an agricultural region include balancing food production with resource limitations, balancing economic revenues with environmental protection, integrating sectoral developments and harmonizing farmers' objectives with national goals. This paper describes a PC-based methodology to deal with these challenges in land-use planning at the regional level. The methodology comprises a simulation model consisting of 14 submodels, each representing an analytical step to assess the impact of development and land-use scenarios on water resources, production, socioeconomics, and environment at farm and at regional levels. Interactions among factors are reflected by feedback among submodels. Outputs from the model are linked to GIS for spatial and temporal analysis. Application of the model in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam is discussed.