As we are approaching the end of 2010, also Delta Alliance is near the end of its second phase. A lot was achieved during this phase that started in November 2009. We believe that Delta Alliance has gained a strong position in the international arena and the successful official launch of the Delta Alliance on September 30, 2010 created a great momentum. Delta Alliance currently counts 7 Wings and 3 candidate Wings worldwide. Organisations from many more deltas have shown a keen interest to join.
For now we wish you much pleasure in reading this Delta Alliance news update, but above all we wish you a very Happy New Year ….. with lots of inspiration and energy for inter-delta interaction!!
Kees Slingerland, Chairman
Wim van Driel, Program Manager
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Delta Alliance achieved a lot in its second phase. The network has officially been launched, its first projects have been completed, and both in terms of organisational as network development many activities have been undertaken. A Strategic Framework was created and preparations are on the way to erect in early 2010 a Foundation called “Delta Alliance International” with an International Governing Board. Many networking events were organised and the important “Comparative assessment of the vulnerability and resilience of 10 deltas” project was completed. However, for the third phase (starting in January 2011), many challenges lie still ahead.
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The project “Comparative assessment of the vulnerability and resilience of 10 deltas” has been carried out by Deltares, Alterra Wageningen UR, WWF and (potential) Delta Alliance wings and is one of the first projects under Delta Alliance. A generic framework is created to study the physical, ecological and socio-economic impacts and adaptive responses regarding the most affected sectors in deltas worldwide. Extensive descriptions of the Rhine- Meuse (The Netherlands), Mekong (Vietnam), Ciliwung (Indonesia), Ganges-Brahmaputra (Bangladesh), California Bay (USA), Mississippi (USA), Yangtze (China), Nile (Egypt), Incomati (Mozambique) and Danube (Romania) deltas are provided. The executive summary of the project can be found on our website.
On 29 and 30 November, 2010 a mission to Egypt was undertaken by the Delta Alliance Program Manager as a follow up of the signing of the Delta Alliance Declaration by Dr. Hussein El Atfy, Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt, during the Delta Alliance launch session in Rotterdam. Goal of the meeting was to introduce Delta Alliance in Egypt and to agree on the role of the National Water Research Centre (NWRC) in the Delta Alliance network. Also, participants were challenged to give “project ideas” around issues of which they thought are important in relation to deltas.
Delta Alliance actively participated in the preparation of the Deltas2010: World Delta Dialogues conference in New Orleans from October 17-20, 2010. The Delta Alliance launch officer and the California Wing coordinator acted as charette leaders for a number of workshop sessions. The Vietnam wing coordinator Prof. Le Quang Minh gave a presentation “Beyond DELTAS 2010: Networking among the world’s greatest deltas”.
During the Delta2010 conference in New Orleans, Dr. Robert Twilley of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette accepted the invitation to become the coordinator of the Mississippi Wing of Delta Alliance. Dr. Twilley played a key role in the scientific debates of the conference and is in charge of the Coastal Sustainability Studios, a project funded by the America’s Wetlands Foundation.
Following increasing attention on delta city problems worldwide, the Indonesian National Coordination Agency for Survey and Mapping organized a two-day workshop in Semarang, a delta city on the north coast of Java island, Indonesia. This event was well supported by the Delta Alliance Indonesia Wing, the Diponegoro University, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and the International Centre for Interdisciplinary and Advanced Research – Indonesian Institute of Sciences (ICIAR-LIPI). This was the first workshop in Indonesia focusing on deltas.
In November 2010 a workshop on high grade capacity development (“Demand for high grade training experts for Mekong delta's climate change resilience plan”) was organized by the Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City, the Peoples Committee of Can Tho and Can Tho University. 50 representatives from 13 Vietnamese provinces participated in this workshop which was a follow-up of the scoping workshop organized in July.
The mega-deltas in South, Southeast and East Asia are also the rice granaries for the region and contribute significantly to global food supply. Sea level rise, reduced sediment deposition and altered growing conditions could have major negative implications on the productive output from these deltas, further affecting global food stocks and increasing the potential for shortages. The Delta 2011 conference, organized by a number of international institutes and held from 2-4 March, 2011 will focus on the implications of climate change on Asian deltas with specific reference to agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries production. For information and registration for this conference, click
here.
