ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS FOR WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE MEKONG: A PATHWAY TO REGIONAL COOPERATION
Quách Ngọc Lan , Mai Thuỳ Dương
Corresponding author name: Quách Ngọc Lan
Email: qnlan@moet.edu.vn
ABSTRACT
The Mekong River is strategically important to its riparian countries (China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) but facing critical challenges such as climate change, population growth, land use changes, dam construction and other industrial activities. Regional cooperation mechanisms have been established to deal with such challenges and seek cooperation opportunities and promote policies for future sustainable development of the Mekong communities. Nevertheless, sustainable water management has not been resolved. Concurrently, all the countries in the world are integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all fields. Mekong countries are not an exception. By secondary research with peer-reviewed articles, government and industry reports and media articles, this paper explores the current applications of AI in water management in various parts of the world and in the Mekong region. The paper concludes that AI is potentially applied in the Mekong but has been researched and implemented separately by riparian countries, therefore lacking data availability and quality and algorithm building. In addition, several challenges such as technical expertise, financial constraints, infrastructure limitations, domestic policies, regional cooperation and inter-state coordination, AI has not efficiently worked in the Mekong. This paper recommends a unified AI-driven water management framework delivered by regional cooperation channels to promote AI integration for sustainable development of the Mekong River.
KEY-WORDS: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mekong River, water management, regional cooperation, sustainable development
DOI link – https://doi.org/10.69758/GIMRJ/2503I01S01V13P0001
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