Adaptive fisheries management in Vietnam: The use of indicators and the introduction of a multi-disciplinary Marine Fisheries Specialist Team to support implementation

Vietnam is in the process of introducing adaptive management based on indicators and time-series to manage its marine fisheries. The development of indicator-based frameworks for fisheries management has accelerated in recent years. This article describes the suite of indicators being suggested or used in Vietnam including the data-collection system. The Vietnamese approach is supported by an institutional structure consisting of a multi-disciplinary advisory system to facilitate the process of using indicators and to introduce knowledge-based management. The article concludes by identifying current problems and weaknesses and by providing suggestions for future improvement of the system.     

Whitefish wars: Pangasius, politics and consumer confusion in Europe

Rapid growth in production of the farmed Vietnamese whitefish pangasius and its trade with the European Union has provoked criticism of the fish's environmental, social and safety credentials by actors including WWF and Members of the European Parliament and associated negative media coverage. This paper reviews the range of claims communicated about pangasius (identified as a form of mass mediated risk governance), in light of scientific evidence and analysis of data from the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feeds food safety notification system for imported seafood. This analysis shows pangasius to be generally safe, environmentally benign and beneficial for actors along the international value chains that characterise the trade. The case is made that increasingly politicised debates in Europe around risk and uncertainty are potentially counterproductive for EU seafood security and European aquaculture industry, and that the trade in pangasius can contribute to sustainable seafood consumption in a number of ways. Transparent evidence-based assessment and systems for communicating complex issues of risk for products such as pangasius are required in order to support continuance of fair and mutually beneficial trade.     

Use of microtremor measurement for assessing site effects in Northern Belgium – interpretation of the observed intensity during the MS = 5.0 June 11 1938 earthquake

To provide quantitative information on site effects in the northern part of Belgium, forty-seven H/V microtremor measurements were performed with 5 second seismometers over an area of about 15.000 km². Most of the results show a northward regular increase of the fundamental period in agreement with the augmentation of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic soft sedimentsthickness from a few meters 40 km south of Brussels to 900 m at the Netherlands-Belgium border. The measured resonance frequency values wereconsistent with theoretical computations performed at different sites onthe basis of existing information and shallow seismic experiments. At oneparticular site (Uccle) where borehole data were available, microtremor measurements using an array of four seismological stations with differentapertures allowed to obtain the low frequency part of the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve, extending the range covered by the analysis of surfacewaves artificially generated. The Vs profile derived from the surface waveinversion corroborates the 1 Hz natural frequency of the site. Comparison of these results with the macroseismic information concerning the M_S = 5.0 1938 earthquake which occurred 50 km west of Brussels,confirmed the hypothesis that the geological structure of the Brabant massifis likely to control damage distribution during such an earthquake. Comparisonbetween the intensity map of the 1938 earthquake and the resonance period ofsediments obtained by our microtremor study shows a clear relation betweenthe two parameters. During the 1938 earthquake, site effects played a prominent role due to the dimension of the source whose corner frequency wasabout 1 Hz.     

Beach profiles characteristics along Giao Thuy and Hai Hau coasts, Vietnam: A field study

Giao Thuy and Hai Hau coasts are located in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam, with a total coastline of 54.42 km in length. The sea-dike system has been seriously damaged and there have been many dike breaches which caused floods and losses. This situation is considered of a general representative for coastal area in the northern part of Vietnam. A variety of studies have shown that the gradient in the longshore sediment transport rate and the offshore ?ne sediment lost are the main mechanisms causing the beach erosion. This study presents a field investigation of the beach profiles at Giao Thuy and Hai Hau beaches. Three types of empirical functions for the equilibrium beach profile are applied and compared with the observations. Results show that all observed beach pro?les can be described by a single function. However, one specific equilibrium pro?le equation is not sufficient to assess all beach pro?les. In Section 1 of Giao Thuy and Section 3 of Hai Thinh beaches, beach profiles are consistent with the logarithmic function, while the exponential function fits well in Section 2. This difference is explained with respect to coastal morphology, sediment characteristics and hydrodynamic conditions which vary in site. An analysis of the validity of the beach profile functions is recommended for the numerical modeling and engineering designs in this area.     

Catchment storm runoff modelling using the geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph

A lumped empirical model, the Geomorphologic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (GIUH) rainfall-runoff model, is developed for the Can Le catchment in the upstream region of the Sai Gon river Basin (Vietnam). This model can serve to simulate catchment runoff into the Dau Tieng Reservoir and can be used as a flood forecasting tool for the ungauged Can Le catchment. The GIUH couples geomorphology and hydrology quantitatively. The obtained Unit Hydrograph is based on Horton's morphometric parameters; bifurcation, length and area ratios. A new functionality within the ILWIS GIS-RS package, namely ‘DEM-hydro processing’, is applied to effectively process a Digital Elevation Model to extract these ratios from the drainage network. To supplement the limited field data available, various satellites images have been used such as ASTER, SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) and METEOSAT 5. A short field campaign to collect missing ground data was executed between September and October 2005. The data collected included discharge (and stage – discharge curve), meteorological data, soil, land use information that are used for paramerisation, calibration and validation of the GIUH. The model was successfully applied for the Can Le catchment. Using the Horton's morphometric parameters derived from the DEM with estimated overland and stream flow velocities, the model is easy-to-use.     

ALMA observations of the circumstellar envelope around EP Aqr

Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array(ALMA) observations of CO(1–0) and CO(2–1) emissions from the circumstellar envelope of the asymptotic giant branch(AGB) star EP Aqr have been made with four times better spatial resolution than previously available. They are analysed with emphasis on the de-projection in space of the effective emissivity and flux of matter using as input a prescribed configuration of the velocity field, assumed to be radial. The data are found to display an intrinsic axisymmetry with respect to an axis making a small angle with respect to the line of sight. A broad range of wind configurations, from prolate(bipolar) to oblate(equatorial) has been studied and found to be accompanied by significant equatorial emission. Qualitatively, the effective emissivity is enhanced near the equator to produce the central narrow component observed in the Doppler velocity spectra and its dependence on star latitude generally follows that of the wind velocity with the exception of an omni-present depression near the poles. In particular, large equatorial expansion velocities produce a flared disc or a ring of effective emissivity and mass loss. The effect on the determination of the orientation of the star axis of radial velocity gradients, and possibly competing rotation and expansion in the equatorial disc, is discussed. In general,the flux of matter is found to reach a broad maximum at distances of the order of 500 AU from the star.Arguments are given that may be used to favour one wind velocity distribution over another. As a result of the improved quality of the data, a deeper understanding of the constraints imposed on morphology and kinematics has been obtained.     

Investigation of earthquake tsunami sources, capable of affecting Vietnamese coast

Based on the analysis of tectonic feature and geodynamic characteristics of regional faults systems in the southeast Asia, 9 source zones capable of generating tsunamis affecting Vietnamese coast were delineated in the South China Sea and adjacent sea areas. Statistical methods were applied to estimate the seismic hazard parameters for each source zone, which can be used for the detail tsunami hazard assessment in the future. Maximum earthquake magnitude is predicted for the Manila Trench (8.3?C8.7), the Sulu Sea (8.0?C8.4), and the Selebes Sea source zones (8.1?C8.5). Among the source zones, the Manila Trench, west of the Philippines is considered as a most potential tsunami source, affecting the Vietnamese coast. The estimated M _max values were used to develop simple scenarios (with a point source assumption) to calculate the tsunami travel time from each source zone to the Vietnamese coast. The results show that for the Manila Trench source zone, tsunami can hit the Vietnamese coast in 2?h at the earliest.     

Preliminary Results of Anthropogenic Seismicity Monitoring in the Region of Song Tranh 2 Reservoir,Central Vietnam

Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant and the reservoir containing backed up water are located in the Quang Nam province (Central Vietnam). The region experiences unusual seismic activity related to the reservoir impoundment, with earthquakes of magnitude up to 4.7. In result of cooperation between the Institute of Geophysics, Vietnam Academy of Sciences and Technology and the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences a seismic network has been built to facilitate seismic monitoring of the Song Tranh 2 area. The network, operating since August 2013, consists of 10 seismic stations. Here we show that the network is sufficient for advanced data processing. The first results of monitoring of the earthquake activity in Song Tranh 2 area in the period between 2012 and 2014, especially the completeness of catalogs, study and comparisons between water level and the seismic activity suggest direct connection between reservoir exploitation and anthropogenic seismicity.     

Detection of PAHs in seawater using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)

The laboratory characterization of a field-operable surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensor (SERS optode) is presented for the detection of aromatic hydrocarbons in seawater. The sensor has been developed for deployment with a robust underwater spectrograph. To meet the demands of the harsh seawater application, sol-gel derived SERS substrates were used. The calibration curves of six PAHs were determined to be of Langmuir adsorption isotherm type with limits of detection ranging from the microg l(-1) to ng l(-1) level. The experimentally determined adsorption constants varied strongly with the molecular weight of the analytes and correlated with their solubility. A mixture of five PAHs dissolved in seawater was investigated to demonstrate the utility of this method for screening. Emphasis was put on the interference from suspended particulate matter (SPM). The Raman measurement with backscattering configuration was shown to be immune against turbidities up to 1000 NTU. The physico-chemical interference arising from adsorption by the sediment was measured on-line by adding sediment to a PAH-spiked solution. According to the calibration curve, the PAH concentration decrease corresponded to more than 98% of the analyte being scavenged by the sediment.