The online shared database for coastal estuaries and inlets in Central Vietnam

Abstract

      Coastal estuaries and tidal inlets in Central Vietnam are highly dynamic under the complex governing of seasonal varying inland and oceanic processes. Their morphological changescause negative consequences to socio-economic development of the area. The understanding of the forcing processes and their behaviors required a lot of longterm data to be collected, namely topographic, sedimentary, hydrometeorological and oceanographic data as well as historical records of morphological evolutions. The lack of these basic data may lead to impropriate design of coastal structures to stabilize an estuary, causing the structure to be damaged, reducing its functionality and efficiency or eventually producing reverse effects. With an aim to promote data sharing and to improve the efficiency of data collection and data utilization, an online shared database has been setup for the estuaries and tidal inlets in Central Vietnam. This paper is presenting an analysis on the needs for such kind of database together with its functional features. The database which has been designed as an open framework for data sharing and a data sharing policy will be integrated into a national shared database for water resources sector for future development and to achieve the highest efficiency of data sharing and data use.