**2. Subject for research**

Water quality and quantity issues are limiting factors for the socio-economic and environmental development of Southeast-Asian societies. IWRM plays a crucial role in order to cope with the negative side effects of dynamic population and economic growth rates, expansion and intensification of agricultural land use and deforestation. The issues are further intensified by an insufficient water supply and lacking sanitation infrastructure.

Vietnam is a country with rich water resources. A dense river network provides an abundant supply of water. Despite this comfortable situation Vietnam faces numerous challenges that require large investments during the coming decades in order to implement an effective remedy. Major challenges are:


This wide range of challenges leads to a complex problem situation that requires a holistic and sorting research approach. Research is needed to merge a multitude of approaches in an integrating manner. Developed methods within the research approach of the R&D project IWRM-Vietnam have to image the given situation as broad as possible. An important matter is to include (preferably) all institutions and stakeholders involved in the process.

The developed method should enable decision makers to plan and manage the pressing challenges in an efficient way. During the development, it has to be considered that financial resources for water management are often very limited in countries like Vietnam. Thus, the method has to be able to prioritize the challenges in order to render economical and targeted decisions possible.

Following this, the methods developed within the research have to be integrating, cost- and time-efficient and target-oriented in order to cope with the challenges of the water sector in Vietnam.
