A shifting pattern of tropical cyclone induced high river discharges in the Greater Mekong Region, 1970–2019

Abstract. On average flood events impact over 100 million people globally every year, and because of demographic changes and economic development in flood-prone areas, as well as climate change, the population exposed to flood risk is expected to double by 2050. Under anthropogenic climate change it is expected that flood events previously considered extreme will be occurring with more frequency, due to changing patterns of precipitation in a warming climate. It is, therefore, critically important to better understand how extreme weather events generate high river flows in exposed regions. Here we look specifically at the influence of precipitation from tropical cyclone (TC) activity on high river flows within one such exposed region: a 1.2 million km2 area of South-east Asia encompassing the entirety of the Mekong and Red River catchments, plus 13 smaller catchments along the coastal fringe of Vietnam (collectively referred to here as the Greater Mekong region, or GMR). We use a hydrological model (GM-HYPE) with ERA5 precipitation data to simulate streamflows over the last 50 years (1970–2019) with, and without, TC-linked precipitation. Our results demonstrate that TC-linked precipitation around the GMR generate notable increases in high (95th percentile) streamflows, and this is most notable in the steep sub-catchments draining to Vietnam’s northern coastline. These locations are more exposed to TC activity, and we determine that the elevated soil moisture levels there from monsoonal precipitation, prior to the typhoon season, are an exacerbating factor. Furthermore, trend analysis also shows that shifts in the spatial locations of TC-induced high river flows have been occurring since the 1970s: while statistically significant increases in TC-induced high river discharges are evident in localised regions of the GMR including the highlands of Laos and the Mekong’s delta region, declines in TC-induced high river discharges are much more widespread, with notable declines in the headwater and middle reaches of the Red and Mekong Rivers. Our findings on the changing pattern of high river flows in recent decades, in a region highly exposed to TCs, will be of great interest to strategic planners and flood managers. We conclude with a discussion on the impact of global climate model precipitation projections for this region, contrasting past/present (1980–2014), and future (2016–2050), GM-HYPE model results.