Fieldwork practice sites in development

July 2022 - Associate Professor Thom Bogaard together with project partners Lindsey and Juliette visited Hanoi to discuss the fieldwork practice sites. They visited two potential sites in Ninh Binh and Hoa Binh, and made preparations and plans for the student experiments as part of the new curriculum. Starting next academic year, the HUNRE water resoruces students will go to the practice sites for a full week of investigative hydrological and water management fieldwork!

Dr. Thom Bogaard also gave a workshop on innovative monitoring of water resources. During this workshop at HUNRE and Thuyloi, he presented on the use of eDNA for ecological monitoring in rivers, as well as the use of tracers in hyrdological assessments and citizen science concepts for large-scale data collection.

TMT+ on open satellite data and processing tools concluded in Hanoi

May 2022 - The final training week of the OKP TMT+ “Tailor-made capacity building on river morphology and flood risk using state-of-the-art open satellite data and processing tools” took place at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment from 16-20 May, 2022. This was the follow up on the online training which took place between October and December 2021. About 20 participants from 8 organizations participated in the online training period. During the training the participants learned the basics on how to work with Google Earth Engine and Remote Sensing datasets. Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a powerful cloud-computing tool to access and process open source remote sensing data sets.

On the final training day, a symposium was organised at HUNRE by project partners HKV and TU Delft. After the opening words by Laurent Umans from the Dutch embassy, HKV project leader Nicole Jungermann, and Prof. Pham Quy Nhan from HUNRE, participants shared knowledge on remote sensing and the experiences on the newly gained skills through a self-defined case tailored to their field of knowledge. The symposium ended with the certificate ceremony. Congratulations to all participants! 

Development of new fieldwork practice site HUNRE

April 2022 - Fieldwork and other practical aspects are an important and integral part of the updated Water Resources Management curriculum of HUNRE. Therefore, HUNRE and TU Delft project partners are currently drafting a plan to a develop a suitable new practice site. In light of this, project team members visited Ninh Binh province to scout fielwork practice sites and assess their suitability for education and field experiments. This included visiting a hydrological station, a meteorological station and several field sites near the river for experimentation in the area. 

The story of HUNRE alumnus Dung

March 2022 - HUNRE alumnus Do Thi Thuy Dung was featured in the Nuffic impact story on international women's day. Dung participated in the OKP Climate Proof Vietnam project throughout her bachelor Integrated Water Resources Management at HUNRE. She was part of the first graduating batch in the newly formed curriculum. She is now majoring in Water Science Engineering at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, for which she received an OKP scholarship. Specialising in Hydrology and Water Resources, Dung plans to put her newly-gained knowledge to use to improve the water quality in her home country. Read the full interview here.

Citizen Science for IWRM in Vietnam

February 2022 - Developments in sensing technology (through mobile phones for example), data processing and visualization, and communication of ideas are creating a wide range of new opportunities for participation in scientific research by the public. TU Delft has been working together with Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment on IWRM Citizen Science concepts and projects over the past years as part of OKP Climate Proof Vietnam. Vietnam News published this article on the efforts towards citizen science data collection campaigns. Project partner Prof. Pham Quy Nhan explains how we are for example re-using plastic water bottles in our OKP project to make rain gauges. This allows Vietnamese communities to collect precipitation data, thereby contributing to an integrated flood risk assessment study. It also gives citizens the chance to enhance their understanding of local water resources management.

Online short course: Citizen Science for Environmental Studies

January 2022 - ITC Twente organzied a tailor-made Citizen Science course for environmental studies. Part one was completed in January, which focused mainly on theory. Fifteen participants from HUNRE and Thuyloi explored the history of citizen science, its theoretical foundations, and existing frameworks. They looked at various levels of citizens’ participation, and analyzed the design and set-up of a number of existing projects, ranging from crowdsourcing to collaborative science. Part two of the course will resume in March 2022.

Online TMT+: Open satellite data and processing tools (HKV & TU Delft)

December 2021 - At the start of December the first part of the Tailor-made Training Plus (TMT+) of HKV and TU Delft came to a successful end. After the kick-off in October, participants from HUNRE spent the past two months getting trained on river morphology and flood risk using state-of-the-art open satellite data and processing tools. The next phase is the self-assignment, where participants work on their own case study using the tools and skills learned. During this process, they will be guided by a mentor. The course will conclude with an on-the-ground training week and a final seminar in Hanoi in early 2022. During this final seminar, participants will present their work to their colleagues, and representatives from several relevant organizations.  

PIE online dialogue: towards equitable & inspirational partnerships of knowledge exchange

November 2021 - The Platform for International Education (PIE) hosted an online dialogue on partnerships with almost 70 participants from over 30 countries. The purpose was to have an open dialogue on how to achieve equitable and inspirational partnerships between international partners and Dutch institutes for higher education and professional development in the field of knowledge exchange. Representatives from both TU Delft and HUNRE were on the organisation team of the event. After multiple interactive sessions and inspirational stories, some of the key take-aways were that equality, trust, respect and ownership are crucial for partnerships. Furthermore it was stressed that there should be mutual benefits, which does not necessarily mean similar benefits. Open and honest communication and shared decision making are also key factors. 

The keynote speech was given by Dr. Pham Hong Nga from Thuyloi University and Marjan Kreijns on behalf of TU Delft: 30 years of educating together. What started with research exchange and engineer residencies blossomed into a long-term partnership of knowledge exchange in the field of water resources and a joint venture named VINWATER. 

Thuyloi student research competition: Climate Adaptation

October 2021 - The Thuyloi University student research contest on Climate Change Adaptation was kicked off in April 2021 with the aim of encouraging the participation of the young Vietnamese generation to find sustainable solutions to adapt to climate change in Vietnam. The final round of this contest was held in a hybrid format in October with 20 reports from 7 different universities (including HUNRE and Thuyloi) in Vietnam. The jury consisted of water professionals from across different universities and organisations, including Laurent Umans, the First Secretary for Water and Climate Change of the Netherlands Embassy in Vietnam. In the framework of the cooperation between the Netherlands and Thuyloi University, this contest was organized as a follow-up of the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS2021) in the Netherlands in early 2021. Congratulations to all winners and finalists!

Online tailor-made course: Sentinel data for monitoring land & water resources in Vietnam

August 2021 - Over 20 Vietnamese lecturers from HUNRE and Thuyloi joined the online short course on using Sentinel data for monitoring land and water resources in Vietnam. In a 5-day course taught by Dr. Ben Maathuis (ITC Twente), participants learned how to download and process Sentinel (S1, S2, S3, ..) data. The participants applied the knowledge to their own case study, ranging from flood detection in Thua Thien-Hue province to suspended sediment dynamics in the Mekong Delta estuaries. The course was concluded with an interactive session where participants presented the results of their own case study – a great success!

A part of the applied case studies were bundled into this document - check it out! 

Multidisciplinary research at a distance: Salt water intrusion in the Cai River, Vietnam

July 2021 - Four TU Delft MSc students spent 10 weeks researching current and possible future salt water intrusion into the Cai River basin, Nha Trang, Vietnam. They were co-supervised by OKP partners on both the Dutch (TU Delft) side and the Vietnamese (Thuyloi) side. They created a water balance on both the yearly and monthly timescale for the basin area, and built two models to simulate the salt water intrusion: an analytical model and a numerical model (in Delft3D). Amongst other results, they concluded that sea level rise can potentially increase salinity values up to 2.5 kg/m³ in 2070 (till 8 km from the river mouth), and that saltwater could reach up to 1 km further inland. This could have disastrous implications for domestic water usage.

On Friday July 2nd, they succesfully defended their work in a hybrid setting with many participants joining online from Vietnam and the Netherlands. The group received a 9/10 for their amazing work!

You can read and download their full report here.

Online Research Set-up & Literature Review training

July 2021 - In the last week of June, TU Delft Associate Professor Dr. ir. Maurits Ertsen gave a multiple day training course to partners from HUNRE and Thuyloi University (Northern and Southern campus) on different aspects of conducting research. With assistance from project coordinator ir. Juliette Eulderink, the class covered topics such as:

• How to set-up your research
• How to make a research planning 
• How to structure a research proposal
• How to conduct a literature review
• How to organize your literature

This interactive course made use of multiple online tools and was joined by 14 Vietnamese participants. In the fall of 2021, the succesful course will be given again to another round of participants!

ITC Twente and TU Delft organize Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment training at HUNRE and Thuyloi

June 2021 - In June we kicked off the tailor-made online training on Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment for our partners from HUNRE and Thuyloi University. Over 25 participants will learn all about how to conduct a risk assessment using spatial information on hazards, elements at risk and vulnerability. They will do so with the aid of GIS and remote sensing. They will also learn how this information can be used in risk management, with a focus on urban areas and delta regions. The course is organized by ITC Twente, with Nanette Kingma as course coordinator and main trainer. 

Delta Futures Lab Webinar: Plastic pollution and monitoring

April 2021 - On April 30th, Dr. ir. Tim van Emmerik and his PhD candidate Thi Van Le Khoa gave a presentation during the Delta Futures Lab webinar, which was attended by many participants from Vietnam. Tim presented on the origin of 'the plastic soup' and Khoa on monitoring plastics in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. Plastic pollution of aquatic ecosystems is an emerging hazard due to its negative effect on ecosystem health and human livelihood. Tim van Emmerik is Assistant Professor Hydrologic Sensing at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His work focuses on monitoring and modelling plastic pollution transport through river systems. Khoa started his PhD at the Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group of Wageningen University just a few months ago. He also teaches at the faculty of Water Resources of Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment (HUNRE).

PIE webinar: Crucial elements for future proof education & research partnerships with the Global South

April 2021 - The Platform for International Education (PIE) organized a webinar entitled “Crucial elements for future proof education & research partnerships with the Global South”. The webinar was organized to discuss elements that are crucial for sustainable cooperation with the Global South in the field of higher education & research. There were four breakout rooms: (1) Insight on impact; (2) Online education / online capacity development; (3) Interaction research & education; and (4) The future of Dutch international cooperation of vocational- and higher education & research.

On behalf of TU Delft, project partners Lindsey Schwidder and Juliette Eulderink contributed to the second breakout room, on online education and online capacity development. They argued that in the future of institutional collaboration and capacty development, face to face contact remains necessary to build trust, foster a long term relationship and thereby create an open atmosphere for sharing. Projects are sustainable as long as they reflect the needs and interests of the partners – it can only work if it works for them. 

Interested in PIE or future PIE events? Visit their website. 

HUNRE Water Resources career day

January 2021 - As part of the OKP programme, the Faculty of Water Resources of HUNRE organized the first edition of the Water Resources Career Day. The programme kicked off with modern dance and singing performances, followed by inspiring talks by highly esteemed water professionals and alumni. The speakers included water professionals from the National Centre for Water Resources Planning and Investigation (NAWAPI), from Royal HaskoningDHV Vietnam and from Minh Dien Environmental Services and Consulting Ltd. They talked to the students about different career paths and opportunities in the water resources field. Furthermore, Ass. Prof. Dr. Pham Quy Nhan delivered a speech and several students were recognized for their academic achievements. After this award ceremony, there was room for group exchanges, discussion and questions between students, teachers and water professionals. The programme ended with a festive lunch, allowing the students the opportunity to network and socialize. A wonderful and successful event worth repeating next year!

Start-up event SV.Startup at Thuyloi University

December 2020 - The 2020 National Startup Day for Students, named  SV.Startup, was hosted at Thuyloi University, with Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam in attendance. This year's competition was held nationwide with more than 400 participating universities, colleges, high schools and secondary schools; reaching nearly 20 million students. It was organized by the Ministry of Education and Training in coordination with the Thuyloi University and Nova Edu Company. The project “Organic dishwashing liquid, Sapowash,” by Thuyloi students, won 3rd prize out of 72 outstanding startup projects in the final round of the contest. The OKP 'Climate Proof Vietnam' project helped make this event possible and was prominently displayed at the information booths. It is nice to see such innovative and motivated students being connected to the labour market through academics. Read more here.