Best practice guidelines for the integrated planning and design of economically sound and environmentally friendly roads in the Mekong floodplains of Cambodia and Viet Nam : synthesis report

For a number of reasons road development in a floodplain, like the still quite natural Mekong floodplain, requires a different approach to planning and technical design, compared to road development in areas that are not regularly) inundated. On the one hand, floods can severely damage infrastructure including roads, whilst on the other hand, roads and associated infrastructure fragment the floodplains and interrupt the natural flow of water, sediments, nutrients and aquatic life. The underlying question addressed by the ‘Roads and Floods’ project, is how to develop roads in a sensitive ecosystem like the floodplain of the Mekong in a sustainable manner that minimizes the impact on the benefits of the annual inundations and at the same time reduces damage to roads. The main findings of the project are presented in this synthesis report.