Proposal ReportOn“ Flood Hazards Mapping Project
InXebangfai River “Prepared By Mr. Boualaythong KOUMPHONH
Climate Division
Department of Meteorology and Hydrology
Water Resources and Environment Administration
Primer Minister’s Office
Lao P.D.R.
FLOOD HAZARDS MAPPING TRAINING COURSE
JFY 2008

Name

Mr. Boualaythong KOUMPHONH

Organization

Department of Meteorology and Hydrology

Address

Ban Akarth , Louangprabang road , Sikhottabong district
P.O.Box. 811 , Vientiane Lao P.D.R.

Emailkoumphphonh.boualay@yahoo.com

1. Back ground of the proposal.
General back ground ,The geography Lao country is landlocked country , total ofarea has 236,800 sq.km. Lao has border with Myanmar 235 km., Cambodia 541 km.,
China 423 km., Thailand 1,754 km., and Vietnam 2,130 km., The Mekong River
flow about 1,860 km., Lao population was 5,800,000 ps. (2007) .
Climate in Lao P.D.R.
Weather condition in Lao is the hot temperature zone. Rotating of climate is in thezone that North East monsoon and Southwest monsoon passing .It is factor tomakes temperature condition and raining changed in Lao.
Revolving around of climate in Lao has divided 2 seasons as:
Dry season from north east monsoon. It is affected from the north east monsoon
start from the middle of October to the middle of May .This season is hightemperature in the atmosphere ,it is dry period ,mini-humid and lower temperature
Therefore , this is a cause to make its dry and minimum raining .
Rainy season from south west monsoon. It is affected from the southwest
monsoon, it start from the middle of the May to the middle of October .This season
is a period that monsoon to carry hot temperature and humid from Bandkan gulfand Thai gulf pass in to Laos . So it is a cause to whole the country higher humid
and plenty by raining.
Commonly, southwest monsoon starts on 15 May in every years, several years isstarts in April ,means : the gust in to Laos before season .Particularly, there isRainstorm in this season. Rainy season will not start and stop in the same time allparts in Laos.

Figure 1 : Map Lao P.D.R. has 5 border country.

Role and function of Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.
Rainfall station was build in 1954 ,and there were three meteorology stationsuch as Louangprabang, Vientiane and Savannakhet stations .These stations were
under administration and controlling of French army in Indochina peninsular.
••••

1955-1975 Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) was underadministration of Ministry of Communication, Post and Construction.
1955 Lao Meteorological Service to be a World Meteorology Organization
membership.
1969 to be a Mekong River Committee membership.
1976 Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) was underadministration of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

••

1987 Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) to be an
International Typhoon Organization membership.
23/07/2007 Department of Meteorology and Hydrology is moved fromMinistry of Agriculture and Forestry to be a part of Water Resources andEnvironment Administration (WREA) , Primer Minister’s Office (PMO)

Role and function of (DMH) is collected information about Meteorology andHydrology to services for business sectors ,moreover, prepare and observe weather
forecast ,climate, and hydrology .To protection and reduce damage from national
disaster as flood, typhoon ,and wind speed..
Organization chart of Department of Meteorology and Hydrology ,there are
1. Administration Division
2. Technical Division
3. Weather forecast and Radar Division
4. Hydrological Division
5. Network and earthquake Division
6. Climate Division•Information Media and Disaster Warning System

Every day , people’s lives are affected by weather and climate ,flood, drought andother extreme event threaten safety of life and destroy property of the people and of
the nation .Consequently , we must provide warning , forecast and other inform
action in timely .Meteorological warning and forecast are highly perishable products
and should be dissemination rapidly to public.
Furthermore , the forecast and information are a vital component in thedecision making processes for much weather sensitive sectors as well as for disasterma Division management . The services provided by the Department of Meteorology
and Hydrology can contribute to the protection of life and poverty, mitigation ofnational disaster.
Website of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology is an importancecommunication system . It is improve for international and other sections tointerest in information of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology inweather forecast , weather forecast and disaster warning in Laos.
Radio station is an important part of awareness about Air, water resourcesand disaster warning for public, which these news are contribute by DMH in every

day , for television in the country is incomplete , cause is the network is not coverwhole the country.
2. Outline of the Xebangfai River basin, Khammouane province.
Target area is Xebangfai area it mean Xebanfai River.Khammouane province,LaoPDR. Xebangfai area include 7 district there has Nongbok, Xebangfai, Mahasai,
Xaibouathong, Gnommalath, Nakai and Thakek.
Policy : to secure residential people’s life and their assets from flood to secure fromraging epidemics ,damage of agricultural production.
Mitigation: to establish early warning system , to protect life such as water supply ,main road transportation , telephone line and electricity.
Geography : Khamouane province is location on southern central part of Lao PDR
The area of Xebangfai basin has 62 % share in Khamouane province.Annual
precipitation 2600 mm. 46% rain falls only in 2 months July and August.. mean
temperature is 26.4 c.Xebangfai is one of the biggest tributaries of Mekong in
Mekong in Lao PDR its catchment area is 10,345 km2. The incline of Xebangfai isvery low .Mean slope is 1/6000. Especially lower area is lower than 1/20000. An
annual differential of discharge is very large . In 2007 Maximum discharge at
Xebanfai bridge station is 2,380 m3/s , minimum is 3 m3/s .River section is sonarrow that annual differential of water level is more than 10 m.
Lowest elevation is 150 m. and the highest is 1,624 m. Length is 140 km. Width is110 km.
Demography: Total population of Khamouane province is 353 thousands anddensity is 22 person/ km2 .

Normally caused by tropical cyclone anddepression, rarely by typhoon.
` Tropical season is from May to October.
` On average 10-13 tropical cyclone occur
annually.
` The probability of tropical cyclone
occurrence rises during July, August toSeptember.
` Past flood event, very severe flood in
1966, 1995, 2002 and 2008.
`Lao government organization responsible for flood control and mitigation haveproposed some control project. However a few project are completed due to lack of
the budget. The examples of structure measure project are dam construction, weirconstruction, embankment and levee construction ,ect…
Practically, Lao central government assigns the flood control and mitigation
system into this stages follows :1. Before flood
2. During flood
3. After flood
Before: Preparation of historical of flood, flood defense planning and workshop,
preparation of manpower , machines, equipments, and rapid flood alert team.
During : Evacuation of people , distribution of emergency food ,setup the security.
After : Setting up the mitigation unit, provision of the temporary residences, food,clothes clean water , investigation of the damages and losses in detail, restoration ofaffected facilities , provision of jobs for jobless people who are affected from flood.

year

Province District Village Family

Population Women Death

Affected Area

rice field

Damage Area

Gardenrice field

Garden

2000

1571

2338

73838

661584

71807

2001

944

582

20926

113327

1406

2002

12

56

1635

67557

38719545901

2 15666.23

2004

13

31

591

20325

90291

5457

2711.271254.92

3263.61

2005

11

44

1231

42465

211922

23395

5

28294

25966

2006

725

272

20689

10420648513

61328.13

2007

2

8

115

5965

41028

2008

948

685

39752

15538331860

6Total783277449 2915171764936

22833917 133017.9

Damage ofEstimate

Construction

DamageHouse

Cost ( US )School155320.9866884225

33511.23

37

3 808500

32340

214170578

44.101275039923793.723367.6

113165828648

2124.13529

140

3 3636124

1814.96

58.57

642.1

18506

2581

28739

36 201338.5

38508.49

8059829

8564

4329

1 4384407

279734.64 35504.701

4597

7 40.010.644

3. Schedule of implementation
The schedule make in the action plan within the next five years is shown in thenext table .
Action plan1
1 learning of how to make the FHM
2 collection of necessary data
3 composition of anticipated inundation map
4 proposition and evaluation of anticipatedinundation mapyear
342
•
•

•
•

5

5 proposition of budget required for ground survey
and publication of FHM
6 ground survey
7 composition of the FHM•••

Problem in making flood hazard maps in Laos
1. Lack of some data
2. Lack of some budget
3. Attitude of the administration to flood hazard maps
4. Social economic development slow
5. Late of dissemination system
6. It is not evacuation system4 Estimated budget is 20,000 $ US per year.
5 Expected effectivenessAccording to the objective of this training course we do hope to achieve thedevelopment of the capacity on flood mitigating measurement .Through thistraining course , we do expect strongly can be use knowledge, skill on flood hazard
mapping and their analysis.
This training course multiply the effected technical transfer in near future.
DMH establish information services system such as flood hazard map and forecastof water level in main tributaries of Mekong river , we do expect strongly get skill
to make plan for developing flood forecast, mitigation ,and agriculture development.

•