Pauline Buchheit, PhD candidate

Last update: 21 August 2014

“Multi-level water resources management and vulnerability of local communities. The case of downstream areas of hydro-power dams in Laos”

Pauline Buchheit is a PhD student at AgroParisTech and CIRAD (France) in the field of environmental sciences. Her project focuses on the impacts of water governance on the vulnerability of social-ecological systems to flood. Her field research activities will be conducted in 2014 in the Nam Theun-Nam Kading river basin, in Lao PDR. The Nam Theun-Nam Kading River Basin Committee has been recently established to promote integrated basin management, by taking into account a multitude of stakeholders and increasing development projects (hydro-power dams, including Nam Theun 2, the largest hydro-electric project in Lao PDR, large-scale plantations and mining operations).

Work Area of Pauline Buchheit

 

Summary

Student’s name: Pauline Buchheit

Topic of the PhD: “Multi-level water resources management and vulnerability of local communities. The case of downstream areas of hydro-power dams in Laos.”

Started in: September 2013

Main objective: The main objective of this project is to develop innovative tools to assess the impacts of multi-level water governance on the vulnerability of social-ecological systems to flood.

Study site: The study site is the Nam Theun-Nam Kading river basin in Central Lao PDR (Khammouan and Bolikhamxai provinces).

Specific objectives:

  • To develop a framework of analysis to assess the vulnerability of social-ecological systems to flood and analyze the ecological and socio-political dynamics which shape this vulnerability at different temporal and spatial levels
  • To evaluate the impacts of adaptation measures on the vulnerability of social-ecological systems to flood
  • To use agent-based modeling in order to design and test different scenarios of multi-level water management in the river basin throughout a participatory process involving the different stakeholders.

Candidate’s brief curriculum:

Pauline Buchheit is a PhD student at AgroParisTech and Cirad (France) in the field of environmental sciences. She has a master’s degree in agricultural sciences and natural resources management and a postgraduate degree in sustainable development and public policy.

Last update: 21 August 2014