Table 3 Area and estimated people below sea level with 1 m sea-level rise

From: Mekong delta much lower than previously assumed in sea-level rise impact assessments

 

SRTM DEM

MERIT DEM

Transposed MERIT DEM

Topo DEM

 

0 m SLR

1 m SLR

0 m SLR

1 m SLR

0 m SLR

1 m SLR

0 m SLR

1 m SLR

Delta plain area below SL (×1.000 km2)

5.5

11.9

0.2

0.8

10.2

23.9

0.3

28.5

Delta plain area below SL (% of total area)

14%

31%

1%

2%

25%

59%

1%

75%

Estimated number of people below SL (×106)

2.4

5.1

0.1

0.3

4.1

9.7

0.1

12.3

Estimated number of people below SL (% of total population)

14%

29%

1%

2%

23%

55%

1%

70%

  1. Delta plain area and estimated number of people below sea level (SL) for 0 and 1 m relative sea-level rise (SLR) according to different DEMs for the Vietnamese Mekong delta. Total delta plain area is based on the area of the flat, deltaic surface excluding high bedrock outcrops. All DEMs contain elevation values below zero, which is used to estimate area and people below sea level with 0 m SLR as reference
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