Mekong River (MR) is the 12th longest river in the world with a total length of
4800 km (Li et al., 2017). From its source in the Tibetan Plateau, MR flows across
six different countries, namely China, Myanmar, Laos People’s Democratic Republic
(Laos PDR), Thailand, Cambodia and finally Vietnam before draining into the South
China Sea (Fig. 1). The river has a drainage area of 795000 km2 (Hoang et al., 2016).
In its natural and undisturbed state, MR annually transports approximately ~470
billion m3 of water and 160 million tons of sediment to the delta (Li et al., 2017;
Wild & Loucks, 2014). Following various human interferences, the delta presently
receives 400 billion m3 of water and only 37 million tons of sediment (Thi Ha et al.,
2018). MR basin is dominated by Asian monsoon climate, which generates distinct
wet (June–November) and dry (December–May) seasons. Tropical typhoons in the
Pacific Ocean also significantly contribute to the rainfall during the later parts of the
wet season (August to early October).@en

This report investigates how embankments in Bangladesh could be upgraded with no or limited footprint increase. Many Bangladesh embankments need to be upgraded to improve flood protection. Traditionally, embankments are upgraded by adding more soil, heightening the crests while simultaneously widening the embankment maintain slope stability.
However, in many cases there is insufficient space for embankment widening. Case studies show that in Bangladesh, private assets often directly border embankments at both the landward and seaward side. Also land is scarce in general and the land directly adjacent to embankments is often in use by the communities. For traditional embankment heightening and widening, these buildings need to be (re)moved. So owners of private assets and land need to be identified and compensated and the land must be acquired leading additional project costs and delays.
This problem could be mitigated by using embankment upgrade techniques with a limited footprint increase. This requires knowledge of the available techniques and their suitability in the Bangladesh situation. Therefore, this study aims to provide an inventory of low-footprint embankment up-grade techniques used around the world, their (dis)advantages in terms of land use, risks, costs and O&M aspects, and their suit-ability for the situation in Bangladesh.
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