 This is the Earth Observation Center of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria, Germany. Mr. Vo Quoc Chung, a researcher from Vietnam, is working on his PhD here. His task is to support the Wisdom Project to establish a water-related environmental information system for the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Due to climate change, we expect increased problems with floods and droughts in Vietnam, so we are now seeking solutions that will help to solve these future problems. The Mekong is one of the largest rivers in the world and the biggest in Southeast Asia, with a vast watershed. Coming from China, the river passes through Burma or Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to reach its delta in southern Vietnam. Millions of people live from and with the Mekong waters in this very fertile area. The Mekong Delta is the rice bowl of Vietnam. Its vast and fertile fields produce about half of Vietnam's total rice output. Vietnam is the second largest rice exporter in the world. Many major fish and shrimp exports also stem from this area. About 18 million people live in the delta. Their livelihood must be preserved. Large parts of the delta are flooded during the rainy season, but the people are used to this situation. They utilize the regular floods to keep their rice fields fertile and to fish. Due to climate change, today's floods and droughts are becoming more extreme. Every year it gets more likely that an above-average flood is followed by a severe drought. People struggle to adapt to the extreme environmental changes. There is still a lack of information about the expected impact of climate change. Emerging nations like Vietnam are exceptionally threatened. The ongoing sea level rise causes saltwater intrusion deep into the Mekong Delta. Even small canals, groundwater and drinking water are affected. Providing information useful for preserving the delta and adapting to these challenges is the key objective of wisdom. The Wisdom Project is a multidisciplinary project where a lot of international partners, Germans, Vietnamese and other countries are addressing different research questions from different fields such as water quantity, water quality, land use change. The goal is to bring all these new research findings and all these different disciplinary approaches together with the wisdom information system and to build an information system which will be passed over to Vietnamese planning authorities. Many Vietnamese institutions have expertise about the Mekong Delta. Their information will be combined to create information products. Newly acquired Earth observation data from satellites provide wide area continuously updated information independent of the weather. These data will be merged for example with flood scenarios. They will be available in an environmental information system accessible by mouse click to all the authorities involved. The system will be very easy to use and permit intuitive and comprehensive access to this new Mekong Delta information source. This combination of data from many different sources creates information products to support regional planning. Wisdom provides information about people such as urban area dynamics and population density, about nature for example water quality and land use and about impacts like flood risk and land degradation. And wisdom will support planning so that Vietnamese experts can adapt plans for new development areas to possible climate change related threats. The wisdom system supports an integrated water resource management. It delivers reliable information to local authorities. I'm convinced the wisdom system will help safeguard the environment for people, their food and water and be a sustainable planning basis. The main focus of wisdom's second phase will be on using advanced Earth observation sensors to continuously monitor the Delta to address numerous environmental and climate change related research questions and to prepare the implementation of the system in Vietnam, framed by user trainings. Experts from both Vietnam and Germany will train local authorities and decision makers who are responsible for the Mekong Delta. Furthermore, an operation concept will ensure the continuity of the project. The wisdom water management system will be operational by the end of 2012 and handed over to local administrations in Vietnam in 2013.