This thesis provides insights into the hydrological processes in the Cambodian Mekong delta, as well as their relationship to ecosystem services from which the local population benefits. In particular, the role of the Prek channels is examined. First constructed during the period of the French protectorate in the early20th century, these channels diverge perpendicularly from the Mekong and its deltaic distributary, the Bassac, and provide a connection between the river mainstream and its low-lying floodplains by breaching the elevated river banks. The aim of this thesis is to assess how large-scale changes in the Mekong basin,such as climate and land use change, as well as hydropower development, are reflected at a local scale in its delta. It also aims to elucidate how local infrastructure such as Preks catalyzes these processes and could help mitigate negative effects of future scenarios.To address all of these research questions, a multi-method approach was chosen. First, a thorough literature review of the complex challenges facing the Mekong basin and its delta was carried out. Subsequently, an analysis of long-term trends in water levels, precipitation patterns, and inundation extents and dynamics at the scale of the Cambodian Mekong delta is provided. Water level time series at four hydrological stations maintained by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) are subjected to a trend and break point analysis. Furthermore, precipitation data from three in-situ stations, as well as remotely sensed CHIRPS data are compared. Inundation extents are assessed on the basis of a new model developed in the course of this thesis: WAFL - Water Level Flood Link. WAFL uses in-situ water level time series and inundation maps derived from Sentinel-1 and -2 images taken between 2017 and 2020, and establishes a correlative link between them, accounting for flood propagation delays and attenuation. It can then be used to reconstruct past inundation extents based on water levels, overcoming spatial data sparsity. It is able to reconstruct earlier events (floods in the 1990’s and 2000s) with good accuracy, in comparison to historical Landsat-derived maps. This indicates that long-term changes of flood patterns are mostly due to shifts in boundary inflow, rather than in the local configuration of the link between the riverand its floodplains. Overall, average inundation durations have declined by 19 days and the incidence of inundations in the early wet season (July and August) has decreased by an average of to 21 Furthermore, fieldwork was carried out in a case study area on the banks of the Bassac river, which encompasses ten Preks. Local stakeholders, such as farmers and village chiefs, were interviewed to gain a better understanding of the ecosystem services linked to local hydrological processes, and the capacity in which the Preks catalyze these processes. The interviews also served as a basis to characterize typical cropping patterns and practices, from irrigation to average and maximum yield. To further enhance the understanding of the role of the Preks for local communities and agricultural practices archival research was undertaken. In addition, local land use and its variations depending on the spatial configuration of hydrological processes and Preks was analyzed using a land use - land cover (LULC) classification based on Sentinel imagery and a supervised Gradient Tree Boosting machine learning approach.Finally, to formalize the understanding of the role of Preks for local hydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Cambodian Mekong delta, and to simulate future scenarios, a numerical model was constructed in Python. It uses the data generated through interviews, literature research, and remote sensing analyses as input and simulates four future scenarios with respect to local climate variables, the configuration of Prek channels and river water levels, the latter depending on basin-wide climate change and hydropower development. Flood-related and non-flood related ecosystem services were simulated separately, to central role of annual monsoon inundations. The results show that under likely future precipitation, temperature, and water level patterns, agricultural production is set to decrease, but that this decrease could be compensated by Prek rehabilitation.