Going with the flow

24 July 2017
Going with the flow

 

How drones are helping Thailand’s water planning

Thailand, sun and the Mekong… Like many other rivers in this country in Southeast Asia, this idyllic waterway, with its temples and lush rice paddies, can rapidly turn into a threat. This is particularly true when the river floods following a drought and neighbouring reservoirs are breached as a result of poor maintenance. As fields and villages are inundated, the precious water required for survival cannot be stored for future periods of drought.

Management of such extreme weather events is all the more difficult because there is a lack of knowledge among the relevant authorities and because areas along the rivers are often inaccessible. In the past, this meant that reservoirs first had to be drained completely in order to identify potential damage.

So, since 2013, the Thai Government has been getting help from the air: on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), GIZ has been working with its partners to introduce drones in three water catchment areas severely threatened by climate change in order to monitor the state of rivers and reservoirs more efficiently. Data collected by the drones is then used to develop 3D models that enable experts to simulate the impact of future floods and to identify and carry out timely maintenance work on reservoirs.

Lessons learned with the approach are shared among staff at the water authorities, researchers and local people affected, in an attempt to secure long-term success with the restoration and maintenance of functioning ecosystems in Thailand. Guidance is also being provided in the deployment of drones: several hundred people are now able to pilot the devices and have received training in sustainable waterway management. The Ministry of Agriculture is now evaluating the potential for deployment of drones in water catchment areas.

Further information:
‘Improved management of extreme events through ecosystem-based adaptation in watersheds (ECOSWat)’ Project’s approach starts out in three pilot watersheds threatened by the impacts of climate change. To increase the adaptive capacity of the three watersheds, relevant professionals (from government, universities, etc.) will be advised to combine their expertise, activities and sources of information in order to exploit synergies and therewith improve the efficiency of the water management in the corresponding catchment area on the base of a common information management.
Inclusion of population is ensured by their involvement in stakeholder platforms. These platforms are based on the existing “River Basin Committee”.
Innovative ecosystem-based adaptation approaches will be implemented for demonstration purposes of adaptation measures in catchment areas. This is supported by training courses for relevant stakeholders in ecosystem-based adaptation.
Based on the experiences gained from the intervention in the pilot watersheds, ecosystem-based adaptation approaches for the development of adaptive capacities are fed into the national level. At the same time ecosystem-based adaptation education and training formats are anchored in the target region as well as at the national level.
Contact:
Roland Treitler
roland.treitler@giz.de