Berlin, Germany — The Improved Management of Extreme Events through Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Watersheds (ECOSWat) Project has won the prestigious ‘Drone Pioneer Award’ at the InterGEO fair held in Berlin. Since 2013, the Thailand based Project has been assisting the Thai Government in its efforts to address and mitigate extreme hydrological events and climate change through the use of drone application.
For the first time, the Interaerial Solutions, one of the leading trade fairs for commercial and civilian drone applications, has initiated such award to give recognition to drone applications with major social and environmental impacts, while also in line with the UN-formulated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In cooperation with the German companies, namely IAMHYDRO and Sydro, and Thailand’s WalailakUniversity, a complex combination of soft- and hardware, based on traditional modelling approaches such as 2D water planning tools, innovative approaches like 3D model, aerial photography and data collection by drones,produced several outcomes:
- comprehensive overview of the whole River Basin with 2D and partly 3D models
- a realistic 3D simulation tool, with which effects of measurements could be demonstrated
- visualization of water problems (i.e. erosion, sedimentation), which has been integrated into the Ecosystem-based Adaptation training
- development of a monitoring system for visualizing effects of measurements, categorizing land use and thus for protecting ecosystems
- complementing data collection with better quality
- integration of drones data collection into a university curriculum that tackles remote sense data management.
“The Drone Pioneer Award focuses more on the application of drone rather than only discrete technology. ECOSWat project demonstrates the multi-stakeholder engagement by involving local initiative, technicians, practitioners as well as decision makers. The whole process completes the full value-chain for drone application,” said one of the juries.”
Data collected by drones has proven instrumental in simulating and planning conservation measures. As a result, water planning and decision-making capacity have been greatly enhanced.
The ceremony took place on 27 September, where Roland Treitler, Project Director, accepted the award via Skype from Bangkok.
Mr. Treitler is honored that the project has garnered overwhelming support from the jury.
Author: Jaruwan Ngamsing
Edited by: Anusara Tanpitak
About the Project
The 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. Learn more here
For more details, contact:
Mr. Roland Treitler
Project Director
Email: roland.treitler@giz.de
Tel: +66 2 271 6641
Fax: +66 2 298 6630
Bureau of International Cooperation, Dept. of Water Resources,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
180/3 Rama VI Road Soi 34, Samsennai, Phayathai, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
