These were some of the lessons presented by Dr. Sangam Shrestha of
Water Engineering and Management (WEM) field of study in AIT’s School
of Engineering and Technology (SET) at a presentation titled “Flood
situation at AIT: Chronology of events and lessons learnt” at a
workshop organized by the Institute of Industrial Science, University
of Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Shrestha, a water expert, who was intimately
associated with both pre-flood and post-flood situation at AIT
delivered the presentation at the workshop titled “Disaster Information
Dissemination System for Local Community in Rural Mountainous Area in
Thailand.”
The six lessons which Dr. Shrestha enumerated include -- preparedness
began only when the flood threat emerged; need for communication by all
possible means and not reliance on email alone; difficulty in obtaining
reliable and accurate information about flood-water depth and
travel-time of flood; confusing information emerging from different
social media, newspapers and television; difficulty in translation from
Thai sources; and residents not following the advisories and
instructions despite regular warnings about the flood.
The workshop was a part of a Special Project Formation Investigation
Young Research Team Feasibility Studies supported by SATREPS (Science
and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development)
Program to enhance the abilities of young researchers to work in a
global context.
Held between 23-26 January 2012, project members included AIT, Chiang
Mai University and the Loei Fund for Nature Conservation and
Sustainable Development Foundation. The project leader was Dr. Akiyuki
Kawasaki, Tokyo University, and visiting faculty at WEM, AIT.
Dr. Sarawut Nisawat, Instructor at the Remote Sensing and Geographical
Information Systems (RS&GIS) field of study, SET, also delivered a
presentation on “Development of Flood Inundation modeling using Sensor
Network and OGC Web Services.”
Dr. Shrestha’s presentation can be downloaded from this link.