Responding to the risk of flood re-occurring in Thailand this year, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has instituted a specialized Task Force to devise a flood protection plan for its Pathumthani province campus, which was completely inundated last October.
Announcing the formation of the Task Force on 2 March 2012, AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust said it brings together the considerable technical expertise of AIT’s own faculty members, including academics from structural, geotechnical, hydraulic, and water management engineering fields, as well as experts from the fields of natural resource management, remote sensing, disaster risk analysis, and structural and project management.
The Task Force will be chaired by Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, AIT Vice President, Resource Development. A high priority will be to determine the probability a major flood occurring this year. The AIT experts will study flood prevention options for the campus, including a dyke / retaining wall system and a flood passage way to be constructed
by August this year.
The Task Force is mandated to evaluate different options based on risks and costs impacts, and propose a final design, method of implementation and time-lines for construction. The Task Force will also supervise the Project Management Office to call for bids for implementation of the project.
AIT was flooded on 21 October 2011 under two meters of water. The international institute of higher learning adjacent to Thammasat University and NSTDA suffered considerable damage to all ground level facilities, with almost 50% of its infrastructure for education and
research destroyed. With rebuilding efforts now ongoing, AIT senior officials are highly focused on protecting the campus against the possibility of future floods.
Earlier this year, at the 5th Save Our Planet Conference in Bangkok in January, President Irandoust was recognized by Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra "for exceptional leadership ... of the Asian Institute of Technology in the face of the 2011 floods which devasted the campus and for the exemplary manner in which the Institute continued its operations in the face of this great adversity."
The AIT president also announced that members of the Task Force will include Dr. Noppadol Phien-wej, Geotechnical Engineering; Dr. Sutat Weesakul, Hydraulic Engineering; Dr. Sangam Shrestha, Water Management; Dr. Vilas Nitivattananon, Natural Resources Management; Dr. Nitin Kumar Tripathi, Remote Sensing; Dr. Greg Chiu, Disaster Risk Analysis; Sodexo Representative, Operations; Dr. Naveed Anwar,
Structural and Project Management. AIT Consulting will provide the
secretariat for the Task Force.