By Sarina Pradhan Thapa and Sirinapha Srinonil
November 16, 2021 – The subregional consultation workshop led by Professor Vilas Nitivattananon, Dean of School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), was organized today under the project entitled Integrated Assessment of SDGs using Earth Observation Technology for Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR).
The workshop was held virtually with more than 85 participants from 40 organizations attending the meeting. The participants included academic sector (AIT), governmental sector, state enterprise (Metropolitan Waterworks Authority) and Non-profit organization (Chumchonthai foundation). From governmental sector were:
- The national government agencies: National Research Council of Thailand, Office of the National Economics and Social Development Council (ONESDC), Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning and Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
- The regional government agencies: Regional Environmental Office 6 of Nontaburi province and the sub-regional government agencies, including Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), Pathum Thani Provincial Office, Nontaburi Provincial Office, Nakhon Pathom Provincial Administrative Organization, and sectoral offices of BMR’s provinces, including the Department of Environment, Department of City Planning and Urban Development and Department of Drainage and Sewerage of BMA; Provincial Agriculture and Cooperatives Office; Offices of Public Works and Town & Country Planning; Offices of Natural Resources and Environment; Provincial Land Offices, Offices of Prevention and Mitigation, etc.
- The local government agencies, including district offices and municipalities from all the provinces in BMR.
The project aims to develop an integrated assessment of selected SDGs using the big Earth Observation (EO) technology in synergy with regional and local monitoring data and information applicable to the BMR. The primary objective is to develop a set of indicators and data baseline for integrated assessment of SDGs in BMR for enhancing the integrated achievement of strategic sustainability of the metropolitan with the specific objectives.
There were five main sessions including “Welcoming/opening the workshop and presentations on project overview and objectives of the workshop” by Prof. Vilas Nitivattananon, project principal, Dean of School of Environment, Resources and Development.
Dr. Thuttai Keeratipongpaiboon from The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (ONESDC) presented on the topic “linkages between SDGs and current policies and strategies of Thailand ranged from national to local level; and the status of SDGs progress”, followed by a presentation on “Applying SDGs into current administration system to implement in local levels of BMA” presented by Dr. Racharporn Leangpraseart Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
The researcher team from AIT led by Prof. Vilas Nitivattananon, Dr. Salvatore Virdis, Dr. Wenchao Xue, Dr. Ekbordin Winijkul, Dr. Indrajit Pal, Dr. Chutiporn Anutariya and Miss Sirinapha Srinonil presented on the project’s results to gain comments, feedback and inputs form the participants particularly on approaches to identify specific set of indicators and applicable in BMR region and its specific areas as well as gaps, including opportunities and challenges of applying and incorporating SDGs’ indicators-based Earth Observation Technology into current administrative systems of BMR contexts and other Q&A. Eventually, AIT researcher team conducted questionnaire surveys from those participants to identify the most appropriate set of the indicators related SDGs for appropriately application in the metropolitan or mega-city contexts of BMR for the whole region.
After obtaining feedback from the participants, results have shown the potential to improve and finalize the specific set of indicators which are applicable in BMR region from regional to local levels. Once the set of indicators have been finalized, it will be brought to assess its baseline conditions and analyze interactions among its SDGs and indicators to inform policy makers about synergy and trade-off supporting integrated policies and strategies of the BMR in further step of the project. This project research was funded by National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) under international cooperation project between NRCT and Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China under “Digital Belt and Road International Center of Excellent, DBAR”.
Related story: https://oldweb.ait.ac.th/2020/08/ait-joins-nrct-and-6-thai-provinces-for-research-project/