[Thailand] Thai Coast: Coastal Vulnerability, Resilience and Adaptation in Thailand.
Lead Research Organisation:
Edge Hill University
Department Name: Geography and Geology
Abstract
The goal of the Thai-coast project is to improve scientific understanding of the vulnerability of Thailand's shoreline and coastal communities to hydro-meteorological hazards, including storms, floods and coastal erosion, under future climate change scenarios. In Thailand the problems of coastal erosion and flooding require immediate solutions because they affect more than 11 million people living in coastal zone communities (17% of the country's population). The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), in the Thai Government's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, has calculated that each year erosion causes Thailand to lose 30 km2 of coastal land. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning predicts that sea level will rise by 1 metre in the next 40 -100 years, impacting at least 3,200 km2 of coastal land, through erosion and flooding, at a potential financial cost to Thailand of 3 billion baht [almost £70 million] over that time period. The Thai-coast project addresses the urgent need to enhance the resilience and adaptation potential of coastal communities, applying scientific research to inform more robust and cost-effective governance and institutional arrangements.
The Thai-coast project aims to (i) establish causal links between climate change, coastal erosion and flooding; (ii) use this information to assess the interaction of natural and social processes in order to (iii) enhance coastal community resilience and future sustainability. The project focuses on two study areas, Nakhon Si Thammarat province and Krabi province, selected on the basis of DMCR coastal erosion data and with contrasting natural and socio-economic characteristics. The Thai-coast project uses a multidisciplinary approach, integrating climate science, geomorphology, socio-economics, health and wellbeing science and geo-information technology to improve understanding of hydro-meteorological hazard occurrence, their physical and socioeconomic, health and wellbeing impacts on Thailand's coastal zone and the ways in which governance and institutional arrangements mitigate their impact. We will examine future scenarios of climate change hydrometeorology, coastal landform and land use change scenarios and assess and model impacts (coastal erosion, river-marine flooding, impacts on health and well-being), as well as population and community's adaptation, and socio-economics scenarios for sustainable development goals (sustainable cities, health-related quality of life and well-being, good governance). Our collaborative team of natural and social scientists, from UK, US and Thai research institutions, have complementary, cutting-edge expertise and will work closely with Thai Government and UK and Thai industry partners to ensure that results are policy and practice-relevant.
Thai-coast research will benefit government and policy makers, who need to plan for potential impacts caused by climate change and develop resilient strategies to deal with their impacts on natural-social systems. It will provide a link with government agencies for business/industry interests in the coastal zone of Thailand in tourism, aquaculture and associated industry and business, to assess their needs and help improve their understanding of coastal resilience in their strategic investments and management. The wider public, who inhabit Thailand's coastal communities either permanently or temporarily for work or leisure, will benefit through the advanced knowledge and awareness of identified problems and learning processes to address them. The results of the Thai-coast project will benefit coastal communities more broadly, in all Thai coastal provinces, through its contribution to more robust, cost effective, governance and institutional arrangements.
The Thai-coast project aims to (i) establish causal links between climate change, coastal erosion and flooding; (ii) use this information to assess the interaction of natural and social processes in order to (iii) enhance coastal community resilience and future sustainability. The project focuses on two study areas, Nakhon Si Thammarat province and Krabi province, selected on the basis of DMCR coastal erosion data and with contrasting natural and socio-economic characteristics. The Thai-coast project uses a multidisciplinary approach, integrating climate science, geomorphology, socio-economics, health and wellbeing science and geo-information technology to improve understanding of hydro-meteorological hazard occurrence, their physical and socioeconomic, health and wellbeing impacts on Thailand's coastal zone and the ways in which governance and institutional arrangements mitigate their impact. We will examine future scenarios of climate change hydrometeorology, coastal landform and land use change scenarios and assess and model impacts (coastal erosion, river-marine flooding, impacts on health and well-being), as well as population and community's adaptation, and socio-economics scenarios for sustainable development goals (sustainable cities, health-related quality of life and well-being, good governance). Our collaborative team of natural and social scientists, from UK, US and Thai research institutions, have complementary, cutting-edge expertise and will work closely with Thai Government and UK and Thai industry partners to ensure that results are policy and practice-relevant.
Thai-coast research will benefit government and policy makers, who need to plan for potential impacts caused by climate change and develop resilient strategies to deal with their impacts on natural-social systems. It will provide a link with government agencies for business/industry interests in the coastal zone of Thailand in tourism, aquaculture and associated industry and business, to assess their needs and help improve their understanding of coastal resilience in their strategic investments and management. The wider public, who inhabit Thailand's coastal communities either permanently or temporarily for work or leisure, will benefit through the advanced knowledge and awareness of identified problems and learning processes to address them. The results of the Thai-coast project will benefit coastal communities more broadly, in all Thai coastal provinces, through its contribution to more robust, cost effective, governance and institutional arrangements.
Planned Impact
The goal of the Thai-coast project is to improve scientific understanding of the vulnerability of Thailand's shoreline to hydrometeorological hazards under future climate change in order to enhance the resilience and adaptation of coastal communities through more robust, cost effective, decision-making, governance and institutional arrangements. Driven by the needs of key beneficiaries through strong, established and ongoing, two-way relationships, Thai-coast is a bespoke research project designed to improve the quality of life of coastal communities in Thailand. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, has already identified coastal erosion and flooding hotspots where coastal community livelihoods and wellbeing are under threat. There is a clear need to understand the response of shorelines to hydrometeorological events of different magnitudes and to predict the future likely occurrence of events of different magnitudes associated with climate change scenarios and their impacts on coastal communities. These natural events have important socio-economic consequences and the DMCR have identified the need to engage with a broad range of coastal community stakeholders and decision-makers and multi-disciplinary research in order to improve governance and institutional arrangements in mitigating the impact of hydrometeorological hazards. Tourism and aquaculture, and associated industries such as port authorities, are the dominant economic activities in Thailand's coastal zone and so the results of the Thai-coast project will benefit coastal communities more broadly, in other Thai coastal provinces, through its contribution to more robust, cost effective, decision-making governance and institutional arrangements.
Thai-coast addresses the needs of three principal categories of beneficiaries with whom we have existing contacts on which to build. (i) Government and policy makers. Specifically the DMCR, but also including NPD (Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation), NSO (National Statistics Office), NESDB (National Economic and Social Development Board), GISTDA (Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency), MOPH (Ministry of Public Health). And at various levels including local development actors and communities, such as DOPA (Department Of Provincial Administration), Local Administration agencies and Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, who need to plan for potential impacts caused by climate change and develop resilient strategies to deal with their impacts on natural-social systems. Existing strategies will be assessed, the research tailored to gaps identified and the results used to enhance knowledge and skills to develop the strategies and build capacity. Government policy makers will benefit in the short, medium and long term (ii) Business/industry interests in the coastal zone of Thailand in tourism, aquaculture and associated industry and business e.g. multinational companies, SMEs, tourism, transport, agricultural, health care sectors. This broad group represent a potential development conflict in relation to coastal protection yet are important to the economy. Thai-coast reaches out equally to these stakeholders to enhance their links with government agencies, assess their needs and help improve their understanding of resilience in their strategic investments and management benefiting them in the longer term. (iii) The wider public who inhabit Thailand's coastal communities either permanently or temporarily for work or leisure and including the international communities who visit Thailand will benefit in the medium to longer term through advanced knowledge and awareness of identified problems and learning processes to address them.
Thai-coast addresses the needs of three principal categories of beneficiaries with whom we have existing contacts on which to build. (i) Government and policy makers. Specifically the DMCR, but also including NPD (Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation), NSO (National Statistics Office), NESDB (National Economic and Social Development Board), GISTDA (Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency), MOPH (Ministry of Public Health). And at various levels including local development actors and communities, such as DOPA (Department Of Provincial Administration), Local Administration agencies and Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, who need to plan for potential impacts caused by climate change and develop resilient strategies to deal with their impacts on natural-social systems. Existing strategies will be assessed, the research tailored to gaps identified and the results used to enhance knowledge and skills to develop the strategies and build capacity. Government policy makers will benefit in the short, medium and long term (ii) Business/industry interests in the coastal zone of Thailand in tourism, aquaculture and associated industry and business e.g. multinational companies, SMEs, tourism, transport, agricultural, health care sectors. This broad group represent a potential development conflict in relation to coastal protection yet are important to the economy. Thai-coast reaches out equally to these stakeholders to enhance their links with government agencies, assess their needs and help improve their understanding of resilience in their strategic investments and management benefiting them in the longer term. (iii) The wider public who inhabit Thailand's coastal communities either permanently or temporarily for work or leisure and including the international communities who visit Thailand will benefit in the medium to longer term through advanced knowledge and awareness of identified problems and learning processes to address them.
Organisations
- Edge Hill University (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Tsinghua University China (Collaboration)
- Chulalongkorn University (Project Partner)
- Thammasat University (Project Partner)
- Mahidol University (Project Partner)
- Ambiental Technical Solutions (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Government of Thailand (Project Partner)
Publications
Langkulsen U
(2022)
Coastal Erosion and Flood Coping Mechanisms in Southern Thailand: A Qualitative Study.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Langkulsen U
(2022)
Socio-Economic Resilience to Floods in Coastal Areas of Thailand.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Curoy J
(2022)
Coastal dynamism in Southern Thailand: An application of the CoastSat toolkit.
in PloS one
| Description | Key aim: Establish quantitative links between climate change, coastal erosion and flooding. Erosion and accretion rates are more dramatic on mangrove coastlines (-34.5 and 21.7 m/year) compared with sandy coastlines (-4.1 and 4 m/year). The highest erosion rates, on mangrove coastlines, of almost -70 m/year, are caused by the reopening of an old lagoon at the back of the mangrove. The highest rates of coastline progradation are associated with the shoreline downdrift of harbour arms or the presence of a river mouth e.g. up to 10.6 m/year. There has been a substantial variation in shoreline sediment accretion rates in areas of mangrove and seagrass in both study provinces. This appears to be driven predominantly by low frequency - high impact events such as intense rainfall. There is no conclusive influence for Tsunamis or landslides as driving factors of sediment accretion. The rainfall has intensified mainly over the land with a relatively increase up to 200% in some regions in Southern Thailand. The future climate changes mean more extended and severe floods in Southern Thailand - the risk of flash floods will be increased significantly. Bespoke software Flowroute-I, developed by Ambiental, UK, combined meteorological and spatial data to produce present day and future scenario (2100) flood maps across 6 catchments for rainfall events with return periods of 20, 50 and 100 years. The models indicate a future increase in flood impacts including increased depth of flood and extent, particularly in the middle of the catchment and on the eastern side of the Thai peninsula, Nakhon Si Thammarat, partly due to the geology and geomorphology. The results will assist policy makers in developing present and future flood mitigation measures. Key aim: Use the quantitative links between climate change, coastal erosion and flooding to assess the interaction of natural and social processes under current and future climate change. The first stage of assessing the interaction developed a socio-economic index and a coping capacity index. The socio-economic index used secondary data to assess exposure and vulnerability to hydrometeorological hazards. The coping capacity index that combined availability of skills, or soft coping capacity, and availability of structural resources, or hard coping capacity. While socio-economic resilience is generally higher in more urbanized areas, there are greater variations amongst subdistricts. Some of the successful coping measures in mitigating hydro-meteorological hazards include local production of life jackets, erection of village level early warning towers and sirens, and community training in warning and evacuation drills. However, households also individually apply autonomous coping mechanisms. Different communities within the coastal regions have different levels of resilience and adopt different coping strategies when faced with emergency situations. Support provided to these communities has to build on local capacity and should be context specific. Individual coping strategies without collective action may not be effective solutions due to the occurrence of negative externalities, for example if neighbours do not apply/maintain their own protection structures. Social cohesion within an affected community is important in binding a community together and collaboratively developing successful coping mechanisms. District averages of socio-economic resilience scores mask the variations at subdistrict level. The second stage of the assessment was to compare and then combine the data in natural/physical and social processes. When physical and socio-economic scores are compared, Krabi Province has a higher level of physical vulnerability than Nakorn Sri Thammarat (NST), whilst NST is has a higher level of socio-economic vulnerability than Krabi. When physical and socio-economic factors are combined to generate the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI), the results show that the two provinces have relatively comparable CVI despite the underlying variability in physical and socio-economic resilience. Effective surveillance systems, disaster preparedness, risk mapping, early warning systems, availability of databases and functional command systems, as well as reliable funding are essential to efficiently cope with hazards of coastal flooding and erosion. As flooding and erosion have been predicted to be more severe due to climate change in the coming years, the adoption of effective natural and artificial mechanisms with modern technologies could help coastal regions to be more resilient in coping with the dangers associated with flooding and erosion. Key aim: Enhance coastal community resilience and future sustainability under climate change scenarios. Key findings from each work package in the project have been presented and shared with the local and regional stakeholders regularly throughout the project. Early feedback from the participants has been positive with some comments and suggestions about the methodology that helped direct the project work (for example; taking into consideration the different monsoon seasons of the eastern and western coasts of Thailand; clarity of index measurement and continuing update of data used to construct the map and index), dissemination and potential uses of the findings and data generated by the project (for example; the data should be made available and accessible to all local stakeholders, perhaps on the online platform; the data is very useful for the preparing of the provincial development plan and action plans by various policy agencies e.g. policy briefs on specific issues related to coastal vulnerabilities, such as vulnerable areas or vulnerable groups for specific disaster/vulnerability would be useful). For planning consecutive workshops, which took place on a local level, our target communities were agreed with the participants of the most recent workshop who also helped us identify the local stakeholders who should be invited to the next workshop. This enabled us to communicate our project findings with the most appropriate stakeholders for whom the results hold most value. In the final workshop held in January 2022, Building Community Awareness, participants engaged in small group discussion to draft a community action plan for disaster/risk management or preparation. This action plan presented each group's ideas about identified risk or vulnerability of the community to be managed or planned for, possible actions that could be taken or implemented by people in the community, specific purpose and strategy of the plan, and outlined idea of the plan (including key actions and activities, key actors and stakeholders, timeframe of the activities, budget and sources, success indicators, monitoring and evaluation plan). In each sub-district within the two project study sites, a range of risks and priorities were identified. In Nakhon Si Thammarat Province: participants in Laem-Talumphuk Subdistrict were aware and drafted the plans for quite a variety of risks faced by the community during monsoon season (e.g. coastal erosion, storm and floods); at Koh-Phet Subdistrict, the community awareness and plan were mainly on coastal erosion and beach volume problems. In Krabi Province: at Saladaan Subdistrict, the plans focussed on coastal erosion problems and impacts, tsunami risk, and fresh water management; at Klongprasong, the plans focussed were on coastal erosion and sea level rise and associated flood problems. |
| Exploitation Route | Key findings are being used initially for assessment of views on existing risks from and governance of hydrometeorological hazards and a needs analysis conducted through the project Workshops with stakeholders and end users. Key findings are presented at international conferences and published in international journals during and after the life of the project; at the end of the project they were presented to key national policy makers as well as being used to inform provincial development plans. The project Final Conference, held in June 2022 attracted 100 delegates with 45% from Government Agencies in Thailand and Vietnam, and participants from 7 countries. To enable policy impact it was followed by a presentation of the final outcomes to the Thai Government's Department for Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) in July 2022 and to the Thai Embassy in London in August 2022. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp |
| Description | Better understanding of the impact of climate change, and associated hydrometeorological hazards, on communities with different socio-economic characteristics. Participants at the project workshops report that the project data is very useful for informing the preparation of the provincial development plan and action plans by various policy agencies. The project findings have been used by local communities at the study sites to draft community action plans for disaster/risk management or preparation. The Thai Government Department for Mineral Resources identified a training need and invited the project team to provide training. 'Geo-information Technology for Coastal Erosion and Vulnerability Assessment' workshop addressed the identified skills training need, training practitioners in the methods used to assess coastal vulnerability to be applied at a national level to improve policy implementation. Ambiental UK developed a flood risk model that is applicable across SE Asia (https://www.ambientalrisk.com/flooding-in-south-east-asia/). The Thai Government's Department for Marine and Coastal Resources held a follow up meeting with the Thai team after the project Final Conference to discuss and identify applications of the project outcomes for their work in policy development and its implementation through practice. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Geo-information Technology for Coastal Erosion and Vulnerability Assessment: training workshop |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The SE Asia (Thai) PI was invited to be a trainer and present a talk entitled 'Geo-information Technology for Coastal Erosion and Vulnerability Assessment' in the Intensive Workshop with 15 participants, hosted by Thai Government Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in Mid-October 2019. The workshop trained practitioners in how to assess coastal vulnerability so that the method can be applied at other sites in Thailand. |
| Description | Past Global Changes (PAGES) Floods Working Group |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | community action plan for disaster/risk management or preparation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | improved community preparedness for risk and vulnerability associated with hydrometeorological hazards in coastal communities; output: 4 community action plans for disaster/risk management or preparation across the two project study sites at Laem-Talumphuk Subdistrict and Koh-Phet Subdistrict, Nakhon Si Thammarat; and Klongprasong Subdistrict and Saladaan Subdistrict, Krabi. Impact: building community awareness on risks and vulnerabilities of the coastal areas, and importance of disaster management plan and preparation of the community. |
| Description | GCRF: Examining practices of community-driven Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) entrepreneurship in response to new knowledges of climate-change risk, Thailand |
| Amount | £24,930 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Department | Global Challenges Research Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Global Challenges Research Fund: Climate Change, Coastal Erosion and Risks of Flooding to Low-Lying Coastlines Subject to Tropical Storms, Thailand |
| Amount | £24,883 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | PI Prof Irene Delgado-Fernandez (CO-Is: Dr Anna Jones; Prof Cherith Moses) |
| Organisation | Edge Hill University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | Modelling Flood Risk and Community Resilience in Rayong Province, Thailand; Chulalongkorn University and University of Sussex |
| Amount | £9,756 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 02/2023 |
| Description | Newton Fund & Met Office CSSP (CHN19/6): The impact of climate change on water resources in China: WP1 Lead, Dr Yi Wang, University of Sussex |
| Amount | £400,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Meteorological Office UK |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | UKRI CoA CV-19 Support Fund; University of Brighton |
| Amount | £7,323 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Title | Flood forecast modelling |
| Description | Developed a flood forecast model in GIS to predict alterations to the frequency and impact of extreme weather events in light of climatic change. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improvements in flood forecasting to predict alterations to the frequency and impact of extreme weather events in light of climatic change. |
| Title | coping capacity index |
| Description | This was a cross-sectional study based on secondary data collection on the social and economic dimensions of resilience, and a review of literature on coping mechanisms to hydro-meteorological hazards within the study area. Measuring and mapping socio-economic resilience was based on the available data gathered from the social and economic dimensions, with existing/standard indicators on exposure and vulnerability applied uniformly across subdistricts. Combining the two dimensions produced novel socio-economic resilience index scores by subdistrict, which were mapped accordingly for the two coastal provinces of Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Complimenting this work we have also derived a coping capacity index scores by combining availability of skills (soft capacities) and availability of structural resources (hard coping capacities). |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | new method for assessing the coping capacity of coastal communities to hydrometeorological hazards |
| Title | evaluating coastal change using remotely sensed data |
| Description | Developed a semi-automated method for evaluating coastal change using remotely sensed data using Google Earth Engine. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | improvement in assessing long term, decadal, coastal change to identify erosion and accretion patterns using remote sensing data |
| Title | high resolution future climate modelling |
| Description | We have used the latest IPCC global model output at the time of our project and downscaled the model output to a very high spatial resolution of 3-km by 3-km so that the future flood risk assessments can be carried out. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Improved spatial resolution of climate modelling to very high spatial resolution of 3-km by 3-km to predict future rainfall so that the future flood risk assessments can be carried out. |
| Title | socioeconomic resilience indices |
| Description | A new approach in looking at resilience by combining social and economic variables to come up with socioeconomic resilience indices |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | NA at this point in time |
| Title | Coastal change |
| Description | Coastal change database |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Coastal change database for assessing long term, decadal rates of coastal erosion and accretion to assist with informing coastal management decisions. |
| Title | Coastal vulnerability index |
| Description | The physical factors and socio-economic factors in the GIS database have been combined to generate the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) map at the sub-district level of the two provinces. The resultant index of each sub-district was also written in the GIS database. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved method for assessing the vulnerability of coastal communities to hydrometeorological hazards. |
| Title | Databases of locals' experiences |
| Description | Databases of locals' experiences about natural disasters they faced, their awareness, their preparedness, as well as their adaptation. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | NA |
| Title | Flood forecast modelling |
| Description | Flood forecast GIS database has been created for the two study sites as well as a modelling of the impacts of flooding. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved predictions of the magnitude and extent of flooding and improved assessment of the impacts of flooding. |
| Title | Future rainfall modelling |
| Description | With our NCAR PP, we have used the state-of-the-art Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model to carry out the future climate scenarios downscaling in order to model future rainfall. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved, high resolution, modelling of future rainfall to inform flood modelling. |
| Title | High-resolution climate model outputs |
| Description | High-resolution climate model outputs have been archived at Sussex HPC. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | NA at this point in time |
| Title | Socio-economic reslience |
| Description | This was a cross-sectional study based on secondary data collection on the social and economic dimensions of resilience, and a review of literature on coping mechanisms to hydro-meteorological hazards within the study area. Measuring and mapping socio-economic resilience was based on the available data gathered from the social and economic dimensions, with existing/standard indicators on exposure and vulnerability applied uniformly across subdistricts. Combining the two dimensions produced novel socio-economic resilience index scores by subdistrict, which were mapped accordingly for the two coastal provinces of Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat. We also derived a coping capacity index scores by combining availability of skills (soft capacities) and availability of structural resources (hard coping capacities). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improvements in assessing the resilience and coping capacities of communities to the impacts of hydrometeorological hazards |
| Description | Center for Earth System Science Tsinghua University |
| Organisation | Tsinghua University China |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | WP 2 Lead Dr Yi Wang brings scientific expertise and intellectual input in climate modelling. He is involved in a large research team of ~30 students, PDRAs, and staff. He is supervising ~20 PhDs and a few PDRAS at Tsinghua. The VF post also allows him to work on many NSFC (Chinese national research funding agency) projects, one of them is linked to Global climate risk assessment, land surface and hydrological processes and extreme events under projected climate which has a clear synergy with the Thai coast project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Centre for Earth System Science Tsinghua University provides intellectual input and scientific expertise in modelling earth systems through expertise in integrating physical and social sciences, engineering and management toward a more comprehensive and systematic study of the Earth sciences to better meet the challenges of global environmental change and sustainable development. The College for Global Change Studies, in which the Centre is based, has four broad academic fields: 1. Earth system science; 2. Earth system modelling; 3. Earth observation technology; 4. Global change economics. WP2 Lead, Dr Yi Wang currently has a Visiting Professorship (honorary) at the Centre for Earth System Science of Tsinghua University (2019-2022) where he is working on a project concerned with global climate risk assessment, land surface and hydrological processes and extreme events under projected climate which has a clear synergy with the Thai coast project. |
| Impact | High-resolution climate model outputs archived at Sussex HPC. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA |
| Organisation | National Center for Atmospheric Research |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | WP Lead Dr Yi Wang brings scientific expertise and intellectual input in climate modelling. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a next-generation mesoscale numerical weather prediction system designed for both atmospheric research and operational forecasting applications. It features two dynamical cores, a data assimilation system, and a software architecture supporting parallel computation and system extensibility. The model serves a wide range of meteorological applications across scales from tens of meters to thousands of kilometers. The effort to develop WRF began in the latter 1990's and was a collaborative partnership of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (represented by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Earth System Research Laboratory), the U.S. Air Force, the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Oklahoma, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). WRF has a large worldwide community of registered users (a cumulative total of over 48,000 in over 160 countries), and NCAR provides regular workshops and tutorials on it. NCAR has contributed scientific expertise and intellectual input to WP1 climate science modelling + training of WP1 PDRA in downscaling WRF model for this project. |
| Impact | High-resolution climate model outputs archived at Sussex HPC |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Title | Flood modelling |
| Description | Flood risk maps at catchment levels under different IPCC AR5 scenarios. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Improved ability to predict the extent and magnitude and potential impacts of future flooding events. |
| Title | Future climate projection |
| Description | We have used the latest IPCC global model output at the time of our project and downscaled the model output to a very high spatial resolution of 3-km by 3-km so that the future flood risk assessments can be carried out. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved modelling of future rainfall under different climate scenarios at very high spatial resolution (3 x 3 km grid) to inform flood modelling. |
| Description | Building Community Awareness Workshops in both study sites |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | During January 24th - 29th, 2022 (month 40 of the project, rescheduled from month 36 due to the global pandemic), led by the WP6, the fourth workshops of the project with local stakeholders in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Krabi Provinces were held with main purposes to disseminate and validate project's key findings from WP1-5 with the stakeholder including representatives from the provincial governmental organizations, civil society organizations and community-based organizations. At Saladaan Subdistrict, Koh-Lanta, Krabi the workshop was number 3 and 4 combined (workshop 3 was rescheduled due to the global pandemic). These were the final Building Community Awareness Workshops of WP6. The workshops were held at Laem-Talumphuk Subdistrict and Koh-Phet Subdistrict, Nakhon Si Thammarat; and Klongprasong Subdistrict and Saladaan Subdistrict, Krabi. These subdistricts are the same sites where the 3rd workshops were done in 2021. This 3-hour workshop has primary aim to build community awareness on risks and vulnerabilities of the coastal areas, and importance of disaster management plan and preparation of the community. (Note: For Saladaan Subdistrict, the activities took a whole day. The 3rd workshop with World Café activity was conducted in the morning, followed by the final (4th) workshop in the afternoon). The participants in each sub-district included representatives from the Subdistrict Administrative Office and others local governmental organisations, community leaders, local civil society groups or networks, general working-age population, and high-school students. The workshop started a sharing session with the participants about the key findings and discussion summary from the World Café activity of the 3rd workshop. (Café 1) disaster calendar, frequency and impact level perceived by the locals (Café 2) coastal erosions and other hydrological disasters (if any) as well as their impacts on livelihood, high-risk areas and vulnerable groups (Café 3) current actions and additional supports needed by the community in preparing for or dealing with disaster (Café 4) disaster management plan and activities implemented by the local government (Café 5) prioritized well-being, possible actions to be taken in the future in preparing for or dealing with disaster by the locals After that, the participants were grouped into 5 groups and assigned a small group discussion to draft a community action plan for disaster/risk management or preparation. This action plan presents rough idea of the group about identified risk or vulnerability of the community to be managed or planned for, possible actions that could be taken or implemented by people in the community, specific purpose and strategy of the plan, and outlined idea of the plan (including key actions and activities, key actors and stakeholders, timeframe of the activities, budget and sources, success indicators, monitoring and evaluation plan). Summarily, about the 5 action plans as the workshop output, participants in Laem-Talumphuk Subdistrict aware and drafted the plans for quite a variety of risks faced by the community during monsoon season (e.g. coastal erosion, storm and floods). At Koh-Phet Subdistrict, the community awareness and plan were mainly on coastal erosion and beach trach problems. At Saladaan Subdistrict, the focuses were on coastal erosion problem and its impacts, tsunami risk, and fresh water management. At Klongprasong, the focuses were also on coastal erosion and sea level rise (floods) problems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at international conference, European Geosciences Union, which sparked questions and discussions afterwards. Moses, C., Nakhapakorn, K., Ward, R., Wang, Y., Langkulsen, U., Cheewinsiriwat, P., Chamchan, C., Boonmanunt, S., Alamirew, N., Barlow, J., Curoy, J., Dudia, J., and Martin, D.: Coastal Vulnerability, Resilience and Adaptation in Thailand., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 May 2022, EGU22-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2026, 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-2026.html |
| Description | Geographical Association of Northern Ireland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The talk was presented at Queen's University Belfast. Approximately 50 students and 10 teachers attended the event which sparked questions and discussion afterwards. To reeach a broader audience, the talk and resources were subsequently distributed to Geography departments in schools across Northern Ireland by the GA co-ordinator who has reported an increased interest in related subject areas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Industry case study, web site |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Project Partner Ambiental has applied similar methods to flood risk analysis at the two study areas, which will be of benefit to both Thailand and to British Industry (https://www.ambientalrisk.com/flooding-in-south-east-asia/) . Thai-coast is enhancing business/industry stakeholder links with government agencies, assessing their needs, engaging them in developing tools and knowledge inputs to help improve their understanding of resilience in their strategic investments and management, benefiting them in the longer term. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ambientalrisk.com/flooding-in-south-east-asia/ |
| Description | Interview for Channel News Asia (CNA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Thai PI, Dr Kanchana Nakhapakorn, explains coastal erosion and mitigation in Thailand on "CNA Correspondent: Thailand's Ecological Efforts To Protect Coastlines From Over-Tourism", live streamed on CNA (Channel News Asia) YouTube channel, 31 March. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://en.mahidol.ac.th/index.php/about/activities/164-cna-correspondent-thailand-s-ecological-effo... |
| Description | Past Global Changes (PAGES) Floods Working Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Floods Working Group (FWG) brings together all the scientific communities reconstructing past floods (historians, geologists, geographers, etc.) and those studying current and future floods (hydrologists, modelers, statisticians, etc.) to coordinate, synthesize and promote data and results on the natural variability of floods. The meeting aim was to produce regional syntheses on existing paleofloods records as well as to co-define key milestones and deliverables for the second phase. Planned output is a review paper on changes in flood activity related to cold/warm climate phases that will rely on the workshop material and an upcoming survey and a Science Brief describing how past flood data can contribute to implement more reliable DRR strategies. To this end, key international stakeholders are being contacted: UNESCO and UNSIDR. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://pastglobalchanges.org/calendar/upcoming/127-pages/1943 |
| Description | Presentation at international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk at international conference, European Geosciences Union, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards. Ward, R., Curoy, J., Martin, D., Puch, E., Tenedor, J., Wang, Y., Almirew, N., Dudhia, J., Barlow, J., Moses, C., and Nakhapakorn, K.: Climate change driven flood modelling predictions within Southern Thailand , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 May 2022, EGU22-4459, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4459, 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-4459.html |
| Description | Presentation at international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk at international conference, European Geosciences Union, which sparked questions and discussions afterwards. Curoy, J., Ward, R., Barlow, J., Moses, C., and Nakhapakorn, K.: Coastal evolution in Southern Thailand between 1990 and 2018: an application of the CoastSat toolkit., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 May 2022, EGU22-6215, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6215, 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-6215.html |
| Description | Press release to disseminate information on the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Press release by all project partners in January 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2019/01/major-study-could-benefit-11-million-thai-people-living-in-v... |
| Description | Project final conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Final Conference of the Thai Coast Project attracted 100 delegates from seven countries, with almost half of them (45%) working in Government Agencies in Thailand and Vietnam. The conference highlighted key policy and practice-relevant results to be taken forward by agencies of the Thai government and other international and regional development organisations who would also benefit from the project results. This included identifying the natural and socio-economic factors that contribute to risk from hydro-meteorological hazards and informing knowledge of governance processes for coastal communities. In addition, the conference provided the opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned during the project as well as disseminating the project outcomes with the wider community through novel approaches, including social media |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp/the-final-conference-of-the-thai-coast-project/ |
| Description | Project launch workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Project launch for dissemination purposes and for input from stakeholders and end-users to ensure that the project work addresses their needs |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Project web site |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The project web-site disseminates information about the project to a wide audience; it has resulted in requests for further information e.g. from media and invitations to give talks on the work of the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp |
| Description | Stakeholder-End User Workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Focus group discussions with key informants from the local government and private agencies, community leaders and local people living in the vulnerable areas from hydrometeorological hazards in Nakornsithammarat and Krabi (in Mid- December 2019). Aims of the attendance were to observe and compile contextual information in order to get better understanding about factors in the area that contributed to the risks from hydrometeorological hazards, currently implemented policy interventions, governance, strategies and measures, and challenges in dealing with the hazards (both at the provincial and community levels). This information and understanding will be utilised in designing and facilitating the 2nd workshop by the WP6 with key stakeholders in both provinces, planned to be in mid-2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Stakeholder-End User Workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | two facilitated workshops with officials, stakeholders, NGOS and community leaders at the two project study sites. Held at the Provincial Government Offices: Nakhon si Thammarat (Friday 8 March 2019) and Krabi (11 March 2019). Initial workshop to assess views on existing risks from and governance of hydro-meteorological hazards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Workshops with stakeholders in both study sites |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | During October 19th- 21st, 2020 (month 23 of the project), led by the WP6, the second workshop of the project with local stakeholders in Nakhon SI Thammarat and Krabi Provinces were held with main purposes to disseminate and validate project's key findings from WP1-5 with the stakeholder including representatives from the provincial governmental organizations, civil society organizations and community-based organizations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshops with stakeholders in both study sites |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | During March 29th - 31st 2021 (month 30 of the project), led by the WP6, the third workshop of the project with local stakeholders in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Krabi Provinces were held with main purposes to disseminate and validate project's key findings from WP1-5 with the stakeholder including representatives from the provincial governmental organizations, civil society organizations and community-based organizations. The workshop at Saladaan Subdistrict, Koh-Lanta, Krabi had to be rescheduled due to an unexpected event related to COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp/world-cafe-events-at-the-projects-two-study-sites-nakhon-si-th... |
| Description | international conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of project research to international researchers: Curoy, J. et al. (2021) From the Landslide to the Mangrove; Coupling Sediment Supply Pulses and River Sediment Deposits in the context of Climate Change in Thailand., EGU (European Geosciences Union) General Assembly Apr 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | international conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of project research at an international conference: Curoy, J. et al. (2021) From the Landslide to the Coast; Thai-coast: an integrated project research looking at the links between Sediment Mobilisation in Upper Catchments to its Redistribution on the Shoreline under the Pressure of Climate Change in Thailand. ECSA 58 - EMECS 13 Estuaries and coastal seas in the Anthropocene, 6-9 September 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | meeting, Thai Embassy London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with Ambassador Pisanu Suvanajata at the Royal Thai Embassy, London, to introduce and update the progress of cooperation projects between Thailand and the UK on climate change issues through research collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp/thai-embassy-august-2022/ |
| Description | skills-enhancement training workshop 'Knowledge on Coastal Resources' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | At the invitation of the Thai Government's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), Associate Professor Dr Kanchana Nakhaphakorn and the Thai project team have delivered a skills-enhancement training workshop 'Knowledge on Coastal Resources'. The topic was Coastal Vulnerability, Resilience and Adaptation in Thailand, presenting key results of the Thai coast project to inform policy and practice in the management of coastal environments for improved resilience of coastal communities. As a result of this, and other meetings during the life of the project, the DMCR staff are applying the Thai Coast Project methodology and Geospatial techniques to their work on assessing coastal vulnerability. The discussions during the meeting highlighted the importance of measuring and monitoring shoreline sediment movement for effective coastal management, identifying this as a focus for future work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/nerc-tcp/dmcr-meeting-july-2022/ |
| Description | training workshop: Geo-information Technology for Coastal Erosion and Vulnerability Assessment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The SE Asia (Thai) PI was invited to be a trainer and present a talk entitled 'Geo-information Technology for Coastal Erosion and Vulnerability Assessment' in the Intensive Workshop with 15 participants, hosted by Thai Government Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in Mid-October 2019. The outcome was to train practitioners in the methods used to assess coastal vulnerability so that these can be applied at a national level. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |