Irrigation engineers often struggle with presenting complex water data in spreadsheets. A recent workshop held on June 5-6, 2024, at Hansanan Hotel in Phitsanulok Province, offered a solution, introducing a free and user-friendly tool that can revolutionise water management planning.

This two-day training was part of a series of advanced technical on-the-job training sessions designed for water professionals, specifically irrigation engineers. More than 20 participants from the Royal Irrigation Department (RID), the Department of Water Resources (DWR), and water user representatives attended the sessions. The training was funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and implemented under the project “Enhancing Climate Resilience in Thailand through Effective Water Management and Sustainable Agriculture (E-WMSA)” by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the RID, in collaboration with GIZ and with technical support from Chulalongkorn University. The aim was to equip participants with the skills to integrate Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessments (CRVA) as part of the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approach.

After learning key concepts of CRVA components, including climate change, hazards, exposure, and vulnerability, participants were introduced to Looker Studio, a free tool from Google. Looker Studio allows irrigation engineers to analyse various CRVA components and present them as CRVA maps and average risk levels ranging from low to high on a scale of 0-1. This helps in identifying areas needing additional resources or urgent attention, as well as selecting appropriate spatial adaptation measures. These trained participants will then become mentors to their colleagues in future CRVA application workshops, helping them apply CRVA processes and data visualisation in climate-sensitive river basin planning, potentially disseminating the knowledge further to other river basins.

Teeraphong Boonsub, Head of Irrigation System Design at RID Regional Office 3, said: “In my work, I often use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and there are always issues with presentations, especially for urgent tasks. GIS tools often have limitations, making data visualisation and analysis inflexible. Looker Studio combines three features of PowerPoint, GIS, and Excel, offering a flexible solution. I found this programme very efficient for creating presentations quickly and plan to share it with my colleagues in the irrigation engineering team.”

This workshop’s impact extends beyond introducing a new tool for CRVA analysis; it’s also a shift in how water professionals approach data. Looker Studio enables data-driven decision-making through visualisation. The training emphasised the importance of integrating data from various agencies, while the tool fosters effective communication, supporting informed decision-making based on comprehensive data for climate-sensitive river basin planning.

Additionally, the training provided access to satellite imagery of small groundwater sources from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA). Participants discussed key criteria for developing EbA measures, using groundwater satellite data to explore restoration possibilities within the Lower Yom-Nan River basin, covering Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, and Uttaradit provinces. Combining scientific data with local community input throughout the planning and decision-making processes is expected to enhance climate resilience at the river basin level.