Questions/Answers
Question 1
Please briefly describe the initiative, what issue or challenge it aims to address and specify its objectives. (300 words maximum)
Pollutions and other effects caused by wildfire and haze in the dry season (January to May in the northern region and July to September in the southern region of Thailand) affect the environment, economics, and local people periodically. Not only the health of people who lived nearby, but also their living, social and economic-related aspects are affected. It was found that a number of people suffering from respiratory tract disease were increasing; more flights were delayed or cancelled; and more tourists cancelled their trips to those affected regions. Those are just a few examples of the effects induced by wildfire and haze. Therefore, many stakeholders from central, provincial, and local governments to people in communities put their efforts to tackle those problems. However, due to the lack of reliable data and information, a platform that everyone can use to communicate and operate together, as well as to unite a chain of command, did not exist. These issues caused a massive challenge that cannot be ignored. Therefore, evidence-based tools that can be scientifically proved, understood at all levels, and accessible by any stakeholders, so-called geospatial information, has been introduced. Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) has applied geospatial technology integrated with local wisdom. Hotspots derived from satellite data, projection of wildfire and haze occurrence, and situation reports via website, mobile applications and a system are developed. The initiative has been utilized not only for providing information and intelligence for wildfire and haze control and management, but also an effective two-way communication tool which leads to shape mechanism for working in harmonized collaboration with stakeholders. The mechanism encouraged people in local community to participate to solve this issue and established long- term sustainability to relieve the effects from wildfire and haze in those areas.
Question 2
Please explain how the initiative is linked to the selected category. (100 words maximum)
Battling against Wildfire with Geospatial Technology is proposed for Category 4: Promoting digital transformation in the public sector. The initiative was developed to reduce effects caused by wildfire and haze which is one of the most important issues for Thailand in the dry season and also as tools for the situation management. The initiative has delivered geospatial information which is applied to serve government agencies and public digitally via website and mobile applications. The system was designed with usability, availability, and accessibility. Furthermore, this initiative also encourages cooperation between stakeholders and all parties to work efficiently and concurrently.
Question 3
a. Please specify which SDGs and target(s) the initiative supports and describe concretely how the initiative has contributed to their implementation. (200 words maximum)
Battling against Wildfire with Geospatial Technology is categorized to be nominated in conformance with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. The ultimate goal of this initiative is that the people in risk areas to wildfire and haze in the upper northern region in 9 provinces namely, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Nan, Phayao, Mae Hong Son, and Tak, would have better air quality and environment for better living. Hence, this initiative responds to Goal 11 indicators which is stated in No.11.6 “By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management”. Moreover, 2 project indicators confirming the alignment with the 2030 Agenda are as follows:
1. The number of days that the values of PM10 and PM2.5 exceed the standards will have been reduced by 20% each year.
2. The number of hotspots will have been declined 10% each year.
b. Please describe what makes the initiative sustainable in social, economic and environmental terms. (100 words maximum)
Drawing involvement and participation with government agencies and public sectors is a key mechanism to drive the initiative in social, economic, and environmental aspects. The initiative implemented and pushed strategic command from top management into action at local operations with participation from all related parties. In addition, the system, initially developed by GISTDA, is continuously improved based on user recommendations. This two-way communication encourages users with updated data and makes it accessible, more accurate, and loss mitigation. These reflected sustainable usage in terms of public sharing.
Question 4
a. Please explain how the initiative has addressed a significant shortfall in governance, public administration or public service within the context of a given country or region. (200 words maximum)
Committees and Provincial Single Command Centers were established and operated under the provision of the government to control and reduce the spread of particulate matter to not exceed standard values. All sectors were inclusively integrated into the operations. Geospatial information technology was introduced. Data, information, and knowledge from geospatial information technology were suggested in the support of wildfire control and relief planning and management. Instead of performing individually which can cause duplication in data generation and operation and waste resources, all parties were enabled to work together in harmony. The platform for information dissemination and management were employed as a single window for operation and management which improved effectiveness and efficiency for the entire mission. For instance, with wildfire pinpointing provided to firefighter’s units in the areas enable précised and fast accessibility to the point, which resulted in less efforts and resources for scouting and more efficiency in wildfire control and damage reductions.
b. Please describe how your initiative addresses gender inequality in the country context. (100 words maximum)
Implementing the initiative to a relief wildfire crisis needs collaboration and participation from all sectors; especially, local communities. Waiting for the central government command would delay assistance to people in need. Therefore, decentralization and localization with geospatial information and platform would empower the communities to handle the crisis. All genders and ages are engaged in the campaign since the wildfire broke out and affected their own communities. Hence, unity and equity are some of the key success factors which lead to success and sustainability.
c. Please describe who the target group(s) were, and explain how the initiative improved outcomes for these target groups. (200 words maximum)
The initiative was mainly targeted at all sectors in 9 upper northern provinces in Thailand ranged from central management and policy, provincial offices, local administrative authorities, and local communities and people. The system was designed, developed and implemented to serve and support all efforts and measures in planning and managing wildfire and haze issue in clarity and timely manner. All functions in the system reflect users’ need and combination with scientific specification. These functions include wildfire and haze prediction, hotspots processing and analysis, and intelligence reports which embedded with geospatial and non-geospatial data and information. This initiative was expected to help improving quality of 6,540,000 people in targeted area through better governing from governmental units and all stakeholders. Hopefully, this would lead to reduction in loss and damage in environmental components, risks to health, and quality of lives.
Question 5
a. Please describe how the initiative was implemented including key developments and steps, monitoring and evaluation activities, and the chronology. (300 words)
Following “The Wisdom of the Monarch for sustainable development”, understanding, connecting, and developing are employed for the initiative. Understanding the current status of the environment, social and economic, norms and culture, as well as constraint aspects in the targeted areas as inputs to develop resolution has brought acceptance and trust, and participation and collaboration. The initiative has focused on the all-inclusive concept. Therefore, all sectors participated and involved in the process of drawing solution, cooperated and driven from local operation strategy to national policy, and creating international awareness and strategic movements at last.
The initiative comprises of 4 steps as follows:
1. Studying the problem statement and technology from government organizations, traditional operations and procedures were reviewed along with technology and availability of the resources at that moment. The result of this stage was an initial system requirement.
2. Developing and implementing the systems and applications stage. At this stage, a spatial information system which includes remote sensing, and sources of data, analysis functions and reports, was initially developed, implemented and tested publicly.
3. Raising awareness and expansion of the stakeholders. According to step 1 and 2, training and workshop with provincial offices and communities were taken place to gain more users understanding and acceptance. The system subsequently embraces this initiative to their daily, routine operations, then widely accepted at a policy level. Finally, the initiative was widely accepted and utilized.
4. System maintenance and improvement regarding feedback from users and stakeholders for sustainability. This process encourages the system to be more effective and efficient.
To monitor and evaluate the value of the entire value chain, indicators were defined. In this case, reduction of number of days that over standard values of PM10 and PM2.5 and of number of hotspots each year were introduced.
b. Please clearly explain the obstacles encountered and how they were overcome. (100 words)
Due to the fact that this initiative involves many participants, it is undeniable that, at an early stage, major concerns in implementation were human-related issues which were embedded in Thai society context for a long time such as innovation adoption, and participation. Moreover, in terms of technical issues, a lack of sufficient data, outdated data, multiple versions and multiple sources of data, would affect the accuracy of hotspots which are visualized through the web-based and mobile applications. To handle these technical issues, an alternative source of satellite images was introduced and tested, more accurate, and precise would be implemented.
Question 6
a. Please explain in what ways the initiative is innovative in the context of your country or region. (100 words maximum)
Wildfire control and management was innovatively initiated with combination and integration of Geo-information technology, local wisdom, and corporation with all stakeholders. It is the first time that digital and Geo-information technology was fully embraced and played major roles in wildfire and haze crisis management in Thailand. Instead of using paper works and traditional written reports such as analogue and digital maps, online applications, live analysis and dashboards are demonstrated as a single platform for all parties. This allows real-time services for management and operation more understandable, efficient, in a timely manner and accurate for operations at all levels.
b. Please describe, if relevant, how the initiative drew inspiration from successful initiative in other regions, countries and localities. (100 words maximum)
Battling against Wildfire with Geospatial Technology was inspired by NASA initiative. The idea was to expand the method that uses to classify “Hotspot” which identifies where potential wildfire is from satellite images. With satellite imagery utilization, accessibility to hotspots database can be worldwide accessed. This application is one of many projects that applied hotspots to create an area-based innovation and to provide in depth analysis to identify vulnerable areas to wildfire, and further complicated analysis is performed to identify hotspots and route to access to the location of potential and actual wildfire more conveniently and effectively.
Question 7
a. Has the initiative been transferred and/or adapted to other contexts (e.g. other cities, countries or regions) to your organization’s knowledge? If yes, please explain where and how. (200 words maximum)
This wildfire and haze management initiative was transferred and adapted to our neighboring countries and regions through multinational meetings and international trainings and workshops. Geo-information applications and technics for wildfire management, for instance, wildfire risk assessment, semi-automatic burnt scar classification, hotspot analysis was transferred and adopted in many capability building events. Besides, since the initiative was adopted in “Single Command”, the national wildfire and haze management, the portfolio is reported annually in Multinational associate on ASEAN agreement on “Transboundary Haze Pollution” namely;
1. The Ministerial Steering Committee for the Mekong Sub-region (MSC Mekong) including Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam
2. The Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution (MSC) including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand
3. The Meeting of the Committee under the Conference of the Parties to the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
b. If not yet transferred/adapted to other contexts, please describe the potential for transferability. (200 words maximum)
-
Question 8
a. What specific resources (i.e. financial, human or others) were used to implement the initiative? (100 words maximum)
The resources for project implementation were mostly supported by the government budget, including manpower, and others. For GISTDA, itself, approximately 10,000,000 Thai Baht has been spent on the system and data development since 2014. In addition, 1,000,000 Baht was allocated for operational costs which include project related satellite data, personnel, traveling cost and others. For other activities such as public relations, and community engagement were supported by the local authorities which generally were working sites, tools and equipment.
b. Please explain what makes the initiative sustainable over time, in financial and institutional terms. (100 words maximum)
Factors resulting in the sustainability of this initiative are illustrated in 2 aspects: Firstly, since GISTDA is a government organization responsible for promoting the utilization of space and Geo-informatics technology. This could ensure that as long as wildfire and haze exist, GISTDA will maintain the system until the situation resolved. However, providing users with reliable and timely service is one of the objectives, hence, improving and enhancing system capability must be concerned. Another aspect, the cooperation and operation with all levels are the most concern. Raising awareness of the benefits would emphasize the advantage of this ready to use technology.
Question 9
a. Was the initiative formally evaluated either internally or externally?
Yes
b. Please describe how it was evaluated and by whom? (100 words maximum)
The project was evaluated both by internal and external entities. In technical aspect, the data and information provided have been validated for accuracy, and correctness while the whole operation was evaluated for value creation which was conducted by an academic institute.
c. Please describe the indicators and tools used. (100 words maximum)
Regarding the value evaluation, which was conducted by Thammasart University, the study was performed following these steps:
1. The secondary data, related literature, concepts and studies were gathered and reviewed as references and shaped the evaluation process and procedure.
2. Defining a model suitable for project characteristics as well as required data.
3. Additional required data were surveyed, including insight interviews and group meetings and discussions
4. Value-added in the project was calculated.
On technical aspects, ground survey and feedback from users are collected for accuracy, and correctness of the data and information served by the project.
d. What were the main findings of the evaluation (e.g. adequacy of resources mobilized for the initiative, quality of implementation and challenges faced, main outcomes, sustainability of the initiative, impacts) and how this information is being used to inform the initiative’s implementation. (200 words maximum)
According to the Economic Value-added Evaluation Report researched by Thammasat University in 2018, it is found that employing this Geo-information application in the operation helped reducing effects from the issues by 0.05% which is worth 435.65 million Baht (Ref. Executive Summary, 2018). In addition, the number of hotspots and burnt areas also declined consecutively in last 5 years. (Ref. Wildfire annually report, 2018)
Question 10
Please describe how the initiative strives to work in an integrated manner within its institutional landscape – for example, how does the initiative work horizontally and/or vertically across different levels of government? (200 words maximum)
There are numbers of stakeholders involved and contributed in this initiative which range from the policy level to management level, and operational level because the information and data from this Geo-information application are operated and adopted within the National Committee on Fire and Haze Control which assigned as the “Single Command” to unitedly tackle this issue according to their roles and responsibilities. Some of the related units named as followings:
1. The policy level comprises key persons such as assigned Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Director – General of departments under the Ministry of Natural resources and Environments, the Ministry of Interior. The above entities define policies, set direction, monitor and evaluate the whole operation which are integrated and harmonized to relieve this national issue.
2. Monitoring unit generally conducts under Provincial Governors where situation watching, assessing, commanding, and monitoring are performed. Some of the entities at this level are Provincial Governor Offices, Provincial Office for Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Provincial Military Command Unit, Provincial Police.
3. Operational units are in charge of field operations and rapid responses. Most units are in local communities including firefighters, officials, and volunteers from local administrative authorities.
Question 11
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts emphasis on collaboration, engagement, partnerships, and inclusion. Please describe which stakeholders were engaged in designing, implementing and evaluating the initiative and how this engagement took place. (200 words maximum)
This initiative is driven by the 3Cs approach (Cluster, Collaboration, and Co-creation). Clustering data helps reducing duplication of data, processes, and resources for more effective resource management. Collaboration between all parties is a significant driving procedure. The initiative encourages all related participants and agencies to work together through supports from the geospatial information system that can be used as a platform and enabled all parties to work together on the same data, information, and analysis results. Meetings, discussions, and capability building programs could significantly help forming understanding and accepting changes in process and procedure between different parties. Together with those two approaches, the co-creation of the system has taken place. Feedback from all participants before and after activities were considered and adopted for further improvement.
Regarding 3Cs, two-way communication is established through a digital platform which social media, email, group chat application, and websites are consolidated. Messages were provided through those channels; for instance, daily and weekly hotspot report, burnt scars (every 16 days), weekly wildfire risk predictions. These are for the all-inclusive operation to relief all suffering from wildfire and haze crisis.
Question 12
Please describe the key lessons learned, and how your organization plans to improve the initiative. (200 words maximum)
Several key lessons learned from the initiative can be addressed as institutional issues rather than a technical one. To gain acceptance and cooperation from all parties with variety of background need more focusing on raising awareness and understanding. The system must be designed and developed with good care to all stakeholders’ benefits and norms. However, technology, especial geospatial information can take an important role to link those parties and make it easier to work together. Further suggestions may focus on pushing this concept to be accepted and implemented wider to other issues such as natural disaster management and promote to use in regional neighboring countries.