Advanced Training on Geospatial Information Technologies for Decision-Making in Disaster Risk Reduction in Lao PDR
UNOSAT is implementing The project “Strengthening Capacities in the Use of Geospatial Information for Improved Resilience in Asia-Pacific and Africa.” (2021-2024) intends to develop sustainable capacities and implement ad-hoc and tailored geospatial solutions. These can help to improve existing policy and decision-making processes to solve priority issues in the fields of Disaster Risk Reduction. Partnership with the government is crucial to the success of the project. UNOSAT aims to develop innovative capacity development solutions and geospatial services by integrating data, technology, knowledge, and people - custom-tailored to the country's needs. This 3-year long project builds on previous experiences and aims to further enhance capacities by leveraging technological advances and innovation and providing integrated geospatial solutions for improved decision making in the fields of Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Resilience, Environmental Preservation in the eight target countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, Lao PDR, Nigeria, Solomon Islands, Uganda, and Vanuatu.
To reduce the risks, its essential to understand the risk using geospatial technologies, as factors like hazard, exposure, vulnerability are location-bound. Earth Observation (EO) has become one of the most crucial tools for DRM, both for risk reduction and response. EO gives us the ability to collect continuous observation of the earth’s surface, and which shapes our understanding of hazard dynamics, development patterns, monitoring of risk driving factors like climate change, environmental degradation. After disasters, satellite images can help us to estimate impacts and losses for immediate response.
In the previous training, the project team covered emergency response support analysis using satellite imagery, and the use of Earth Observation (EO) for disaster risk management (DRM). As a follow-up UNOSAT is offering a technical course focuses on the decision-making of geospatial information technology for disaster risk reduction to government official of Lao PDR.
During this training, participants will learn to generate flood susceptibility maps and utilize various DRR Web Applications developed by UNOSAT under the project.
Upon completion of the training program, participants will be able to:
- Develop flood susceptibility zonation using Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) technique.
- Development inundation risk visualisation.
- Use UNOSAT - GeoNode to share data, and develop webmaps.
- Utilise UNOSAT - Decision Support System (DSS) application to support informed decisions for disaster risk reduction.
- Develop strategies for utilising UNOSAT – Flood susceptibility and MCDA application products to enhance decision-making.
This course is designed to provide advanced training in geospatial analysis and hazard risk assessment, with a focus on the use of technologies and tools for disaster risk reduction. Participants will gain hands-on experience with various tools and techniques, enabling them to extract valuable insights from geospatial information technology that can be used for DRR related decision making. The course covers a wide range of topics, including flood susceptibility using Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) method, calculate flood risk assessment, and create a visualisation webmap using Geonode. Additionally, participants will explore UNOSAT's developed applications, including a decision support system (DSS) and flood susceptibility application, for supporting informed decision-making for disaster risk reduction.
This is a 5-day full-time face-to-face technical training divided into 5 modules. This face-to-face course will consist of lectures and GIS lab exercises using GIS datasets and real case scenarios, whereas 70% of the training content will focus on lab exercises while 30% will be lectures and discussions.
The course is designed to accommodate selected participants by Department of Social Welfare and other relevant stakeholders preferably selected from the participants of the Introductory Course on Strengthening Capacities in the Use of Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) for Disaster Risk Management.
The course will be delivered in Laotian & Thai. Training materials will be made available both in English.
GIS lab exercises will be based on Open Source QGIS software.