Operational Water Management Developments in Southeast Asia

Hydrometeorological hazards such as floods and droughts are omnipresent in  Southeast Asian countries and are likely to increase with climate change. To cope with these hazards there is a growing need for real time water information enabling timely decisions in water management. Indeed, most countries are currently developing early warning systems as part of their disaster risk reduction management policies. These systems  require up to date and high-resolution data to feed hydrodynamic models, preferably in an automated workflow to generate reliable forecasts. Surface observation data, satellite and radar images combined with numerical weather prediction model results need to be processed, analyzed and archived in such a way that they can be used by rainfall run-off and hydraulic models that can generate predicted water flows and levels. There have been commendable achievements and investments in each of these components over the past decade. Nevertheless, there remains a genuine challenge to combine and integrated these into a reliable operational forecasting and warning system. Data transmissions are vulnerable, databases and models are often fragmented and require different formats, hampering interoperability. Hence, latest developments are (or should be) focusing on system integration from a holistic perspective, acknowledging that technical solutions can only be effective if sufficient attention is given to capacity building and institutional embedding.  

This session seeks to present examples of real-time operational water management systems, for instance flood and drought early warning, salinity monitoring and forecasting, reservoir operation and optimization, in order to learn from these experiences.  The focus of these presentations during the session would be on the interface between technology and stakeholders in the widest sense, including forecasters and IT specialists as well as end-users such as decision makers and the wider public.  

Hydroclimatic hazards, Operational water management, Forecasting, Early warning

• Sisomphon, Piyamarn; Thanathanphon, Watin; Luangdilok, Narongrit; Chettanawanit, Kachapond: Storm surge forecasting system in The Gulf of Thailand during Pabuk Tropical Storm 2019
• Nguyen, Da D.; Luong, Thang M.; Dinh, Trang P.; Nguyen, Trung Q.; Nguyen, Kien T.: eAtlas: towards a Vietnam resilient to climate change

• Panondi, Warda; Izumi, Norihiro: Assessment on the sediment yield and annual runoff of the Pulangi Dam Reservoir Watershed Basin and impact of Climate Change using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model for Reservoir Sustainability