GIScience for Civil Protection Management in Southeast Asia (co-funded by ASEA Uninet, Austria for 2015)

INTRODUCTION

Occurrence of several natural incidents like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions etc. are observed in Southeast Asian countries frequently which cause a number of immediate as well as long term effects on the society and environment at large. The 10 Southeast Asian Countries are joining forces to form the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 which not only brings shared opportunities but also the shared responsibilities. Among others, areas of cooperation include human resources development & capacity building as well as recognition of professional qualifications. This lays a significant emphasis on channelizing ‘Science and Technology for Sustainable Development’. An important step in this directions starts form the protection of the civil society from various natural hazards and design an effective and viable civil protection management strategy for the members of AEC.

The defined specific goals cut cross several academic and applied disciplines and these require multi-disciplinary competences for understanding and analysing the interplay of these factors. The jumble of social, economic, environmental and developmental issues various societies face today certainly require integration and analysis of several types of data and applications of new technologies and methodologies help making the analytical processes efficient and effective.

OBJECTIVE

• develop in-depth understanding of spatial patterns of various natural, social and economic phenomena
• introduce a variety of sophisticate methods and efficient GIS-technologies to analyse various processes
• give 'hands-on' practical training using GIS-software for capturing, processing and analysing various types of spatial information for re-presenting the present, re-constructing the past and projecting the future trends.

ACTIVITIES

• Organise a short intensive ‘Faculty Development Workshops’ at the host institution in Vietnnam and invite participants from several ASEA Uninet member Universities in Southeast Asia.

The reason for organising a short intensive multi-partner ‘Faculty Development Workshop’ is to network with several institutions (to share the ’know-how’ and generate higher multiplier effect within a short period (1 week) and initiate an academic network for future scientific cooperation among several institutions of higher education.

PARTNERS

Organiser Institutions

AUSTRIA:  - Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS,  University of Salzburg, Salzburg  - ASEA Uninet, Austria   VIETNAM:  - University of Transport and Communications, Hanoi

Participant Institutions

INDONESIA:  - Diponegoro University, Semarang  - University of Indonesia, Depok MALAYSIA:  - University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur  - University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor PHILIPPINES:  - University of the Philippines, Diliman   THAILAND:  - Chiang Mai University, Chaing Mai  - Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok  - Prince of Songkla University, Phuket VIETNAM:  - Hanoi University, Hanoi  - University of Transport and Communications, Hanoi

OUTCOMES (see the blog here)

• An intensive Faculty Development Workshop was organised at the Faculty of Civil Enginnering, University of Transport and Communications, Hanoi, Vietnam from 5th to 9th October, 2015.
• 31 teachers and postgraduate students participated in the workshop and completed individual Geospatial practical projects exploring the applications of GIScience for Civil Protection Management in Southeast Asia. All the participants presented the outcomes of their individual projects in the concluding seminar.
  

Contact: Dr. Shahnawaz, Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Austria.