The national government of Thailand and Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) operationalized a new early warning and hazard monitoring system called ThaiAWARE. The system aims to provide advanced decision support capabilities to the country’s disaster managers and help protect the country’s 70 million residents and millions of visitors who throng to Thailand as a vacation destination every year.
Harlan Hale, the regional advisor of U. S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance said that the early warning is an important function and is something that has been proven to save lives and reduce the loss from disasters. Unfortunately, from the impacts of climate change, especially in the Southeast Asia region, people and governments can expect more disastrous events and perhaps more severe disaster events. USAID has provided the critical funding support for the ThaiAWARE project throughout the recent years.
The ThaiAWARE supplies decision makers with real-time and dynamic information, from both international and national sources and also offers the world’s most advanced multi-hazard exposure modelling capabilities on a single platform. This comprehensive system meant for Thailand’s disaster managers, enables them to jump into action very quickly, which means a much faster response to the events. A faster response means a better response with contained negative impacts and aiding in a speedier recovery.
Boontham Lertsukekasem, the Director General of Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) said that he believes that the ThaiAWARE system is set to become an important tool in making Thailand resilient. He further expressed his appreciation for the USAID-funded project and underlined its importance in enhancing the early warning mechanism for Thailand. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to USAID and Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) for your support, he further said thanking the U. S. Agency for International Development.
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) and Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) —a University of Hawaii managed Applied Science and Technology Center—celebrated the launch of the new ThaiAWARE system during a virtual ceremony held on 15th of December 2021, thus marking the completion of the project. Various government and non-governmental stakeholders attended the event, including the representatives from DDPM, the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), the USAID and many more.
It was during the aftermath of the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake of magnitude 9.1 and the tsunami of 2004 (also known as the Boxing Day Tsunami) that the government of Thailand for the first time partnered with PDC. PDC Deputy Executive Director Chris Chiesa said that PDC was present and supporting during the formation of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) and they (PDC) helped implement the country’s first early warning system in partnership with the DDPM in 2006.
The initial system, which has now been re-branded as ThaiAWARE, was PDC’s first fully customized and remote deployment of DisasterAWARE in Asia, and the second worldwide. Chiesa further added that the system they just launched with the government of Thailand, includes the new and enhanced early warning and multi-hazard monitoring technologies that they offer in DisasterAWARE, as well as the critical predictive hazard impact analysis tools and hundreds of other new national data layers to completely support the effective preparedness and response to any calamity.
Chiesa went on to explain that this is yet another important milestone in a longstanding partnership of more than 15 years, and he anticipates exciting new developments in the years ahead. He shared details of a U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) funded program, that is pending for now, that will leverage the ThaiAWARE system for alerting the public beforehand.
Chiesa said that the planned project will allow mass notification and that the project is planned for early 2022. The project on completion will allow the residents and visitors of Thailand to receive disaster-related notifications for tsunamis, floods, wildfires, COVID outbreaks. Chiesa said that they are extremely hopeful that they will get the project started very soon.
