Strengthening Thailand's Agricultural drought Resilience

干旱影响着世界各地的生活和生计，特别是在那些对极端事件抵御能力有限的地区。在东南亚（SEA），来自气候和土地利用变化、人口增长和发展的压力影响着水资源，甚至在被认为是该地区较富裕国家之一的泰国也是如此。泰国最近发生的一些干旱事件影响了粮食供应、能源生产和更广泛的经济，凸显了该国的脆弱性。农业部门尤其受到水资源短缺的影响，更好地了解泰国的干旱情况将有助于采取缓解行动，提高抗灾能力和生计。干旱监测可以改善备灾和管理，虽然通过现有业务服务提供的干旱信息为水资源管理人员提供了有用的工具，但人们对这些指数与影响之间的关系了解有限。由于缺乏一致的水文气象数据集和从农业利益攸关方收集的影响数据，对干旱指标与影响之间联系的认识受到限制。更好地了解这种指标与影响之间的联系将加强对干旱的管理和交流，提高抗灾能力，减少脆弱性。STAR项目将通过以下目标来满足这些研究需求：1)让利益相关者参与干旱监测实践的通报和共同设计，确保项目期间和项目后的合作；2)根据利益相关者的需求为泰国制定新的干旱监测和特征指标；3)提高对干旱对农业影响的认识，并评估流域的适应能力；4)通过更好地沟通干旱风险和相关影响，提高抗旱能力。STAR的目标是提高整个泰国的抗旱能力，尽管一些活动将在以流域为基础的背景下进行。平流域是具有重要战略意义的湄南河的主要支流，湄南河因其在农业领域的重要性和对干旱的脆弱性而被确定。这些方法可能在泰国和东南亚地区更广泛地推广。该项目分为四个工作包（WPs），每个工作包都包含利益相关者的参与：WP1将确定主要负责干旱管理和沟通的人。PingSTAR网络是坪流域内不同利益相关者的合作，将在项目期间和之后启动并运行。WP2将评估泰国的干旱危害，利用并共同开发一系列水文气象指标数据集，用于干旱识别和表征，这是STAR的主要遗产，将根据影响途径进行传播。WP3将在平流域开展工作，以更好地了解和量化干旱对农业和社会经济的影响。通过结合社会网络分析、整理现有资源和实地与农民进行访谈，将建立和分析丰富的影响记录。最后，WP4将在国家和流域尺度之间架起桥梁，在评估这种方法在泰国和东南亚更广泛的可扩展性之前，通过对平流域的案例研究建立干旱指标与影响之间的关系。将开发可视化工具，使利益攸关方能够更好地了解干旱指标与影响之间的联系，与国家和区域利益攸关方举行的能力建设和知识分享讲习班将巩固STAR项目的研究成果，并考虑如何更广泛地应用已开发的方法，以增强抗旱能力。

Droughts impact lives and livelihoods around the world, particularly in those regions with limited resilience to extreme events. In South-East Asia (SEA), pressures from climate and land use change, increasing populations and development impact water resources, even in Thailand which is considered to be one of the wealthier countries in the region. A number of recent drought events in Thailand have impacted food supplies, energy production and the wider economy, underlining the vulnerability of the country. The agricultural sector is particularly affected by water shortages and a better understanding of drought in Thailand would underpin mitigation actions that improve resilience and livelihoods.Drought monitoring can improve preparedness and management, and whilst drought information provided through existing operational services provides a useful tool for water managers, there is limited understanding of how these indices relate to impacts. This appreciation of the links between drought indicators and impacts is limited by the availability of both consistent hydrometeorological datasets and impacts data collected from agricultural stakeholders. An improved understanding of this indicator-impact link would enhance the management and communication of drought, increase resilience and reduce vulnerability.The STAR project will address these research needs through the following objectives: 1) engage stakeholders in informing and co-designing drought monitoring practices, ensuring collaboration during and post project; 2) develop new drought monitoring and characterisation indicators for Thailand based on stakeholders' needs; 3) improve understanding of drought impacts on agriculture and assess adaptive capacity in a case study catchment; 4) increase drought resilience and capacity through better communication of drought risks and associated impacts.STAR aims to enhance resilience to drought for all of Thailand although some activities will take place within a catchment-based context. The Ping catchment is a major tributary of the strategically important Chao Phraya river, identified for its importance within the agricultural sector and vulnerability to drought. Approaches are likely to be scalable within Thailand and the SEA region more generally. The project is structured in four Work packages (WPs), with stakeholder engagement embedded in each of them: WP1 will identify those principally responsible for drought management and communication. The PingSTAR Network, a collaboration of diverse stakeholders within the Ping catchment, will be initiated and run through the duration of the project and beyond. WP2 will assess the drought hazard in Thailand, utilising and co-developing a range of hydrometeorological indicator datasets for drought identification and characterisation, a major legacy of STAR that will be disseminated as per the Pwthways to Impact. WP3 will work within the Ping catchment to better understand and quantify the agricultural and socioeconomic impacts of drought. Through a combination of social network analysis, collating existing sources and undertaking interviews in the field with farmers, a rich record of impacts will be databased and analysed. Finally, WP4 will bridge the national and catchment scales, establishing the relationship between drought indicators and impacts through a case study in the Ping catchment before assessing the scalability of such approaches more widely in Thailand and South-East Asia. Visualisation tools will be developed to allow stakeholders to better understand the link between drought indicators and impacts, and a capacity-building, knowledge-sharing workshop with national and regional stakeholders will consolidate the research outcomes of the STAR project and consider how the developed approaches could be applied more widely for enhanced drought resilience.