After the UR Field Lab: DASL visits the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok)

The UR Field Lab 2019, which took place in June 2019, was a unique platform and event that brought together people of different expertise to share and co-develop projects on the theme of urban flooding. This collaborative experience widened DASL’s network tremendously, and we have since maintained contact with many of the participants, including those from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Geoinformatics Centre (GIC).

On 7th and 8th November, Prof. David Lallemant and I — together with Dr. Giuseppe Molinario (from World Bank and also participant in the UR Field Lab) — visited the Geoinformatics Centre (GIC), AIT in Bangkok. The GIC houses many experts in geoinformatics, remote sensing, and geographical information systems (GIS), and have done extensive work on disaster risk management. There, we learnt about the multitude of projects that the GIC are involved in. We were especially interested in the crowd-sourcing platform that they had built for exposure data collection, their experience in using 360° cameras and drones for field data collection, and how they use different spatial products in their research.

The members of the GIC were open and generous in sharing their knowledge with us. This short visit opens doors to possible future collaborations with the GIC, and we look forward to learning more from them.