Cooperation on water security
Water security means sustainable access to adequate, good-quality water, protection against water-related pollution and disasters, and healthy ecosystems. Chiang Mai University (CMU) works with local, regional, national and international government partners on flood-risk mapping, planning, remote sensing and water-quality monitoring.
1. Workshop on the “Water Security: No Floods, No Droughts in 10 Provinces” plan (17 December 2025)
CMU took part in regional cooperation at the third workshop of the “Water Security: No Floods, No Droughts” plan, which covers 10 provinces from Chiang Mai to Songkhla. The Agricultural Research Development Agency (ARDA) organized it. CMU Vice President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vinita Bunyodom welcomed participants, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) spoke in support, and the Chiang Mai Provincial Office opened the event for the Governor. The plan targets 100 sub-districts and aims to cut by at least 120,000 the households hit by floods and droughts.
2. Chiang Mai Flood Hazard Map (CMFlood)
CMU’s Water Resources Academic Support Center produced the Chiang Mai Flood Hazard Map (CMFlood) with government partners and publishes it openly on a public website. This is local cooperation with Chiang Mai Province that reaches regional scale, as one map covers the urban areas of two provinces, Chiang Mai and Lamphun. The site shows the logos of ONWR, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Royal Irrigation Department and Chiang Mai Province.
The map links flood risk to Ping River gauge P.1 in five scenarios (4.30–5.30 m), with flood-depth, shelter and parking maps, warning poles and about 5,000 flood marks from the October 2024 flood. It supports early warning, evacuation planning and protection against water-related disasters.
3. High-precision UAV mapping for water management (2 March 2026)
National cooperation came through the Thailand Clean Air & Water Security Forum 2026 (Chiang Mai–Lamphun), organized by NRCT. There, CMU’s College of Arts, Media and Technology (CAMT) presented UAV and high-precision GPS mapping with an error of no more than 10 cm, under the 2025 action plan strategy “Water Security: No Floods, No Droughts,” to support water management in Chiang Mai.
4. CMU RiverWatch: monitoring heavy metals in the Kok River basin (20 August 2026)
RiverWatch involves government at every level. CMU launched it under Science • Community • Policy at the Tha Ton Subdistrict Administrative Organization, Mae Ai, with the Rector and the Deputy Governor of Chiang Mai opening. The Chair of the national research policy board (KSW), or a representative, gave a keynote on water security, and the panel included the Office of Environment and Pollution Control Region 1 and the Office of Disease Prevention and Control Region 1. As the Kok River crosses the Thai–Myanmar border, the work also concerns an international border area.
5. Workshop on remote sensing and water data for the Lower Mekong (August 2024)
At the international level, CMU hosted a week-long workshop on remote sensing and water data management under the Ambassador’s Water Expert Program, with Mae Fah Luang University and Chulalongkorn University, reported in the Mekong–U.S. Partnership newsletter. The U.S. Department of State funded it, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI-ITAP) supported the experts. CMU opened its space and took part in driving it, and CMU faculty and graduate students learned to integrate data for the Lower Mekong River Basin.
6. Improving three weirs in Chiang Mai under an MOU (June 2025)
This is local cooperation with provincial government. CMU signed an MOU with the Chiang Mai Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office, the Chiang Mai Irrigation Project and three weir water-user groups, announced by the Deputy Governor of Chiang Mai, to improve three weirs, reduce flood risk for over 100,000 households, supply water in low-water periods and protect the aquatic ecosystem.
7. Integrated water planning for Chiang Rai (May 2025)
On 23 May 2025, CMU’s Institute of Multidisciplinary Research (MDRI), through its Chiang Rai provincial water plan project, met the National Water Resources Office Region 1 in Lampang to select operating areas in Chiang Rai using Thai Water Plan data and to build integrated cooperation under “Water Security: No Floods, No Droughts,” linking water user organizations and local administrative organizations with national government.
These activities show CMU cooperating with government at every level: national (ONWR, NRCT, ARDA), provincial and local (Chiang Mai Province, Tha Ton Subdistrict Administrative Organization), and international (the U.S. Department of State and Department of the Interior), to strengthen water security: protection from floods and droughts, and safe water quality.
References
CMU Corporate Communications and Alumni Relations Center, “Workshop No. 3, Water Security: No Floods, No Droughts in 10 Provinces,” 17 December 2025.
CMU Water Resources Academic Support Center, “Chiang Mai Flood Hazard Map (CMFlood).”
CAMT, CMU, “CAMT research team presents high-precision UAV mapping for flood management,” 2 March 2026.
CMU Corporate Communications and Alumni Relations Center, “CMU RiverWatch,” 25 August 2026.
Mekong–U.S. Partnership, “Ambassador Water Expert Program Brings Earth-Observation Experts to Thailand,” MUSP Newsletter, Summer 2024 (September 2024).
Radio Thailand Chiang Mai (Public Relations Department), “Chiang Mai moves ahead with improving 3 weirs under an MOU after all parties agreed,” 30 June 2025.
CMU, “MDRI holds a meeting on integrated provincial water management plans for Chiang Rai, linking water user organizations and local governments with the National Water Resources Office Region 1,” 26 May 2025.