Science and technology will be a leverage for guiding development in the Lower Mekong towards disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation. ADPC and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Development Mission for Asia signed a grant agreement to develop a hub for generating evidence-based, user-tailored tools for supporting decision makers in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The hub is called SERVIR Mekong, and is part of the global SERVIR network supported by USAID and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ADPC is the recipient of a five-year grant to develop a service for developing information and tools for feeding into government development plans, decisions for climate change adaptation and landscape management. The service covers the themes of disaster, weather, climate change, agriculture, water, health, biodiversity, ecosystems, and energy.

Officials from USAID headquarters and Bangkok regional office, scientists from NASA, and other collaborating institutions converged at the USAID and ADPC offices from October 31 to 6 November 2014 for a series of meetings to discuss how to build off the strengths of the collaborating institutions in the hub.

Technical partners include Spatial Informatics Group, USA (SIG); Stockholm Environmental Institute, Thailand (SEI); and Deltares, Netherlands (Deltares). In addition, ADPC can draw upon the expertise of the USAID Bangkok regional office and the NASA Applied Sciences team.



Shane Wright, Executive Director of ADPC; Jenny Frankel-Reed, Senior Climate Change Specialist at the US Agency for International Development (USAID); Teresa Leonardo, Senior Regional Science & Technology Advisor of the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia; Daniel Irwin, SERVIR Director at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Dr. Bhichit Rattakul, Special Advisor of ADPC at the launch of the SERVIR Mekong project at ADPC.