The CDRI Community of Fellows

The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) is a special invent zone situated in the coastal area of Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao provinces of Thailand. The EEC has several major infrastructures and is poised to attract multiple infrastructure development projects. The coastal provinces of Thailand are prone to various hazards that include flood, cyclone, tsunami and coastal erosion. These hazards pose a serious threat to the existing infrastructures including critical infrastructure in the coastal areas mostly along the Chonburi and Rayong provinces of Thailand. A risk management exercise in the EEC area is critical to safeguard the existing infrastructure and the ones being developed in the near future from hazards. This study is a unique step to perform risk assessment of critical infrastructures with a focus on transport, health and education sectors with reference to natural hazards of flood, cyclone and coastal erosion. The methodology employs the identification of key critical infrastructures and indicators of hazard, exposure, sensitivity and capacity. Further, secondary data is gathered from national and global data sources to analyse hazards, exposure, sensitivity and finally risk of critical infrastructures in the EEC. The result shows districts that come under very high-risk level are Si Racha (Chonburi) and Ban Chang (Rayong). Muang Chonburi (Chonburi) and Muang Rayong (Rayong) are high-risk-level areas. Under moderate risk level is Klaeng (Rayong) district, while Ko Sichang (Chonburi) and Sattahip (Chonburi) are considered low risk. It must be remembered that Laem Chabang Port and U-Tapao Airport are located in very high-risk zones. Similarly, Map Taphut Port, situated in Muang Rayong, is also a high risk-level zone. On the basis of this knowledge, priority should be given to Chonburi and Rayong districts while allocating resources. Additionally, for future studies baseline research for the development of database is highly recommended. Accessibility to such database will ensure a more accurate and comprehensive risk assessment in the future.

Landslides in hilly areas of Nepal is a natural process; however these days it is more rampant due to anthropogenic activities. This study attempts to investigate the problem, causes and consequences of frequent landslides in Nepal’s rural areas, where dozer-built motorable roads are being constructed rampantly without sufficient planning and heeding to fundamental rural road requirements. Though infrastructure development is a necessary requirement in rural areas where motorable roads are prioritized, the targeted populace is not reaping the expected advantages. These roads are not only causing landslides and threatening agricultural fields, but are also hurting ecological services. In such a context, building more roads without considering their resilience is exceedingly questionable. Managing landslides in the delicate Chure hill region, where landslides are common, requires a distinct approach. Understanding resilience (in the local context), Chure Hills’ vulnerability and local population’s development priorities are critical at this point. This study investigated all these factors and attempted to provide practical solutions to the country’s pressing problems. One of the adaption methods could be resilient planning by local stakeholders to prevent landslides, in which local indigenous knowledge is combined with current scientific understanding. Furthermore, national, provincial and municipal governments must collaborate on ground-level solutions, which may include suitable policies for landslide management. Another issue that must be thoroughly carried out as stipulated in IEE/EIA and DPR is effective monitoring of ongoing construction operations. Though finance appears to be a primary limitation for managing landslides at the local level, it is also a management issue and as a result the quality of operations suffers.

DRI Connect is a 'network of networks' to enable access to knowledge resources and collaborative opportunities to various stakeholders with their peers and other collaborators. Over time, CDRI will establish knowledge partnerships in each Member Country that will work with the Secretariat to exchange of knowledge and experiences between countries. It is also envisaged that CDRI knowledge partnerships will eventually form their own country-level networks with various stakeholders to enable a 'systemic' change in development of DRI.