MOBILE APPLICATION FOR OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE MONITORING OF IRRIGATION AND WATER ALLOCATION STRUCTURES AT CHAO PHRAYA RIVER BASIN, THAILAND

摘要

Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department delegates maintenance of its irrigation and water allocation structures to seventeen Regional Irrigation Offices (RIO). Each RIO must assign a portion of its limited budget for structure maintenance, but lacks operations and maintenance data to base that decision on. We are presenting a participatory approach for operations and maintenance monitoring of Thai irrigation and water allocation structures. The Water Management System is composed of a mobile application and a web portal. The android-based application features an intuitive interface in which users enter descriptions of the incidents they encounter; descriptions are typed into the application, while image, video, and audio media can be uploaded for supplemental depiction. Additionally, the application employs smart phone internal GNSS devices to record location information. Irrigation officers then access a web portal to assess incident reports through an operational management interface. Each incident is visualized on a map of the regional district with an assigned severity level to improve RIO response coordination. A live chat component facilitates direct communication between irrigation officers and users for further engagement. The Water Monitoring System is initially being instituted in central Thailand's RIO 12. located in the Chao Phraya River Basin. RIO 12 spans five provinces including Chainat, Uthai Thani, Suphanburi, Ang Tong, and Singhburi. There are currently seventeen ongoing irrigation projects in RIO 12, underlining the need for such a monitoring system. Utilizing a participatory approach to operations and maintenance monitoring will allow RIOs to accurately apportion budget for maintenance, have structures in good operating condition for potential flood events, and increase coordination for response time efficiency.