Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, with far-reaching impacts on natural and human systems worldwide. The Southeast Asian region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its unique geography and high population density. In addition, land use change in the region is occurring rapidly, exacerbating the effects of climate change on ecosystems, agriculture, and human health.

To address these challenges, the proposed workshop aims to bring together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders to share knowledge and discuss the latest research findings related to climate change and land use change impact assessment in Southeast Asia. Leveraging on the knowledge and expertise gained from the CCRASEAL and other on-going research projects, the workshop will focus on the following themes:

1. Climate change and land use change impacts on freshwater resources: The workshop will discuss the latest research findings on the impact of climate change and land use change on freshwater resources in the region. This includes changes in water availability and water quality.
2. Assessment methods and tools: The workshop will also discuss the latest methods and tools for assessing the impact of climate change and land use change on freshwater resources. This includes Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial technologies, hydrological modeling, and other assessment tools.
3. Policy and management implications: The workshop will discuss the policy and management implications of the research findings. This includes the identification of strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as the development of policies and management practices that can help reduce the impact of land use change on freshwater resources.

Through these discussions, the workshop aims to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge-sharing among concerned stakeholders. Ultimately, the goal is to develop strategies and approaches that can help Southeast Asia mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and land use change, and build resilience to these challenges.

Monitoring and assessment of physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water are crucial to support decision-making on health and environmental issues. Monitoring water quality and quantity should therefore receive adequate attention particularly in developing and transitioning countries where existing water monitoring networks and expertise on water resources assessment and management are all lacking.

Over recent years, Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial technologies have consolidated their capability and confidence of assessing water variables through radiometric measurements of water’s optical properties. Furthermore, they showed to be essential tools to assess the ecological state of inland and coastal waters and to identify changes or trends over a continuous and broad range of spatial and temporal scales. However, even though important parameters (i.e. surface areas and levels, suspended sediments, dissolved organic matter, phytoplankton pigments and biomass, submerged aquatic vegetation, temperature etc.) have been quantified with adequate accuracies, water -related information retrieved through EO and geo-technologies is still complementary to traditionally retrieved information.

Relevant advances have been recently made in algorithms improvements, processing applications, sensor technology and satellite-derived products development and accessibility. This has certainly increased the potential applications of earth observation methods to water resources management.

However, to date, government and management agencies have been slow to adopt satellite-derived measurements because of lack of processing skills, expertise as well as of standard information retrieval protocols.

For this reason, there is still need discussions among scientists, stakeholders, policy makers and environmental managers on the effectiveness of integration of advanced EO and traditional technologies into national and international near-coastal and inland water quality monitoring efforts.

The aims of the workshop are

• To assess current earth observation advances technologies, methods and data integration for coastal and inland water quality/quantity monitoring and evaluation at regional and local level with a specific focus on SEA case studies.
• To identify best practices for the SEA region, new, improved and integrated data streams, products and strengthen communications between water quality managers and the research community.