The e-ASIA Joint Research Program Workshop on “Intelligent Infrastructure for Water” co-organized by Directorate of Water Resources (DWR) and Institute of Water Resources Planning (IWRP) of Vietnam, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and e-ASIA JRP Secretariat was held at the IWRP on February 21st and 22nd, 2019.  

The workshop advised by Dr. Haruo Takeda (Hitachi, Ltd., Japan) and Prof. Nguyen Van Tinh (Directorate of Water Resources, MARD, Vietnam) aimed to 1) Discuss hot topics of “Intelligent Infrastructure for Water” among eminent researchers’ community in eASIA JRP, leading to sustainable future development in Asian countries, 2). Explore potential future collaboration opportunities to prepare for the next e-ASIA JRP call on "Advanced Interdisciplinary Research towards Innovation" in 2019-20, and 3) Establish tight researchers’ network among participants for better international collaboration, especially by inviting and encouraging young researchers.

The Workshop Theme was Smart and Intelligent Infrastructure for Water with the focus topics on:

       - Water Infrastructure for Climate Change Adaptation (Water resource management, Disaster management, etc.)

      - Water Infrastructure for Water Quality and Environment (Natural rivers, Water supply, Sanitation, etc.)

      - Water Infrastructure for Management and Operation (Irrigation, Saving water, Hydraulic system, etc.)

60 participants including 18 invited speakers (Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) attended the workshop and actively had technical sessions on Smart and Intelligent Water Infrastructure for:

      - Climate Change Adaptation (6 invited talks),

      - Water Quality and Environment (6 invited talks),

      - Management and Operation (6 invited talks)

They were then divided into 3 groups for the group discussion on potential future collaboration under the e-ASIA JRP. They also discussed and adopted workshop observations and recommendations, and identified potential research areas and topics for future collaboration, preparing for the next call for proposals.

After discussion, the common research interest in the Area (example) were recognized as follows:

      - Climate change adaptation including the adaptation to socioeconomic changes

      - Use of massive data and numerical models,

      - Sensing devices and energy-saving for wastewater treatment,

      - Rapid detection of water quality,

      - Adaptive water management based on monitoring,

      - Improving agricultural productivity (land and labor),

      - Groundwater management,

      - Water saving for adapting to drought,

      - Flood risk mitigation,

      - and many more !

The participants also suggested possible collaboration projects in the fields of:

      1. Intelligent infrastructure toward better water management under climate change and socio-economic change with the fusion of various sensor data, GIS, and models of hydrology,

      2. Intelligent water infrastructure for mega cities (disaster mitigation) and/or mega irrigation areas,   

      3. Decentralized wastewater treatment technology supported by challenging sensing devices. (real time monitoring), 

      4. Smart paddy management for rational water distribution, water saving, labor saving, and/or mitigating flood damage,

      5. Adaptive management of water distribution for mitigating impacts of water shortage, water logging, and/or salt water intrusion.

It is expected that within the framework of e-ASIA JRP Collaboration in Smart/Intelligent Water Infrastructure Technology, we can achieve:

      - Better water infrastructure for heavily populated mega cities in warm-humid climate, in Asian geology,

      - Better international water management for peace,

      - Synergistic, supplemental and leveraged effects by multilateral cooperation through joint funding,

      - Genuine partnerships for mutual contribution,

      - Promotion of Asia-specific technologies by understanding the similarities and differences of different participating countries,

      - “Smart means smiles.”

Some pictures of the workshop activities

See https://www.the-easia.org/jrp/workshop_012.html for more details