In early March, a workshop titled “Enhancing youth community engagement and resilience capacity to climate change in the Lower Mekong Region” was held at the National University of Laos (NUOL) in Vientiane. In a training session led by Prof. Fritz Kleinschroth, 20 participants from Laos and Vietnam learned how modern digital tools such as remote sensing and GIS can be used for inclusive landscape planning. Through comparative analysis of satellite imagery and various types of drone imagery, students and early-career researchers were equipped to interpret environmental changes in the Mekong Basin within a landscape context.
A talk and a hands-on session illustrated how the use of different kinds of geospatial data can promote social equity by making processes such as urbanization, deforestation, and land-use change visible to local communities. Participants acquired new skills to translate spatial relationships into strategies and approaches for spatial planning. In doing so, the training contributes to regional cooperation and to developing the next generation of researchers in the Mekong Region.
