A Drought Warning System for Thailand - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 329

Conclusions
D rought of varying intensity occurs in almost all parts of Thailand ev-
er y year due to inadequate rains during November-April. Losses due to
dr ought during 1987-97 have been estimated at $1.44 billion. All the
re gions of Thailand (north, northeast, central, and southern) have been
m apped with drought categories using either the radiative index or drought
in dex by different organizations. Although there are several organizations
in volved in drought-related data collection and some sorts of preliminary
an alysis, there is no integrated system for drought monitoring or early
w arning. At the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,
th e proposed system as explained in this chapter is a prototype early warn-
in g system for agricultural drought monitoring that integrates both ver-
tic ally (all planning levels) and horizontally (all sectors). The monitoring
is carried out in the time and event modes using field information, a GIS
da tabase, and remotely sensed data.

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