During 17-21 December 2016, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) invited Dr Adichat Surinkum, CCOPTS Director to join the field survey in Chantaburi Province, Eastern Thailand. The field surveys, both on land and offshore, are part of the cooperation program between Thailand and PR China. Started to cooperate in 2014, the project on the “Integrated Observation and Vulnerability Assessment of Tropical Marine Environment” between State Administration of Oceanography (SOA) of PR China and DMR of Thailand is focusing on capacity building and creating the shoreline land-use map of Eastern Thailand. In December 2016, Mr. Yu Dongsheng, Deputy Director of MCG Laboratory, Third Institute of Oceanography (TIO) and Mr. Chen Hui, Chief Engineer of Island Research Center (IRC), State Administration of Oceanography (SOA) led the team to Chantaburi and made the surveys with geoscientists of DMR.
The field survey was led by Dr. Qi Hongshuai and Prof. Lei Gang, where the main area of year 2016 is on the west side of Chantaburi River Estuary. The topic of “Tropical Sandy Beach Processes and Morphodynamics” is the main purpose. The surveys are focused on seafloor topography, river cross-section, aerial photography along coastal zone, beach profiling, suspended sediment sampling and tide-gauge monitoring. There is also a test for the efficiency of the offshore core-sampling equipment.
However most of the result is not ready to be presented during December 2016. Both parties agreed to have a workshop on these results during May, 2017 in Chantaburi province. This workshop is not only for discussion on the result of the 2016 survey results but also for further cooperation on this subject. CCOP member countries are welcome to nominate geoscientist to attend the planned May 2017 workshop as well