i

MK18 Experimenting with a bottom-up multi-

stakeholder platform supported by modelling

games in the Nam Theun-Nam Kading Basin

Workshop Report

3rd Companion Modelling Workshop Knowledge Verification and Validation, and Role-Playing Game

28th-29th of August, 2013

Prepared by:

The MK18 Project Team and

The Nam Theun-Nam Kading River Basin Committee Secretariat 27 September, 2013

ii

Present:

Nam Theun-Nam Kading River Basin Committee Secretariat

Mr. Thongma SOUKNAVONG, Director of NT-NKD RBCs

Mr. Somsack SYSOMPHOU, Chief of Administration - Planning Sector

Mr. Yong SLERMXAY, Technical staff of Administration - Planning Sector

Ms. Outhomphone PHIENGPHAIVONG, Technical staff of Administration -

Planning Sector

Ms. Khanthaly VONGPHAIBOUN, Technical staff of Information Sector

Mr. Xailee XAYYAXAY, Technical Staff of Information Sector

Mr. Pounyasan SIPHAPHOMMACHANE, Technical staff of Technical Sector

Ms. Vanny VONGSAMPHANH, Secretary

Workshop participants (for the full list of participants, please refer to Appendix A of this

document)

MK18 project team

Dr. Panomsak PROMBUROM, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Dr. Pongchai DUMRONGROJWATTHANA, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Dr. Paolo CAMPO

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Table of Contents I. General information ........................................................................................................................ 1

A. Date................................................................................................................................................ 1

B. Venue ............................................................................................................................................ 1

C. Number of participants .............................................................................................................. 1

II. Objectives ......................................................................................................................................... 1

A. Knowledge verification, validation and improvement ....................................................... 1

B. Capacity-building for the Nam Theun-Nam Kading River Basin Committee Secretariat (NT-NKD RBCs) ................................................................................................................................ 1

III. Organization of the workshop .................................................................................................... 1

A. Roles of the team and distribution of responsibilities ........................................................ 2

B. Equipment and materials .......................................................................................................... 2

IV. Workshop logistics ........................................................................................................................ 2

A. Venue ............................................................................................................................................ 2

B. Transportation ............................................................................................................................ 2

C. Food ............................................................................................................................................... 2

D. Accommodations ........................................................................................................................ 2

V. Workshop design vis-à-vis actual workshop ............................................................................ 2

A. Participants .................................................................................................................................. 3

B. Methods and tools used ............................................................................................................. 4

VI. Outputs and outcomes of the workshop ................................................................................. 19

A. For the research team .............................................................................................................. 19

B. For the NT-NKD RBCs team ..................................................................................................... 20

C. For the participants .................................................................................................................. 20

VII. Next steps of research ............................................................................................................... 21

VIII. Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 22

A. List of Participants.................................................................................................................... 22

B. Original agenda ......................................................................................................................... 23

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List of Figures Figure 1. Clustering of villages according to the flood factors ................................................................ 3

Figure 2. Topographic map showing the locations of villages affected by flooding in the basin ........ 4

Figure 3. Basin-level game board ............................................................................................................... 5

Figure 4. Village-level landscape board ..................................................................................................... 5

Figure 5. Action cards................................................................................................................................... 6

Figure 6. Villagers locate their respective villages in the basin game board ........................................ 7

Figure 7. Basin-level game board re-constructed by the participants ................................................... 8

Figure 8. Village maps (A: Nakhua-Nok, B: Nakhua-Nai, C: Thabak, D: Nakham, E: Pakkading South,

F: Phonsi and G: Thadue) ................................................................................................................... 10

Figure 9. Crop productions damaged by flood in Phonsi village (A. medium flood, B. severe flood, C.

villagers from Phonsi explaining the damage) ............................................................................... 12

Figure 10. Crop productions damaged by flood in Thabak village in the case of severe flooding .... 13

Figure 11. Crop productions damaged by flood in Thadue village in the case of severe flooding .... 13

Figure 12. Mr. Pounyasan concluded the outputs of the afternoon activities (A. list of factors contributing to

flood, B. After ranking with percentage points) ..................................................................................... 14

Figure 13. Participants voted the most important factors contributing to flood (left) and the result

(right) .................................................................................................................................................. 15

Figure 14. Participants write down the factors contributing to flood on the board and results ...... 15

Figure 15. Combination of factors contributing to flood (from top: rainfall level = 3, dam operation

= 3, sedimentation = 2, and Mekong backflow = 3) ........................................................................ 17

Figure 16. Example of crop production and infrastructure damaged by flood in the first case ........ 18

Figure 17. Participants distribute the marble of water and sediment in the basin-level game board .............................................................................................................................................................. 18

Figure 18. NT-NKD RBCs team working during the workshop .............................................................. 20

List of Tables

Table 1. Player roles and actions ................................................................................................................ 5

Table 2. Causes and impact of flood identified by players ..................................................................... 11

Table 3. Proportion of the causes of flood in 3 represented village ..................................................... 13

Table 4. Proportions of the causes of flood in each village (in terms of Percentage Points) ............. 16

Table 5. Proportion of the causes of flood in each village ..................................................................... 19

Table 6. Results of flood in each village based on the combination factors ........................................ 19

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I. General information

A. Date

28-29 August, 2013

B. Venue

Pakkading District Administration Office, Bolikhamsay Province

C. Number of participants

4 participants from Thadue village

4 participants from Thabak village

2 participants each from Phonsi, Pakkading-South, Nakham, Pakxoun

1 participant each from Nakhua-Nok and Nakhua-Nai

5 participants from the Pakkading District Office

1 participant from the Department of Water Resources (observer)

For a complete list of the participants, please refer to Appendix A of this document. II. Objectives

There are two main objectives attached to the workshop:

A. Knowledge verification, validation and improvement

This workshop was conducted to verify, validate and improve the knowledge on flooding

context at the village and at the basin levels by collectively developing a (co-designed) role-

playing with the more diverse groups of village participants/stakeholders compared with the 1st

Companion Modelling (ComMod) workshop at the same district office on 26-28 November,

2012, and the 2nd ComMod workshop which was carried out with 4 villages, namely, Phonsi, Nakhua Nok, Nakhua Nai, and Namkhou. Moreover, the workshop aims at exchanging points of

views and improving knowledge among the participants on the factors contribute to flooding and its impacts to the livelihoods of different villages in the basin.

B. Capacity-building for the Nam Theun-Nam Kading River Basin Committee Secretariat (NT-NKD RBCs)

For the NT-NKD RBCs, this workshop is a practical step after the “Facilitation Training” (supported by the RIU-PN25 project) which was conducted on 29-31 August, 2013. This

workshop aims to let the NT-NKD RBCs staff practice what they have learned; and learn more

by observing and confronting the real facilitation roles.

III. Organization of the workshop

This effort was the collaboration between the MK18 project team and the NT-NKD RBCs staff

(setting up the objective, schedule, method & tool used, etc.).

- Preparations for the 3rd workshop started after 1st NT-NKD Basin Core Group meeting

with previous data. Dr. Paolo designed the basic elements of the role-playing game for

this workshop based on the information and knowledge gathered from the previous two

workshops and additional knowledge collected and synthesized by Mr. Xailee according

to the given assignment given by Dr. Patrick D’Aquino of the RIU-PN25 project.

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- The preliminary agenda (Appendix B) was prepared by the NT-NKD RBCs with the help

of the MK18 project team.

- The NT-NKD RBCs team made the appointments with the participants, and prepared the

documents, venue, and logistics.

- MK18 project team & the NT-NKD RBCs team met on the 27th August afternoon, a day

before the workshop to update the progress of the workshop preparations. Only Mr. Xailee and Mr. Pounyasan were able to attend, while Ms. Souksamone was sick (meaning

that she will not be able to participate in the workshop). Dr. Panomsak clarified the workshop objectives, gaming materials and step of the game, as well as how to facilitate

the workshop. Then, Mr. Xailee and the other NT-NKD RBCs staff (Ms. Vanny and Ms. Khanthaly) assisted in the preparation of the gaming materials and other logistic items

to get a better feel of the actual process of how RPGs are prepared.

A. Roles of the team and distribution of responsibilities

- Mr. Xailee and Mr. Pounyasan are the main assistants of Dr. Panomsak in facilitating the

workshop.

- Mr. Yong is the main photographer.

- Ms. Khanthaly, Ms. Vanny, and Ms. Outhomphone are responsible for the registration, logistics, meals, and general support during the workshop.

B. Equipment and materials - Dr. Paolo designed and prepared game board and artifacts (See ‘Methods and tools used’

in Section VI for more details).

- LCD projector, camera, and the other equipment necessary for the workshop were

prepared by the NT-NKD RBCs team.

IV. Workshop logistics

A. Venue - The two-day workshop was conducted at the Pakkading District Office.

- Audio visual equipment and system were prepared by Mr. Xailee taking into account his

experience from the previous workshops to ensure better sound. In addition, two

wireless microphones were prepared for the open discussion.

B. Transportation

- Dr. Panomsak, Dr Paolo and Dr. Pongchai traveled to and from the Pakkading District Office in Mr. Somsack’s car on the 27th and 29th of September, 2013.

- A mini-van was rented for the transportation of the NT-NKD RBCs team and materials during the workshop.

- Transportation allowance was also provided to all the villagers who participated in the

workshop.

C. Food

- Lunch and dinner were prepared by the restaurant, which was chosen by the NT-NKD RBCs team, near the workshop venue.

D. Accommodations - Village participants were provided accommodations at guest houses near the workshop

venue.

- After the first day of the workshop, the research team and the NT-NKD RBCs team

stayed at the same guest house near the Pakkading District office. This was convenient

and effective as it allowed for the team debriefing and preparation for the second day of

the workshop.

V. Workshop design vis-à-vis actual workshop

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A. Participants - There were 14 and 16 villagers out of 25 invited villagers joined the workshop for the

first and second days, respectively.

- The two representatives from Pakxoun arrived on the second day. Villagers from Napae

and Namkhou could not join the workshop.

- Seven other participants were from the Pakkading District office and one from the Department of Water Resources.

- The villages represented in the workshop were selected based on the knowledge gathering exercise on the different factors of flooding in the basin done by Mr. Xailee

supported by the RIU-PN25 project. In this exercise, the different villages affected by flooding were clustered according to the different combinations of factors of flooding.

There were initially 10 village clusters identified (Figure 1), but it would not be possible to have enough representation for each cluster to be represented in the workshop due to

the limitation on the number of participants. It was decided to reduce the number of

clusters to be represented in the workshop, in which the clusters having the most unique

combination of flooding factors were chosen. A topographic map (Figure 2) showing the

location of the different clusters and villages, which was prepared by Mr. Xailee, was also

used to help in the selection process of the village clusters to be represented in the

workshop. In addition, to continue the ComMod process with the villages in the previous

workshops, representatives from the villages of Phonsi, Nakhua Nok, Nakhua Nai and

Namkhou were invited to the workshop.

- The lists of participants are found in Annex B of this document.

Figure 1. Clustering of villages according to the flood factors

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Figure 2. Topographic map showing the locations of villages affected by flooding in the basin

B. Methods and tools used

Plan

- The role playing game (RPG) used in this workshop was based on the initial model

and its related RPG that was designed for the 1st ComMod workshop. To continue

the improvement of the model and RPG, additional elements from the participatory mapping exercise in the 2nd ComMod workshop, as well as the knowledge gathered

by Mr. Xailee on the flooding factors were added into the basic gaming elements that would be used for the co-designing of the RPG.

- The role playing game (RPG) is then to be built together with the participants of the

workshop. This meant that the basic elements of the game will be prepared in

advance and then the players are able to add or remove elements from the game

and also create rules for the game.

- To link the flood issue at the basin and village levels, two-scale game boards were

developed, which are the basin-level game board (Figure 3) and the blank village

landscape board (Figure 4) that allow participants from each village construct their

respective villages on it. Through this constructing and modifying the village

landscape board and its elements, the participants perform the role of verifying and

improving the knowledge that has been collected prior to the workshop. This is so-

called co-designing of the role playing game.

Figure

- The general flow of the game

� The facilitator showparticipants. Participants

roads, villages location� The facilitator explain

starting the game session.� The participants will be asked to

the blank village-level game board using the given troads, and farm plots

� Each player will be given household assets representing their furniture and

house.

� Players will choose and play their activities (Table 1)

5). Tokens to represent and locate

game board or the village

rice and vegetable crops will be used. Table 1. Player roles and actions

Farmer Government

Act

ion

s

Rice farming Build roads

Figure 3. Basin-level game board

Figure 4. Village-level landscape board

The general flow of the game per round would be as follows:

The facilitator shows the basin-level game board and explains it to the participants. Participants can modify and improve the features in it, such as

location, mining areas and tree plantations The facilitator explains the basin-level game board to the participants

starting the game session. will be asked to build their respective village landscape using

level game board using the given tokens representing farm plots (only for the beginning of the first gaming session)

Each player will be given household assets representing their furniture and

oose and play their activities (Table 1) using action cards

to represent and locate their actions will be placed on the basin

game board or the village-level game board. For farm plots, tokens to represent

rice and vegetable crops will be used.

Roles

Government Dam

manager

Mining concession

manager

Plantation concession

manager

Build roads Release water

Establish /Expand

concession

Establish /expand

concession

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to the and improve the features in it, such as

to the participants before

landscape using

okens representing houses, (only for the beginning of the first gaming session).

Each player will be given household assets representing their furniture and

cards (Figure

their actions will be placed on the basin-level

For farm plots, tokens to represent

Large-scale logger

Log trees

Vegetable farming

Build road drainage

Log trees Reforestation

Reforestation River bank rehabilitation

Paddy rice

Mining Drainage pipe under the road

Road construction

� Announce the amount of

� Assess flood penalties and rewardrewards will be used to determine amount of flooding

the basin level are given to the villages depending on the actions that have been performed on the basin level. Activities/actions that are

floods are given penaltfloods are given rewards.

� Assess flood penalties and rewardpenalties and rewards will be used to assess the level of flooding at the village

level, in addition to the basin

� The flood level is announced for each village.

area area

Build road

Reforestation

River bank rehabilitation

Upland rice Vegetables

Drainage pipe under the road Reforestation

Lumber logging River bank rehabilitation

Figure 5. Action cards

Announce the amount of rain (random conditions).

Assess flood penalties and rewards at the basin level – a system of penalties and will be used to determine amount of flooding. Penalties and rewards

the basin level are given to the villages depending on the actions that have been performed on the basin level. Activities/actions that are presumed to increase

floods are given penalties, while activities/actions that are presumed to reduce floods are given rewards.

Assess flood penalties and rewards at the village level – a similar system of penalties and rewards will be used to assess the level of flooding at the village

dition to the basin-level penalties and rewards.

The flood level is announced for each village.

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Vegetables

Reforestation

rehabilitation

system of penalties and and rewards at

the basin level are given to the villages depending on the actions that have been presumed to increase

ies, while activities/actions that are presumed to reduce

system of penalties and rewards will be used to assess the level of flooding at the village

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� The impact of the flood is assessed for each village by removing the rice and vegetable tokens and household assets in the game. The amount of tokens will be

tallied for each village to compare “the before and after” of the flood event. � The round ends.

o Additional remarks about the RPG:

� On the first gaming session, only the role of farmer and farming (rice and

vegetable) will be introduced and played by the participants. The

succeeding gaming sessions will introduce the other roles and actions in

the game. A session will be played with the game master playing roles

other than that of farmers. Another session will be played wherein the

participants are also able to play other actions and roles other than being

farmers doing rice and vegetable farming.

� The amount of rainfall in the game are separated into four levels, i.e. low,

moderate, heavy, and severe. For the first gaming session, a round will be

played for each of the rainfall levels to determine its respective flood level. On the succeeding gaming sessions, the amount of rainfall will be

chosen at random.

� Since the weights of the factors of flooding at the basin and village levels

have not been established yet, the factors and their weights will be

determined together with the participants. An initial list of factors taken

from the knowledge gathering activity of Mr. Xailee will be proposed to

the players.

� The participants, if they choose to, could change the elements of the

game, including the rules, during the 1st gaming session, and after the

succeeding gaming sessions.

Actual: Day 1 morning

- Dr. Panomsak recalled the result from previous participatory activities, including the first and second ComMod workshops. Then he explained the gaming materials

to be used in the morning session. - Participants were asked to modify and reconstruct the basin level board (map) step

by step using the prepared tokens.

� The participants started by discussing and checking the location of the

main features such as rivers using the location of the dams as references,

as well as to their own perceptions of the actual basin itself. � After that, the participants were able to add detail to several places in the

map including roads, tributaries, and locations of their villages (Figure 6).

� Moreover, they were able to locate the other villages that have no representatives in the workshop, such as Pakkading-Nue and Napae.

Figure 6. Villagers locate their respective villages in the basin game board

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o As the information on mining and plantation are still not clear to the researchers, i.e. whether these activities occupied large areas or many places in

the basin or not, Dr. Panomsak asked the participants to locate plantation plots and mining areas on the map. It was observed that there were many plantation

plots distributed in the basin. However, for the mining areas, the participants

said that there were few sites and most of them were sand quarries.

o Finally, the co-designed map representing the shared understanding of

participants of the NT-NKD basin was produced (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Basin-level game board re-constructed by the participants

o Then, around 11 o’clock, villagers and other groups of participants (e.g.

representatives from Pakkading district, DWR, TWG, etc.) separated into small

groups by their respective villages and were asked to construct their village

landscape (map) to be used for assessing flood impacts.

o The researchers verified and validated the knowledge on farming activities

during the village mapping activity. More land use types and farming activities

were suggested by participants to well represent the common livelihood context

of the village, e.g. cassava, upland rice, maize, mixed vegetation, Agarwood

(Aquilaria sp.), and cattle.

o The participants constructed their respective village maps (Figure 8) and were

later presented to everyone. This allows the exchange of knowledge and

understanding of various/diverse livelihood contexts of other villages among the

participants.

o After finishing the mapping activity, each group (village) of players were asked

to assess the gaming materials whether they are understandable or not, and

make suggestions on how to improve the understandability of the basin and

village game boards. The card sorting technique was used. The answers from

each village were collected and quickly summarized during the lunch by the RBCs team before presenting them to the participants in the afternoon.

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A

B

C

D

10

E

F

G

Figure 8. Village maps (A: Nakhua-Nok, B: Nakhua-Nai, C: Thabak, D: Nakham, E: Pakkading South, F: Phonsi

and G: Thadue)

Day 1 afternoon

- Mr. Pounyasan concluded the morning activity and presented the comments and

suggestions of the participants regarding the game board features and artifacts to

improve the understanding of the basin and village game boards/maps.

� The results showed that some villages accepted the existing materials; while some of them requested to insert more land use types and farming

activities, e.g. grass land, fallowed land.

� Some of them asked to put village boundaries and locations of school and

cultural centers.

- Dr. Panomsak continued the game to 1) check the village livelihood system, 2)

assess the causes of flood in different villages, and 3) assess impacts of different

flood level (i.e. low, medium, severe, and very severe). However, because of the

limited time, he decided to do this for only 3 villages, namely, Phonsi, Thabak, and

Thadue. These villages are located in different parts of the basin.

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� Phonsi is on lowland and at the downstream of the Nam Theun-Hinboun dam.

� Thabak is located between the 2 dams, Nam Theun II and Nam Theun Hinboun.

� Thadue is located in the upland area and at the confluence of 2

tributaries.

- Participants from the representative villages were invited to the basin-level game

board. Then, Dr. Panomsak asked participants to explain the general village

livelihood system and explain impacts of flood. The flood level was decided

randomly using a dice. There were 4 flood levels; low, medium, high, and severe.

- Then, participants were asked to assess the impacts of flood based on the flood

level. Tokens representing rice and vegetable production were placed in the village

map. They have to remove tokens to present crop damaged by a particular flood

level.

- There are different impacts on the crops from floods based on their locations in the villages.

- They also mentioned about the road damage due to floods and a piece of sticky tape

with cream color was placed over the road to signify that it was damaged.

- The overall results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Causes and impact of flood identified by players

Phonsi

(lowland, lower dam)

Thabak

(located between 2 dams)

Thadue

(upland, confluence of 2

rivers)

Livelihood

system

- paddy rice, vegetable,

industrial plantation, and

animal rearing

- upland rice, paddy rice,

maize, cassava, chili, and other

vegetables

- agricultural area are located

along the river

- main crop is rice &

maize (2 growing seasons:

March and October)

- animal rearing

- Agarwood (Aquilaria sp.)

on the sloping area

Causes of flood - rainfall

- Mekong backflow

- deforestation

- dam releases water

- rainfall

- dam releases water

- dam stores water

- deforestation

- rainfall

- mass of water from 2

rivers meeting together

- deforestation

Impacts of flood (Photos of the activity in

Figure 9)

(Photos of the activity in Figure

10)

(Photos of the activity in

Figure 11)

low - no negative impact NA NA

medium - houses are not damaged

- ¼ of crop are damaged

- crops and houses are not

damage

NA

high NA NA

severe - all crop productions,

(except Para rubber),

road, houses located near

the river are damaged

- they have to buy rice for

consumption

- all crop productions, road

and house are damaged

- 2/3 of crops are damaged

because the duration of

flooding is not long (2-3

days at a time)

- houses along the river are

damaged

- maize growing in March

will be damaged

- some livestock that could

not be moved on time

during flash flood

Other notes - located in the municipal

area

- a good warning system

could reduce damages.

- if the Nam Theun-Hinboun

dam releases water (usually,

the mass of water arrive the

village at midnight), fishing

gear will be destroyed and lost

-Main source of agricultural

income are from livestock

and maize

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in the high water level

- if the Nam Theun 2 dam

release water, fishing gear will

be wedged in the sand dunes.

Note: NA = not assessed

A

B

C

Figure 9. Crop productions damaged by flood in Phonsi village (A. medium flood, B. severe flood, C. villagers

from Phonsi explaining the damage)

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Figure 10. Crop productions damaged by flood in Thabak village in the case of severe flooding

Figure 11. Crop productions damaged by flood in Thadue village in the case of severe flooding

- Thereafter, in the plenary, Dr. Panomsak asked all participants to think more about

the causes of flood in the basin. The participants were asked to list the cause of

flood. The word card technique was used again to make a list of flood causes.

- The participants were then asked to rank each factor according to the proportion of its contribution to the floods in each village (Table 3).

Table 3. Proportion of the causes of flood in 3 represented village

Village

Phonsi

(lowland, lower dam)

Thabak

(located between 2 dams)

Thadue

(highland, joint of 2 rivers)

- rainfall (40%)

- Mekong backflow (10%) - deforestation (10%)

- dam release water (40%)

- rainfall (20%)

- dam release water (40%)

- dam store water (30%)

- deforestation (10%)

- rainfall (75%)

- mass of water from the confluence of

rivers (15%)

- deforestation (10%)

o At the end of the day, Mr. Pounyasan concluded the outputs from the afternoon

session (Figure 12).

14

A

B

Figure 12. Mr. Pounyasan concluded the outputs of the afternoon activities (A. list of factors contributing to

flood, B. After ranking with percentage points)

Day 2 morning

- The day was begun with Dr. Panomsak summarizing the previous day’s activities. He mentioned to the participants the link the flood at the villages in relation to the

basin. He also presented the factors affecting floods from the previous workshop to participants; these were heavy rainfall, road and house construction that block the

water way, drainage channel under the road, water released by dams, water stored by dams, water from the confluence of tributaries, Mekong backflow, mining

activity, deforestation, sloping land, sedimentation in front of spillway, and

stream/river made shallower by sedimentation - Then, he used the word card to rank the relative importance of factors contributing

to floods in terms of percentage points. A piece of paper was provided to each village then participants discussed and determined the related factors and their

relative importance. - At the same time, Dr. Paolo, Dr. Pongchai, and Ms. Outhomphone prepared the

additional pictograms (i.e. cattle, Para rubber, etc.) to be used in the gaming session. - After finishing the listing of the causes of flood at the village level, Dr. Panomsak

grouped the factors into 8 groups and asked the participants again to assess the

important factors causing floods at the basin-level by voting. The results showed

that the top 5 important factors were heavy rainfall (16 points), deforestation and

mining (13 points), Mekong backflow and confluence of rivers (11 points), dam

15

operations, i.e. storing and releasing (10 points), and sedimentation (9 points), as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Participants voted the most important factors contributing to flood (left) and the result (right)

- Before the coffee break, the participants were asked to write down the percentage

of contribution of each factor on flooding on the public board (Figure 14).

Figure 14. Participants write down the factors contributing to flood on the board and results

- After getting the average for all villages, it was found that the top five factors were

similar to the previous voting activity by individual villager, as shown in Table 4.

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Table 4. Proportions of the causes of flood in each village (in terms of Percentage Points)

List of factor

Village

Thabak Thadue Nakham Pakkading

Tai Nakhua-Nok Pakxoun

Nakhua-Nai

Phonsi Average

Heavy rainfall 10 50 40 40 40 30 35 30.63

Dam operation

(release/store water) 70 30 30 30 20.00

Water from 2 rivers meet

together 5 20 3.13

Deforestation 5 10 30 15 7.50

Mining 35 4.38

Sloping land 0.00

stream/river shallower by

sedimentation

20 20

30 10

10.00

Drainage channel under the

road 2

40

5.25

sedimentation in front of

spillway 2 30 4.00

Road and house construction block the water

way 6 15 30 6.38

Mekong backflow 30 20 20 8.75

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100.00

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o After the coffee break, Dr Panomsak explained again to the participants the link

between the basin-level and village-level flooding issue.

o Then, the participants were asked to complete the village map from yesterday. After that, the 1st round of gaming session was started by asking the villagers to

decide on their cropping activity in their respective village land. Tokens and a set of pictograms were used.

o Dr. Panomsak asked the participants to roll the dice to determine the “rainfall level” and “Mekong backflow”. Then he asked participants to play the role of a

dam manager to decide the “water level to be released”. After that, he asked participants to determine the “level of sedimentation” linked to the rainfall level

and water released from dam. All of the 4 factors above were ranged from 1 (minimum) to 3 (maximum).

o The results (a table) were drawn on paper and posted on the wall for public

information (Figure 15). This information was then used by the participants to

assess the level of flood in their village.

Figure 15. Combination of factors contributing to flood (from top: rainfall level = 3, dam operation = 3,

sedimentation = 2, and Mekong backflow = 3)

- After that, participants were asked to think about the level of flood in their village

ranging from 1 (low) to 4 (severe) and assess the impacts of flood on their crop

production by sticking a small piece of colored clay in each of damaged land parcel.

- Different villages had different impacts. Villagers from Nakham, Pakkading-South,

Nakhua Nok, and Nakhua Nai thought that by this combination factors, the flood

level will be “high”, while the rest said that the flood level will be “severe”.

- Examples of the damages are shown in Figure 16.

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Figure 16. Example of crop production and infrastructure damaged by flood in the first case

- Then the participants were asked to bring their village map to describe the impacts of flood at the basin level, particularly the sedimentation (Figure 17). This also

provides an opportunity for them to link the village-level flooding issue to the basin-level flooding.

Figure 17. Participants distribute the marbles of water (white) and sediment (black) in the basin-level game

board

Day 2 afternoon

- Participants continued playing the game for two other 2 situations with different

combination of factors of flooding. Flood levels and impacts were assessed. The

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results of all played cases are shown in Table 5 and 6. It was observed in Case 2 that some villages did not have the negative impacts from floods. In Case 2, there is low

level of rainfall, water released by dams and sedimentation.

Table 5. Proportion of the causes of flood in each village

Factors Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

Level of rainfall 3 1 2

Level of water released by dam 3 1 2

Level of sedimentation 2 1 1

Level of Mekong Backflow 3 3 2

Table 6. Resulting floods in each village based on the combination of factors

Village

Level of flood

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

Thabak 4 1 3

Thadue 4 0 1

Nakham 3 0 2

Pakkading-Tai 3 1 2

Nakhua-Nok 3 2 2

Nakhua-Nai 3 2 2

Pakxoun 4 0 1

Phonsi 4 1 1

Deviation from schedule / activities

- On the second day of workshop new set of pictograms representing crops and

farming activities were added due to the request from participants from the

previous dat. Added into the game were maize, upland rice, cattle, mixed vegetable,

etc.

- In the initial plan, villagers were supposed to play the farmer’s role doing farm

activities at the household level, whereas in the game, they played the role of the

village representative to do the agricultural activities in the farming areas in the

constructed village map. Therefore, the way to estimate the impact of flood was

changed due to the limited time and stock of prepared materials.

VI. Outputs and outcomes of the workshop

A. For the research team

Verification, validation, and calibration of the researchers’ knowledge regarding the flood issue

- Co-designing and improvement of the spatial game board: � The participants were able to use the gaming materials for co-designing the

basin-level map. - Revised and updated the landscape to be used in the simulation that is to be

developed: � The participants asked to add more land use types (represented by pictograms)

with different colors, including cassava, upland rice, maize, mixed vegetables,

Agarwood (Aquilaria sp.), and cattle.

� The participants also requested to put village boundaries, fallow land and

important places such as school, temple, and other cultural centers.

- Simple village maps were produced with farming activities and related cropping

areas as well as locations of roads and tributaries in the villages.

- Better understanding of the causes of floods at the village and basin levels:

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� Key and relatively important factors were identified collectively with the stakeholders.

� Different villages located at different parts of the basin have different factors contributing to flood.

- Better understanding of the impacts of flood:

� Different villages have different impacts.

� Combinations of factors generate different levels of flood and impacts.

� The negative impacts of floods are not only due to the flood level, but also related

to the duration of floods (e.g. 3-5 days vs. more than 10 days. If longer flood

period, more damage). Moreover, frequency of rain in a year is important. Some

participants have related increase in frequency rains to climate change.

B. For the NT-NKD RBCs team

- The RBCs team learned how to implement a workshop and address challenges during such workshops. Compared to the 2nd ComMod workshop on village

mapping, the team improved and was better prepared for the workshop. - Mr. Pounyasan said that “although the team has conducted many workshops, this is

the first workshop that the team communicated and prepared together and learned a lot.”

- Figure 18 shows the RBCs in action.

Figure 18. NT-NKD RBCs team working during the workshop

C. For the participants

- Learning about the flood issue its link between the village and basin levels:

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� Villagers and other participants have a better idea on the flood issue at village and basin level. Based on the results from the questions asked at the end of the

workshop, villagers learned that the different villages have different contexts of livelihood in the basin, different factors affecting flood leading to the different

impacts of flooding in the basin.

� One participant said that this workshop help “collectively extract the evidences

among participants about the basin.

- Responses to the 2 open-ended questions about learning and additional opinions:

Question 1: What did you learn from the workshop?

� Know the pattern of water release by dam

� Recognize the situation of flooding of villages in Nam Theun-Nam Kading basin

� Exchange experiences and opinion among villagers from different villages on the

impacts of flood

� Importance of using natural resources

� Participation of many parties to solve the flood issue � Village mapping and boundary of villages

� Understand the impact of natural disasters

� Know more about the livelihood systems of the other villages

� Know more about the rivers in the basin and development projects

� Know the water system in the basin

� Know more about the causes of floods, both human-induced and natural floods

Question 2: Additional opinion

� Clearer explanation of the activity before starting it

� Want more tools to use in the workshop

� Want to learn more on how to prevent the causes and impacts of flood

� For the materials used in the game, they could have color and more clear � The workshop was a venue to exchange opinions among participants to develop

the country step by step � More data collection on the impact of flood at the right time in the village is

needed � The workshop creates unity among them

� This workshop allowed the villagers to have exchanges and understand the

contexts of flood, such that they can use the knowledge from the workshop to in

their own work

� Good to join the workshop � Important lessons from sharing knowledge and information among villages

VII. Next steps of research

- Data gathering that will feed into the basin flood model - Improve the role-playing game and possibly introduce the computer simulation for the

4th workshop

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VIII. Appendices

A. List of Participants

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B. Original agenda

Topic Participatory mapping workshop to learn about the extent of flood in

three villages in Pakkading district and compare among them.

Objectives

Day1: To verify, validate and improve the knowledge of flooding, causes

and impacts, at the village and at the basin levels which have different

contexts of livelihood system

Day2: Simulation using the role-playing game and village map to

facilitate share learning on flood issue and linkage between village and

basin level

Day 1: 28 August 2013

Time Description Responsible

8:30-9:00 Registration NT-NKD RBCs

9:00-9:15 Welcome speech Mr. Somsack

9:15-9:45 Opening speech Mr. Thongma

9:45-9:55 Presentation on the background of the

workshop’s main objectives

Mr. Pounyasan

9:55-10.10 Break all participants

10:10-10.15 Start the workshop Chairman

10.15-11.00 Participatory mapping (basin level) Dr. Panomsak and team

11.00-11.50 Participatory mapping (village level) Dr. Panomsak and team

11:50-12:00 Conclusion for the morning session Mr. Pounyasan

12:00-13:30 Lunch all participants

13:30-14:45 Sensitizing the gaming session Dr. Panomsak and team

14:45-15:00 Break all participants

15:00-16:15 Gaming and simulation on the cause and impacts of flood

Dr. Panomsak and team

16:15-16:30 Conclusion for the afternoon session Mr. Pounyasan

Day 1: 29 August 2013 8:30-9:00 Registration NT-NKD RBCs

9:00-9:15 Welcome speech Mr. Somsack

9:15-9:55 Discussion on the causes and impacts of

flood

Dr. Panomsak and team

9:55-10.10 Break all participants

10:10-12.00 Gaming and simulation on the cause and

impacts of flood with combination factors

Dr. Panomsak and team

12:00-13:30 Lunch all participants

13:30-14:30 Gaming and simulation on the cause and

impacts of flood with combination factors

(continue)

Dr. Panomsak and team

14:30-15:00 Discussion all participants

15:45-15:55 Conclusion for the afternoon session Dr. Panomsak and team

15:55-16:10 Conclusion for the whole workshop Mr. Xailee

16:10-16:30 Closing speech Mr. Thongma