On 8 and 9 March, 2010 the workshop "Methods and tools for water-related adaptation to climate change and climate proofing" took place at Puslitbang Air (water research institute of the Ministry of Public Works) in Bandung, Indonesia. Part of this workshop was meant to kick-off the organization of the scoping workshop of the Delta Alliance Indonesia Wing.

With some 100 persons on the first day and 65 on the second day, the workshop was well-attended. Participants included Prof. Le Quang Minh, Delta Alliance Vietnam Coordinator, and Dr. Emaduddin Ahmad, Executive Director of the Institute of Water Modeling in Bangladesh.

The first day of the workshop was dedicated to introductory speeches and case studies. Delta Alliance was introduced and the representatives from Vietnam and Bangladesh presented the main issues in the Mekong and Ganges Brahmaputra deltas. Further, the case of lowland development in Central Kalimantan was presented. The overall conclusion from all the introductory speeches was that climate change is one factor which necessitates rethinking water management issues in deltas. However, population growth and overall socioeconomic development will likely have a much greater impact on land and water use decisions and practices. This is true for Indonesia, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and to a lesser extent Bangladesh.

During the second day of the workshop the participants broke into 3 parallel sessions. The first session was chaired by prof. van Beek (Deltares). He addressed methods to prepare for adaptations in the physical system. Other presentations elaborated upon critical decision making levels regarding flood protection as applied in The Netherlands and flood management in the Jakarta metropolis. 

The topic of the second parallel session was drought management, water scarcity management and the Drought Management Plan as a tool to manage water scarcity more efficient. Dr. Hooier (Deltares) presented an early warning system for droughts. One of the conclusions of this session was that the results of climate change prediction models in general and the early warning system for droughts in particular need to be made available to water managers at the ground level, and methods must be developed to integrate them in day-to-day practices.

The third parallel session was on methods to use in forestry, agriculture and land management. Presentations on forestry and carbon stocks, and REDD as a tool between mitigation and adaptation were given. Examples were given on how remote sensing can be used as a tool for monitoring forests and estimating biomass and carbon stocks. The most urgent environmental problems were identified and discussed: pollution control, deforestation, and peat fire control. The participants agreed that techniques are needed to monitor forests (carbon stocks and emissions) and water management (pollution, sediments), and that no easy-to-use tools are available for them at the moment. The advantage of the use of remote sensing was acknowledged by the group, and recommendations to implement this technique were formulated.

Following this workshop, scoping workshops will be organized under Delta Alliance in Indonesia and Vietnam.