Mahasarakham connects municipal resilience planning with community knowledge and youth creativity. Supported by Mahasarakham University, residents and local institutions assess preparedness, while culturally grounded communication activities encourage participation. The case illustrates a university–municipality partnership linking technical assessment with locally meaningful engagement.
Map
Mahasarakham Participatory Resilience Planning
General Information
ISIG
The initiative combines participatory resilience assessment, university technical support and community engagement. A December 2023 Scorecard workshop identified data-management needs, leading the municipality and university to establish a dedicated data-collection portal.
Mahasarakham is an educational and administrative centre in northeastern Thailand. Its university–municipality collaboration developed within Thailand’s MCR2030 programme, following national university training in November 2022 and joint participation in UNDRR training in March 2023. Thailand’s National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Plan 2021–2027 incorporates the Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Geographical Scope
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
The initial assessment exposed weaknesses in shared risk information and data management. The programme also sought to make resilience concepts usable within local government. University support helped connect municipal responsibilities with the assessment tools and wider national resilience framework.
Older people and persons with disabilities are explicitly identified in outreach objectives, while youth is the primary target of engagement.
A multisectoral committee connects municipal departments, university specialists, community leaders and civil society.
Established municipal disaster-management setting and organised preparedness communication.
The municipality has established urban services and institutional infrastructure. Health infrastructure and early warning remain areas for strengthening through university collaboration.
Bring neighbourhood knowledge and available community resources into resilience planning, while enabling residents to discuss preparedness through familiar cultural forms.
Multistakeholder Scorecard workshops; facilitated discussions; participatory cultural activities; neighbourhood social-capital mapping; and two-way communication through a LINE Official Account.
Community input contributes to strategic analysis and development planning. A municipal steering committee oversees implementation with university support.
Orientation sessions for municipal staff, councillors and technical teams develop a shared understanding of resilience. The Social Capital Map identifies neighbourhood knowledge and resources that can support continuing participation.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Infrastructure Readiness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
Young people co-created risk-communication activities using original songs and interactive role play. Traditional Isaan performance connects preparedness messages with familiar language, cultural knowledge and opportunities for feedback.
Thai; local Isan language forms.
Mahasarakham Municipality and Mahasarakham University, including its Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Research Unit (CMARE).
The partnership demonstrated practical application of resilience assessment, technical support and institutional learning.
Municipal officials, community groups, neighbourhood leaders, village health volunteers, hospitals, schools, agricultural groups, engineers, university staff and students.
1. Establish the municipality–university partnership.
2. Build capacity in MCR2030 tools.
3. Conduct the multistakeholder Scorecard assessment.
4. Address identified data gaps.
5. Develop locally relevant participation activities.
6. Integrate priorities into municipal planning and review progress.
The approach relies on municipal coordination and university expertise. Resources included staff time, facilitation, community participation support, communication production and data-management capacity.
The documented sequence spans capacity building in 2022–2023, local assessment in December 2023, and strategic integration and ongoing Scorecard monitoring reported in 2025. The category reflects the continuing assessment–planning–review cycle.
Experience of the Implementing Organisation in DRM
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
An assessment needs a route into institutional action which was not yet provided by the use case at the end of the programme: maintaining data and translating findings into priorities would be required for future sustainability.
Conventional disaster education can miss some audiences. The programme uses culturally familiar communication and intergenerational facilitation to improve engagement. The UN Thailand annual report highlights older people’s local knowledge and young people’s facilitation roles.
The Ten Essentials provide a framework for identifying institutional and physical resilience gaps.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
Municipal responsibility is complemented by university mentoring and community participation. Continued implementation depends on retaining coordination capacity, maintaining communication channels and providing resources for agreed actions.
the transferable element is the combination of technical assessment, a local knowledge partner and culturally meaningful participation. Other municipalities should identify their own trusted cultural practices and community organisations when adapting the approach.
A dedicated data portal and LINE communication channel support information collection and exchange.