Knowledge Management for Water Conservation and Development for Sustainable Development of Communities in Mun River Basin and Chi River Basin

Abstract

The purposes of this research are to study knowledge management for water conservation and development of local communities in Northeastern Thailand, and, to analyze factors and conditions involved in knowledge management for water conservation and development of the communities. The studied areas are focused on the best-practice rural communities of Northeastern Thailand that had experienced hard water problems including drought and flood. There are 2 study areas in this research: 1. Ban Limtong Community, BurirumProvince, Mun river basin and 2. the New Agricultural Theory Hug Pang Bang Pan Group, Khoa Wong District, Kalasin Province,Chi river basin.

            The results of this research is that: there are 3 components of the community – group’s knowledge management – man, knowledge process and information technology.  Man in the community – group’s KM includes social structure and clear function of duties on water conservation and development tasks. This research also results that knowledge processlevel 1:“knowledge identify identification”is the most important process that community/group’s members are together to identify urgent problem:drought and flood. “Learning process” is a final process and a result in which the community/group reach a complete water conservation and development including water management knowledge, water balance and further achievementin water conservation and development. The members also can use simple information technology such as paper-based documents and internet to gainmaximum benefits. Factors and conditions in community/group’s water conservation and development include education which is the most important factor for community/group’s development. Culture and local beliefs also play important role for morale of farmers and for applying cultural identity to create unique agricultural products.