Dr. Peeranan Towashiraporn is the Director of the Geospatial Information department at ADPC. He leads the SERVIR-Mekong program, focusing on improving uses of publicly available satellite data to address environmental, climate change, and disaster issues in the Lower Mekong region. SERVIR-Mekong is part of a global partnership with USAID and NASA.  The department has a team of more than 15 international experts with expertise in GIS/remote sensing, hydrology, agriculture, land cover mapping, and meteorology as well as capacity building, communications, knowledge management and M&E. Peeranan conducted many consultative and capacity development workshops both at national and regional levels. He spearheaded an implementation of the SERVIR service planning approach at SERVIR-Mekong which ensured user engagement, quality control, capacity transfer, and actual use cases.

Peeranan also promotes use of science and technology to address challenges related to Asia and the Pacific’s disaster risk management, including quantification and mapping of disaster risk, effective risk communication, linking geospatial technology to disaster preparedness and response, and disaster risk finance. In recent years, he has led international projects to identify and map disaster risk that could guide preparedness decisions. He often contributed to ADPC’s flagship regional training programs.