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Water policy decision-making is hindered by limited involvement and understanding of the issues by the affected community members. This study demonstrates that implementing a serious game concept to explain Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can improve a community’s knowledge and skill in water policy decision-making. The authors developed a tool called SEA Game and Simulation using the MIT App Inventor and participatory techniques. The developed tool was implemented among 39 community members in the East Coast River Basin of Thailand. Key findings indicated a significant improvement in the participants’ knowledge of SEA and skill in water policy decision-making. Results from implementing the tool were dependent on the background of the participants and the context of the events. Further studies related to developing sustainable measures from SEA in community sectors should be considered.

The eastern sarus crane (Antigone antigone sharpii; ESC) is a species related to wetland ecosystems in Southeast Asia. The habitat suitability of the eastern sarus crane in Ayeyarwady Delta was surveyed between March 2018 and February 2019. Eastern sarus cranes were found at 73 locations and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) was used to classify the habitat suitability among different seasons. MaxEnt showed the largest total area of highly suitable habitat was in the winter season (2450 km2, AUC = 0.968), while the least amount of available suitable habitat was evident during the rainy season (1028.7 km2, AUC = 0.979). A difference in the assessment of home range areas using the Minimum Convex Polygon (95% MPC) and the Kernel Density Estimate (95% KDE) was found. The total area in the winter season was highest at 95% KDE (13,839.5 km2) and lowest in the rainy season (1238.1 km2), while 95% MCP was highest in the rainy season (7892.9 km2) and lowest in the summer season (7014.6 km2). Analysis of the environmental parameters indicated that low temperature in the summer season and high precipitation in the rainy season and winter season are important for ESC habitat suitability. These climatic parameters were important for ESC in all seasons (AUC > 0.9). Important parameters influencing ESC habitat suitability were elevation, slope, distance to road in the summer season, elevation, distance to road and village and slope in the rainy season, and elevation and slope in the winter season. Annual precipitation was the main parameter influencing ESC habitat suitability in both summer and winter, while in the rainy season it was mean diurnal range (>90%).

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