Traditional waterfront communities are extremely significant in understanding the role and influence of the daily lives of an indigenous amphibious culture and are considered to be a counterpart of the contemporary community that would have existed in the past. This study gives a systematic overview of the traditional waterfront community complex in the Chao Phraya River Basin to identify the phenomenology and salient features characterizing the waterfront community through the analysis of the following: 1) features of geography and waterbodies; 2) cultural landscapes and agricultural activities; 3) urban components; and 4) architectural features. A total of 138 traditional waterfront communities were selected using the purposive sampling method.Quantitative data collection was conducted using field investigation to collect and evaluate the validity of properties in actual conditions. The data were analyzed using a statistical analysis program to examine the similarity and correlation of the data set. To identify characteristics, hierarchical clustering and decision-tree analysis were used to group similar communities together and classify the complexity of a traditional waterfront community. Principal component analysis was then used to detect the true association between the relevant variables. In addition, qualitative assessment of secondary document collection, legislation, previous and present public policies, research, and criticisms were used to support the argument for statistical analysis.The results provided seven clusters based on common preferences consisting of a market town, paddy village, raft community, waterfront market, comprehensive estuarine agricultural village, orchard village, and fishing village. These clusters show diversity in the cultural landscape, with agricultural activities exerting influence on the community complex, creating both direct and indirect association, with several significant variables.

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The historic city of Ayutthaya is known for its water management system. The Ayutthaya City Plan comprises a network of several rivers and canals, connecting the inner city with the outside. The historical monuments are taken care of by both domestic and international agencies, but their settings and built environments face numerous challenges causing the connection between historic monuments and water features is slowly fading away. This study aims to establish why the historical city has lost its sense of a water-based settlement. The result reveals that several areas outside the World Heritage Site remain connected. In times of flood, the traditional design of the historical structure, with its precise leveling and topographical surveys of the past, is able to prevent damage, bearing witness to how the community lives with water intrusion. Several settlements along the ancient Chao Phraya River also represent outstanding examples of the living practices in water-based settlements.

After the first dam was built in the Chao Phraya River during the 1950s, several water-controlled structures and megaprojects were built throughout the basin. For the first 30 years, water levels were stable, and the dams largely provided flood prevention. However, in recent years, global warming and climate change have been driving the frequency and intensity of extreme events. Local people have gradually lost their resilience against living with water during the years of a stable flood and flow system. This caused the interiority of the amphibious culture to drown into an oblivion state in the water-based settlement. The investigation was conducted in two villages with identical environmental conditions and similar cultural livelihoods in the floodplain of Ayutthaya Province against seasonal water intrusion. The physical characteristics of housing and cultural landscape of the waterfront villages were analysed via floor plans and cross-sectional study to explain the physical changes through time. The primary investigation revealed that the loss of the underneath space is an important indicator of housing changes resulting from the water conditions becoming more stable. Individuals have started to forget how to live with water. At the same time, the characteristics of the stilt house with an underneath space indicated that the communities continue to practice resilience to co-exist with the flood phenomenon.