Urban Flooding and Climate Change

Abstract

Flooding in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, impedes the development of the city and brings challenges to the well-being of its citizens. The city is situated in a flood-prone area. This study investigated perceptions of the causes among the residents of perennial floods in Bangkok, examining daily precipitation changes over the last 30 years on eight indices (R10, R20, R25, CDD, CWD, RX5day, PRCPTOT and R99p) and the characteristics of the city that promote or exacerbate flooding. The data was collected by the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) from station ID 455201 in the period 1986-2015. Plausible factors contributing to flooding vulnerability and to the ineffective implementation of the city's flood corrective and preventive measures were determined. A survey of 400 residents of 20 flood-prone localities in the capital's four districts was carried out and statistical analysis was performed. Further, levels of satisfaction with the efficiency and effectiveness of the city's flood corrective and preventive measures were assessed. The documentary and empirical findings collectively illuminate three contributing factors or causes of persistent flooding in the capital and of the ineffectual execution of flood-related policies and measures.

Bangkok Precipitated: Cloudbursts, Sentient Urbanity, and Emergent Atmospheres

“…Thanawat Jarupongsakul, head of the Disasters and Climate Change Department at Chulalongkorn University, has argued that a "failure in urban planning" (Ippoodom 2017) means that urban expansions are now beyond the capacity of the city drainage system. The same point was made in a study of Bangkok urban flooding, which cited unplanned building as an important factor in increasing the city's vulnerability to flooding (Thanvisitthpon, Shrestha, and Pal 2018). Not only does urban construction obstruct the city drainage system; making matters worse it happens on lands that were previously used as water retention areas.…”

Impact of Climate Change on International Health Security: An Intersection of Complexity, Interdependence, and Urgency

“…Over the past several decades, floods have become a growing problem throughout the world [158,159]. This has been especially problematic among low-lying areas of the planet, including large river deltas [160][161][162][163][164], and thought to be associated with rising sea levels [165][166][167]. It has been estimated that roughly 40-50% of environmental disasters are due to floods, and there is also a significant correlation between flooding and wind disasters [165][166][167][168].…”

An Object-Based Image Analysis of WorldView-3 Image for Urban Flood Vulnerability Assessment and Dissemination Through ESRI Story Maps

“…The economic damage caused by the floods is around 11.5 billion USD from a recent report from ESCAP (UNES-CAP, 2017). Flood hazards are more costly and difficult to manage in urban environment because of the increased concentration of assets and population (Thanvisitthpon et al, 2018). Furthermore, the complexity of the urban environment due to frequent changes in land use and different infrastructures makes it difficult to forecast which areas would be flooded and how much flooding will harm existing structures.…”