Bangkok is sinking, so it built a park that holds a million gallons of rainwater to help prevent flooding

[webfact]

Bangkok is sinking, so it built a park that holds a million gallons of rainwater to help prevent flooding

Leanna Garfield

 

Landprocess

 

Summertime is Thailand's rainy season, when Bangkok and other cities can experience powerful storms. In past years, downpours have produced enough rainfall to completely flood city streets, overwhelm drainage systems, and inundate homes.

 

Making matters worse for Bangkok, the city is sinking at a rate of more than one centimeter a year and could be below sea level by 2030.

 

To help prevent future flooding, the city and local organizations have recently embarked on several projects, including mapping out an extensive water-management plan this past June.

 

Full story: https://www.newstimes.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Bangkok-is-sinking-so-it-built-a-park-that-holds-13122767.php

 

-- NewsTimes 2018-2018-08-02

[greenchair]

While they are spending their trillions building train systems, the country is being inundated with floods in the rainy season and plagued by droughts in the summer. The engineers have been warning governments for decades. Thaksin did have a plan to build an irrigation system, but it was shot down because it would cost billions. That same project would cost trillions today. Trillions the are being spent on trains. 

The government  would do well to listen to his kindergarten story the ant and the grasshopper. 

[Prairieboy]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

the city is sinking at a rate of more than one centimeter a year and could be below sea level by 2030.

I believe the average elevation of Bangkok is 1.5 metres (150 cm) above sea level.  There are 12 years until 2030 therefore at 1 cm+/year it will sink another 12 to 15 cm so........????  One report states 2 cm per year but even at that in 12 years, it would only sink 24 cm.

[canuckamuck]

Does anyone else get stuck on a page asking you to fill out a survey before you can read this article? I would love to read the article, but I don't fill out surveys ever.

Also the survey is in Thai script.

[tingtongtourist]

5 minutes ago, greenchair said:

While they are spending their trillions building train systems, the country is being inundated with floods in the rainy season and plagued by droughts in the summer. The engineers have been warning governments for decades. Thaksin did have a plan to build an irrigation system, but it was shot down because it would cost billions. That same project would cost trillions today. Trillions the are being spent on trains. 

The government  would do well to listen to his kindergarten story the ant and the grasshopper. 

did you even read the link?

there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.

 

you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

[yankee99]

i think the rest of the world calls them retention ponds. 

[LazySlipper]

This is Thailand's attempt at building an olympic size swimming pool in their bid to get the summer olympics held here. They will use the klongs for the kayak races events... after they clean them up.

[DoctorG]

Maybe those submarines will be useful after all.

[jonclark]

33 minutes ago, Prairieboy said:

I believe the average elevation of Bangkok is 1.5 metres (150 cm) above sea level.  There are 12 years until 2030 therefore at 1 cm+/year it will sink another 12 to 15 cm so........????  One report states 2 cm per year but even at that in 12 years, it would only sink 24 cm.

Also factor in raising sea levels and the degree of difference between ground level and sea level narrows further..And when you add in storm surges and the equinox high tide...the overall impact is ....more frequent wet feet for bangkokians.

 

 

 

[otherstuff1957]

The average elevation may be 1.5 meters, but there are several areas that are considerably lower.

 

 

 

[Kerryd]

Remember that not long ago they were blaming Bangkok's sinking on the "illegal" soapies and brothels that were (illegally) sucking up too much groundwater from the aquifers underneath the city.

 

As a result of that water loss, the aquifers were slowly collapsing and causing the city to "sink".

 

While it is true that draining an aquifer could result in ground subsidence, one would think that, with a major river flowing through the heart of the city and the amount of rainfall it receives, the aquifers are more likely being squeezed by the mass of all the buildings and infrastructure above them. You can't keep adding millions of tons of infrastructure onto a landmass that is basically compressed river silt and not expect it to start sinking. It's not like the city is built on solid bedrock.
Many cities built on river estuaries encounter the same problems. 

You'll never convince them to "spread" the weight out over a larger area, or to reduce the number of buildings (and their size) so the problem will only get worse in the future. 
 

[Taco]

1 million gallons is nothing in the scheme of any large piece of land.  At best would counter the water not entering the ground  from the 6 lane road in front of it.  1 inch of rain falling on one square kilometer is 6.68 million gallons.  This little pond is not going to help Bangkok.  But, hopefully there will be some fit Thai girls jogging around it or doing Yoga.

[grollies]

1" of rain falling on 1 sqkm measures 25,000m3.

 

The land area of BKK is 1,569km2.

 

1" of rain in BKK will result in 39,225,000m3 of water.

 

(US) Gallons is 10,362,153,627 

 

Diverting 1,000,000 gallons of water?

 

It's not going to work.

[grollies]

4 minutes ago, Taco said:

1 million gallons is nothing in the scheme of any large piece of land.  At best would counter the water not entering the ground  from the 6 lane road in front of it.  1 inch of rain falling on one square kilometer is 6.68 million gallons.  This little pond is not going to help Bangkok.  But, hopefully there will be some fit Thai girls jogging around it or doing Yoga.

Ditto 55555

[davidkas]

did you even read the link?
there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.
 
you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

I think he was referring to a nationwide plan of canals, pump stations etc not to this token.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[grollies]

2 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

did you even read the link?

there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.

 

you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

You obviously didn't.

 

The project was built on 11 acres of land, valued at $700m.

 

As a park it has merit and the gardens and filtration systems are a nice touch, a good open space in central BKK.

 

But as a flood preventation measure, no apart from the immediate surrounding area.

[marko kok prong]

Well at one time Bangkok was know as the venice of the east,with all it's klongs,that was because it was built on a flood plain /rivermouth,and back then it was mainly light wooden houses. Over the years many of the klongs have been filled reducing drainage,many huge skyscrapers have been built as another poster said,squeezing down the soft ground,add predicted sea level rise due to global warming,ithink you will find in 100 years or so much of the city will be permanently under water.

[MaxLee]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Bangkok is sinking, so it built a park that holds a million gallons of rainwater to help prevent flooding

Leanna Garfield

 

THAT????? 

[geriatrickid]

3 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Does anyone else get stuck on a page asking you to fill out a survey before you can read this article? I would love to read the article, but I don't fill out surveys ever.

Also the survey is in Thai script.

You live in Thailand. Please take the effort to learn to  read and write the local language. Immigrants should make an effort to learn the local language and not act as if they are still in the old country.  ?

[manchega]

3 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

did you even read the link?

there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.

 

you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

credit should be given when the real problem is addressed, speculate you are english language teacher/ apologist

if thailand wanted to fix the flooding it could do as other countries tidal barriers for BKK and deal with the annual issues in north.

thailand probably ahs capability to do something ( or at least i hope there is brains around) the probability of something being implemented that would actually work - as opposed to built for show or for face is very very very very very very low

[greenchair]

3 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

did you even read the link?

there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.

 

you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

I did read the link which obviously, you didn't read correctly. The project was built on 700 million worth of land. 11 acres. It doesn't say how much it cost. And it does confirm what I said, the engineers and universities have been warning governments for decades to deaf ears. The project was commissioned by the chulalongkorn university and another one initiated by thammasat university. Perhaps they are trying to set an example of what the government could do to prevent future disaster. 1 million gallons of water in the rainy season is miniscule to what they need to collect. 

It's a great start by the universities. But when is the government going to pull their head out of the sand? ?

[josephbloggs]

3 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

did you even read the link?

there are pictures. is a project that reportedly cost 700mill.

 

you lot are so bent up in negativity against everything Thai you cannot even give credit when something has been done

Yep.  And if they weren't spending "all that money" on trains and what is an impressive and much needed mass transit infrastructure project then the same people would be moaning about how Thailand doesn't invest in infrastructure, third world country, traffic problem but no-one cares as Thais only care about money, look at Singapore and their MRT, why why why, blah blah blah zzzzzzzzzzzz.

[jimster]

3 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

I believe the average elevation of Bangkok is 1.5 metres (150 cm) above sea level.  There are 12 years until 2030 therefore at 1 cm+/year it will sink another 12 to 15 cm so........????  One report states 2 cm per year but even at that in 12 years, it would only sink 24 cm.

According to my GPS the average elevation in Bangkok is about 3m, with some areas around the north of the city being around 4-5m.

 

Much of this kind of reporting is fear mongering, though I do believe something has to be done to mitigate the problem of groundwater rising, however, as you say it's probably not going to happen as quickly as the news reports like to say. Even so, the authorities shouldn't be complacent.

[jimster]

1 hour ago, marko kok prong said:

Well at one time Bangkok was know as the venice of the east,with all it's klongs,that was because it was built on a flood plain /rivermouth,and back then it was mainly light wooden houses. Over the years many of the klongs have been filled reducing drainage,many huge skyscrapers have been built as another poster said,squeezing down the soft ground,add predicted sea level rise due to global warming,ithink you will find in 100 years or so much of the city will be permanently under water.

Much of this global warming fearmongering has never been proven to take place. Sea levels are still the same now compared to when Al Gore warned us 20 years ago that by now many coastal communities would be flooded.

 

The actual problem lies more with groundwater rising thanks to the weight of all the infrastructure (buildings, roads, bridges, expressways) pushing down on the soft loamy ground.

 

Bangkok, despite being close to the sea is in a more sheltered position than many other coastal cities around the world anyway, the southern Thai and Malay coasts in the east and the eastern Thai, Cambodian and southern Vietnamese coasts shelter it and further afield you have Indonesia and Borneo - Bangkok isn't exposed to the open ocean like say Phuket, all Australian coastal cities, California and eastern Japanese cities for example, just to name a few.

[melvinmelvin]

Brothels consuming groundwater illegally --> BKK sinks? give me a b

It is well known that several of the really huge buildings in BKK steals groundwater,

clean/rinse it a bit and use it, not for drinking of course (I hope) but other causes.

 

I was very surprised to read the estimates of BKK's elevation above, very surprised.

 

Doesn't match what I observe at all, especially on the Western side of the river.

 

Maybe BKK is a lost case and one ought to start to consider the feasibility of moving the main

city, functions/inhabitants to higher ground.  Very costly for sure.

But securing BKK against flood from the north and from high tides and the sea would be a gigantic

task at a gigantic cost.

 

Moving can be done gradually.

 

[Jimbo2014]

3 hours ago, grollies said:

1" of rain falling on 1 sqkm measures 25,000m3.

 

The land area of BKK is 1,569km2.

 

1" of rain in BKK will result in 39,225,000m3 of water.

 

(US) Gallons is 10,362,153,627 

 

Diverting 1,000,000 gallons of water?

 

It's not going to work.

Your absolutely right.  I suspect the link between this water park and flood prevention is to divert funds from serious flood prevention towards someone's private profit making scheme of running a large water park.  Has nothing to do with flood prevention - otherwise Holland would be one giant water park ?

 

 

[tifino]

 so the solution is some sort of balance in between:

 

Raising their Hopes  , and  

 

and Floating the Economy ?‍♀️ ... 

 

or, once again:  

[peperobi]

Wow! Venice in Thailand!

[rebo]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

a million gallons of rainwater

correspondents with a cube with an edge length of 15.6 m.
Ridiculous!

[HooHaa]

5 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Does anyone else get stuck on a page asking you to fill out a survey before you can read this article? I would love to read the article, but I don't fill out surveys ever.

Also the survey is in Thai script.

Sounds like browser hijack to me.