Rising sea levels threaten Bangkok

[snoop1130]

 

The biggest looming threat to Bangkok today are rising sea levels. Climate change is causing global warming. There have been numerous studies that have been conducted about rising sea levels caused by human induced climate change. It was concluded sea level rise is due to manmade climate change. There is no question there is extensive literature about climate change, sea level rise, sustainability and planning for the expected catastrophe.

 

However, there are only a few options written options to counteract sea level rise and no concrete planning for the inevitable catastrophe. Most studies approach this topic from an engineering standpoint, including proposals for sea walls, dikes, groins or jetties, earth berms (or tall mounds of dirt), physical barriers, construction of barrier islands, sand replenishment of affected beaches and other technical options. However, nothing can be found to date that addresses the human side of the equation, the looming problem of moving people or populations away from affected coastal areas.

There is no question that the sea level is slowly rising. It will soon pose a grave hazard to the world’s population, commerce and livelihood. It will have a direct impact on earth’s sustainability. Even now there has been serious incidents of flooding, stronger storm surges from large cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons, shoreline and land erosion and other physical problems like seawater encroachment into land based fresh water sources. There is a general scientific consensus that sea levels have been rising at approximately two millimetres per year since 1850 according to scientific measurement and record keeping.

 

During the Pleistocene Epoch some 18,000 years ago, or during the last Ice Age, it is estimated that the sea level was 100 metres lower than in the present time. The sea level has already risen 10-12.5 centimetres in the last 50 years. Recent scientific studies of sea level change have shown that the average increase or rate of rise has been between one – three millimetres/year. It is now estimated that by the year 2070 that sea levels may be 20 – 70 centimetres higher than at present. Some scientific studies have stated that if all the ice melted in Antarctica and Greenland, then sea level would rise by some 75 metres.

  

This side effect is melting glaciers, snowfields and sea ice, so the world’s oceans have been seeing an incremental rise in sea level for hundreds of years. Manmade global warming is a phenomenon that is fueling ocean levels to rise. Due to more heat in the air and the oceans, heated water will expand thus making the problem much worse. In one scientific analysis, it was found that all coastal areas will be heavily impacted by rising sea levels. As the world’s population increases in most non Western countries, urban coastal and adjacent areas will be the centre of those population increases and flows into centres for higher income earning opportunities. This means urban areas are growing as rural areas lose population. Global warming poses further serious risks, and a study by the OECD has estimated that 5.138 million people in Bangkok may be exposed to coastal flooding by 2070, the seventh highest figure among the world’s port cities.

 

Some of the world’s largest or most important low lying seaport cities at great risk will include New York City; Kolkata, India; New Orleans, Louisiana; Miami and Tampa Bay, Florida; Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. Also some low elevation parts of the U.S. like the much of the states of Louisiana and Florida are also at grave risk of being permanently submerged.

 

It is estimated one third of the world’s population lives within 56 kilometres of a coastline. More than one third of the world’s economic infrastructure are concentrated in coastal regions with elevations below 1.5 metres. Scientists have stated that a 0.3 metre sea level rise will push shorelines back about 30 metres. A 1.5 metre sea level rise is estimated to push shorelines back 136 metres. It has also been estimated that in the year 2020 that 65% of the world’s population will live along the coastal margins.  Another report states that 20% of the world’s population already lives on coastal areas that might be inundated or changed dramatically if sea levels rise even one metre. Low lying river delta areas with densely packed populations in Bangladesh, Nigeria, China, Malaysia, India, Egypt and Thailand will be at the great risk. The populations of island states are at most immediate risk because of rising sea include the Kiribati, Seychelles, Nauru, the Maldives, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

 

Full Story: https://expatlifeinthailand.com/travel-and-leisure/rising-sea-levels-threaten-bangkok/

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life in Thailand 2021-05-24

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[Excel]

Well this is hardly a new story and has been discussed for at least 30 years with ref to BKK to my knowledge and possibly longer. Of course nothing will be done or planned to be done as no doubt the original philosophy was that they will just steal somebodies land and build anew somewhere higher, much like when they moved the capital from Ayutthaya to BKK. But times have changed now and although that feudal dominance may still be held as ideal by a few it will not happen in 21st century.  Also what was not mentioned in that article was the compounding factor of subsidence. Basically BKK is sinking accelerated by the increase of groundwater abstraction, again nothing has been planned as alternative sources of water such as desalination etc.  So it is a double whammy for BKK. The water is rising and the ground is sinking. Bit like the government and others really.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Excel

[thurien]

I read about exactly this some 35 years ago

[BritManToo]

According to the NOAA, average sea level rise at Koh Lak is 0.08mm/year.

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_global_station.shtml?stnid=600-021

 

That's gonna take a long while to sink.

They don't list Bangkok, maybe the sea level there is rising 100x faster.

Edited May 25, 2021 by BritManToo

[Moonlover]

15 hours ago, Excel said:

Also what was not mentioned in that article was the compounding factor of subsidence. Basically BKK is sinking accelerated by the increase of groundwater abstraction,

Read the full article and you'll find that this is covered, quite extensively. 

[VocalNeal]

The planet is not static and the crust is still recovering from the last ice age. The sea floor somewhere rises and the water level goes up.

[J Town]

Here's an idea - let's make Bangkok the hub of rising sea levels.

[Excel]

20 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Read the full article and you'll find that this is covered, quite extensively. 

Can't be bothered to read something that is just a re-gurgitation f what experts have already said  rather than something new. Still guess they have to sell their stories somehow

[Caldera]

This was already a story when I visited Bangkok for the first time. Usually it's also pointed out that Bangkok is sinking, which aggravates the effect. It's safe to assume that nothing has been done, nothing is being done and nothing will be done - until it's too late, whenever that will be the case. A bit like reinforcing border patrols after a new Covid variant has entered the country.

 

Would I buy property here? Probably not, but I'd guess that the worsening pollution will keep me away from Bangkok before the rising sea levels will.

 

In the meantime, I'll enjoy Bangkok while it's still enjoyable...

[tifino]

Bangkok sinking into the Earth/Mud all by itself will claim itself as its own victim... well before 'climate change'  

 

[davidcraig]

This article is rubbish from start to finish. Firstly, the Antarctic is NOT meting. It is adding around 8 billion tons of snow/ice every year. The Arctic ice floats on the sea. If it were to melt (which isn't happening) there would be no change in sea levels at all. Most major cities are sinking because of water abstraction and subsidence. In the US, cities are sinking due to Post-glacial Rebound and tectonic plate movement. Moreover water levels are apparently falling around Sweden, Finland and Scotland. This is the same climate catastrophist rubbish we've been subjected to for the last 50 years.

 

In four weeks, my latest book THERE IS NO CLIMATE CRISIS will be published debunking all the climate change nonsense

Edited May 25, 2021 by davidcraig

[digger70]

Rising sea levels threaten Bangkok  

 

 

The Only thing that's going to happen is the Ice Phenomena

Happens every Few thousand years give or take a few yrs.

We are on the Warming Cycle now that may get worse for the next few hundred or few thousand yrs, we won't see that happen.

Can't do Nothing about it, it's Nature .

Maybe this will be the end for a lot of low lying countries .So be it 

Maybe the end of the world is near.

After the warm cycle it will start cooling down Again ( We won't see that)and if there are any people left Fine 

I maybe Wrong ,I maybe Right ,believe it or not .not my problem.

[Yellowtail]

"Climate change is causing global warming."

 

Haven't the left been telling us that global warming WAS climate change?

 

I thought WE were causing it, no? 

 

Notice how everything is written as fact. 

 

If the left really believed this they would not be buying homes on the coast....

 

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

As a boy I struggled to get through the Plasticine era. Doubters should ask themselves this. Would rising sea levels have saved the Titanic?

[unblocktheplanet]

16 hours ago, scammed said:

this site is so full of propaganda based on pseudo science and misinformation its disgusting.

all thailands tide gauges show a slow linear increase which

will come to fruition in 800 years, except the tide gauge

at fort phrachula which is built on a swamp and sinking,

you can literally see the mud seeping out under the fort,

all the while scott delete every post where i expose the fraud, to further the propaganda

 

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/search_results.html?utf8=✓&query=thailand

 

https://www.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/seasonal.shtml?stnid=600-041

 

 

Okay, I'll buy in. All I know is the drinking water had unsafe levels of salt this winter. I referred to the salinity index here: https://twqonline.mwa.co.th/map.php?type=sal and the Bangkok tide table here: https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Bangkok-Thailand/tides/latest. Perhaps that is not due to Bangkok sinking but some other factor which can be explained by clear science.

 

All I see is, while Bangkok drown, Too fiddles.

[madmen]

TV the hub of doom and gloom. Don't think I have seen positive news in the last 12 months. 

Oh well time to head back down into my bunker. 

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

The planet is not static and the crust is still recovering from the last ice age. The sea floor somewhere rises and the water level goes up.

I can talk for hours on (Inter)Glacial Isostatic Adjustment!

Edited May 25, 2021 by BritManToo

[Yellowtail]

4 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Okay, I'll buy in. All I know is the drinking water had unsafe levels of salt this winter. I referred to the salinity index here: https://twqonline.mwa.co.th/map.php?type=sal and the Bangkok tide table here: https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Bangkok-Thailand/tides/latest. Perhaps that is not due to Bangkok sinking but some other factor which can be explained by clear science.

 

All I see is, while Bangkok drown, Too fiddles.

 

There are any number of things that can case an increase (or decrease) or salinity, including rainfall or lack thereof. 

 

In any event, ad the ice melts, should the salinity of the ocean not decrease? 

[BritManToo]

Just now, madmen said:

TV the hub of doom and gloom. Don't think I have seen positive news in the last 12 months. 

Oh well time to head back down into my bunker. 

Good News ....... Phuket is definitely opening to the world on 1st July.

If it's still above sea level by then.

[rickudon]

Davidcraig gives the game away with his last sentence.......

 

As for scammed, he bases his denial on 2 tidal stations nowhere near Bangkok.

 

I found this scientific paper on ResearchGate.........

 

Quote

Recent estimate of sea-level rise in the Gulf of Thailand

Pramot Sojisuporn 1,2,*, Chalermrat Sangmanee 1,3 and Gullaya Wattayakorn 1 1 Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand 2 Aquatic Research Resource Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok10330, Thailand 3 South-east Asia START Regional Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

 

Abstract: The annual local mean sea level (MSL) at 13 tide gauge stations bordering the Gulf of Thailand in Thai waters was used to investigate the apparent sea-level rise over the last 25 years (1985-2009). The annual local MSL was computed by averaging the hourly tidal data at each station for the whole year. The data at 11 stations showed a higher average annual local MSL than the mean Thailand MSL, which was set up over a century ago. The data from most stations showed rising trends of sea level, although at different rates depending on the station location. Averaging the annual local MSL by region into a single time series revealed a linear trend for the sea-level rise of about 5 mm/yr in the last 25-year time span. Land subsidence at the river mouths where the tidegauge stations are usually located seems to play a major role in the observed higher annual local MSL. The findings are a warning that Thailand may face severe coastal recession in the near future if no measures are taken to halt the land subsidence near the coast.

 

So the average sea level rise in the gulf of Thailand is 5 mm per year, average of 13 tidal stations. Also, apart from sea level rise, and pumping from aquifers, building tower blocks on mud causes subsidence too, due to their weight.

 

 

 

[Yellowtail]

7 minutes ago, rickudon said:

Davidcraig gives the game away with his last sentence.......

 

As for scammed, he bases his denial on 2 tidal stations nowhere near Bangkok.

 

I found this scientific paper on ResearchGate.........

 

 

So the average sea level rise in the gulf of Thailand is 5 mm per year, average of 13 tidal stations. Also, apart from sea level rise, and pumping from aquifers, building tower blocks on mud causes subsidence too, due to their weight.

 

 

 

 

So per the article, at 5mm a year we'll loose 30 meters of coast in sixty years yes?

[sanuk711]

15 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

5mm a year we'll loose 30 meters of coast in sixty years yes?

 

..........................????.................1,000mm = 1 meter

Edited May 25, 2021 by sanuk711

[rickudon]

43 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

In any event, ad the ice melts, should the salinity of the ocean not decrease?

Only by a tiny amount - a one metre sea-level rise will make a difference of only a few parts per million in the oceans which are about 4 kilometres deep on average.

[rickudon]

19 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

So per the article, at 5mm a year we'll loose 30 meters of coast in sixty years yes?

 On flat coasts at sea level it could be kilometres. 

 

https://www.clim-adapt.com/post/combating-coastal-erosion-in-bangkok-bay#:~:text=The Thai coastline covers 2%2C800,meters of coastline per year.

 

So average of 5 metres per year, with of course the gulf of Thailand being most affected.

[Yellowtail]

23 minutes ago, sanuk711 said:

 

..........................????.................1,000mm = 1 meter

 

The article said for every 0.3 meters of rise we'd lose 30 meters of coastline. So if there's 5mm a year of rise, it would take sixty years to lose 30 meters of coast, yes? 

 

 

 

[Yellowtail]

21 minutes ago, rickudon said:

 On flat coasts at sea level it could be kilometres. 

 

https://www.clim-adapt.com/post/combating-coastal-erosion-in-bangkok-bay#:~:text=The Thai coastline covers 2%2C800,meters of coastline per year.

 

So average of 5 metres per year, with of course the gulf of Thailand being most affected.

 

By "flat" you mean level? 

 

If the coastline were a flat hillside, the loss would be insignificant yes? 

 

If it were flat and level the loss would be hundreds of miles, yes? 

 

[Surasak]

The assumption is that the sea levels will rise as ice melts. So all the large ice cubes breaking away from ice shelves is going to down us all? Someone should tell these climate change nutters that the ice is only displacing its own weight in water. This can be proven by a very simple experiment. Fill a glass with ice, preferably small cubes, then top it to the brim with water. I guarantee that as the ice melts the level in the glass will very slightly reduce. It cannot overflow because the ice is only displacing its own weight and size in the water. FACT, which any school boy  can and has proved, time and time again.

[VocalNeal]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I can talk for hours on (Inter)Glacial Isostatic Adjustment!

If it makes you happy!

[Acharn]

I'm sure I saw a story about this in the Bangkok World in 1971. The cause was Bangkok sinking because they were drawing water from artesian wells. Since then there's been the added cause of rising sea levels. I suppose they'll set up a committee to study the problem when the water floods Wat Arun on a daily basis. I don't expect to live that long.

[Hanuman2547]

I've been hearing of Bangkok sinking for almost 40 years.  It's still here and chugging right along.  Global warming we haven't heard of quite as long.