Thailand lacks annual flood assessment – climate change expert

[Jonathan Fairfield]

 

Thailand lacks regular flood risk assessments, which should be carried out every one or two years, to see what has changed since the last flood, in terms of land use and whether it will affect the floodwaters, said Dr. Seree Supratid, the Director of the Climate Change Centre.

 

He said the real cause of flooding in Thailand is a combination of factors, including climate change and bad water management, and that poor management is actually responsible for 50% of the damage.

 

“In the last ten years, we have had a lot of infrastructure development or building in the river. That means we have less room for the river. It means, even though the water volume is less than in 2011, it is still flooding. This is flood management,” said Dr. Seree.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-lacks-annual-flood-assessment-climate-change-expert/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-10-10

 

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[Gsxrnz]

I forecast that every year it will rain, every year there will be floods, and every year nothing will be done to mitigate the flooding except shoddy remedial work that is 70% graft anyway.

 

To whom in the government do I send my invoice for flood assessment services?

[Srikcir]

But the government never lacks annual denial.

Just get your belongings to high ground. LOL

[RotBenz8888]

4 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

flood risk assessmen

Strategy: Hope it'll never happen. 

[digger70]

4 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

“In the last ten years, we have had a lot of infrastructure development or building in the river. That means we have less room for the river. It means, even though the water volume is less than in 2011, it is still flooding. This is flood management,” said Dr. Seree.

What a Dork I call that Mismanagement.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thailand lacks regular flood risk assessments, which should be carried out every one or two years, to see what has changed since the last flood, in terms of land use and whether it will affect the floodwaters, said Dr. Seree Supratid, the Director of the Climate Change Centre.

He'll be off to an inactive post Monday.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

“In the last ten years, we have had a lot of infrastructure development or building in the river. That means we have less room for the river. It means, even though the water volume is less than in 2011, it is still flooding. This is flood management,” said Dr. Seree.

Love the science.

[trainman34014]

'Climate Change Expert'; i am used to hearing that Thailand is 'The Greatest Nation on Earth' and other such garbage and also that most Thai's are 'Experts' at everything and need no advice from 'Outsiders' as they 'Know what they are doing' in every way.   So what's the problem then ?

[khunPer]

6 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

“In the last ten years, we have had a lot of infrastructure development or building in the river. That means we have less room for the river. It means, even though the water volume is less than in 2011, it is still flooding. This is flood management,” said Dr. Seree.

[ ... ]

Thailand’s weak point is that we don’t undertake regular assessments, we have never estimated the impact of the things we build.

Dr. Seree hits some very sensible points - and climate do change, it has done that in thousands of years, there was for example a warmer period about a thousand year ago, but we forgot it, or don't wish to know it, because it don't fits well the political agenda right now.

 

It's the same problem in for example Europe, where people have settled along the riversides - and put concrete on the soil - areas where water would flood to during years with increased downpour, or varmer periods where more snow melted from mountains.

 

It's almost every year we read about flooding in the news, and it's like nothing have changed since last time we read about it. Dr. Seree however mentions some good solutions, worth to consider his suggestions, and hopefully act accordingly.

[ourmanflint]

This is the reason Bangkok invented water propelling boats, don't forget those, a world first!

[Deli]

Thaiand lacks much more. 1st of all a demoractic and eleted Government with people who have some brain in their heads.

[RichardColeman]

The faults start at the very top with a PM that brazenly predicts to all that  there will be no flooding and then Thailand floods.

 

With people like him in charge , nothing will ever change

[Scott Tracy]

There's no need for a risk assessment. The PM has said...there will be no floods on his watch...

[Rampant Rabbit]

Thailand lacks............say  no  more

[placeholder]

11 hours ago, khunPer said:

Dr. Seree hits some very sensible points - and climate do change, it has done that in thousands of years, there was for example a warmer period about a thousand year ago, but we forgot it, or don't wish to know it, because it don't fits well the political agenda right now.

True only if you count certain regions of the world. But the planet as a whole did not have a warmer period 1000 year ago.

‘Medieval Warm Period’ Wasn’t Global or Even All That Warm, Study Says

Historical data from Greenland’s glaciers helps debunk another favored theory of climate denialists.

The tenth to thirteenth centuries, when temperatures in Europe were unusually warm, was also a time of relative cold in the western North Atlantic, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The findings further undermine the notion of a global Medieval Warm Period that climate change denialists often hold up to support the false idea that today’s global warming is a result of natural, non-manmade causes.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04122015/medieval/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnoqLBhD4ARIsAL5JedISAdwqBIj7Ml_GdYGnyiI2dzeYJmiBjjQ32HBRkG-cDjZPrz6B-NsaAmeZEALw_wcB

 

 

[khunPer]

13 hours ago, placeholder said:

True only if you count certain regions of the world. But the planet as a whole did not have a warmer period 1000 year ago.

‘Medieval Warm Period’ Wasn’t Global or Even All That Warm, Study Says

Historical data from Greenland’s glaciers helps debunk another favored theory of climate denialists.

The tenth to thirteenth centuries, when temperatures in Europe were unusually warm, was also a time of relative cold in the western North Atlantic, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The findings further undermine the notion of a global Medieval Warm Period that climate change denialists often hold up to support the false idea that today’s global warming is a result of natural, non-manmade causes.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04122015/medieval/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnoqLBhD4ARIsAL5JedISAdwqBIj7Ml_GdYGnyiI2dzeYJmiBjjQ32HBRkG-cDjZPrz6B-NsaAmeZEALw_wcB

Thanks for your interesting reply; however, there is a reason why Greenland is called "green land", it's because Greenland was green during the Medieval warm period when the vikings crossed the Northern Atlantic in open sail boats and settled on Greenland, and grew crops up there. The sea level was also higher, which is why the vikings at that time could sail into their towns down south in Denmark, areas that today are dry and quite far from water.

 

The Greenland ice sample's temperature chart is here...

 

 

A Global temperature chart is here, it's not stating any reason for the changes, could be volcanic activity, or Solar irradiation, or something else, just recording some facts...

 

 

An interesting graph in accordance to my previous post about that people have settled in wet areas with risk for flooding, is the coastal settlements where there are some statistics from US...

 

[placeholder]

4 minutes ago, khunPer said:

Thanks for your interesting reply; however, there is a reason why Greenland is called "green land", it's because Greenland was green during the Medieval warm period when the vikings crossed the Northern Atlantic in open sail boats and settled on Greenland, and grew crops up there. The sea level was also higher, which is why the vikings at that time could sail into their towns down south in Denmark, areas that today are dry and quite far from water.

 

The Greenland ice sample's temperature chart is here...

 

 

A Global temperature chart is here, it's not stating any reason for the changes, could be volcanic activity, or Solar irradiation, or something else, just recording some facts...

 

 

An interesting graph in accordance to my previous post about that people have settled in wet areas with risk for flooding, is the coastal settlements where there are some statistics from US...

 

As the article I linked to stated, the greening of greenland turns out not to have been much if at all.

And without links, these graphs aren't worth much. Invariably I find that they're either outdated or in outright disagreement with what the vast majority of climatologists research shows. Usually such graphs are culled from denialist websites.

 

And Cliff Harris, whose name appears in one of the graphs, also believes this

 

A cold shoulder to global warming

Unlike most scientists, Coeur d’Alene climatologist Cliff Harris believes snowshoes will be more useful than sunscreen in coming decades.

Yes, the climate is changing, Harris says. But he doesn’t believe the planet is being transformed by manmade pollution. He also thinks an ice age is coming, not widespread warming.

“These cycles have come and gone for eons of time and they’ll continue to do that,” said Harris, 64.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/feb/26/a-cold-shoulder-to-global-warming/

He's also a devout Christian and believes that the Bible has imortance evidence on the question of climate change.

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, khunPer said:

A Global temperature chart is here, it's not stating any reason for the changes, could be volcanic activity, or Solar irradiation, or something else, just recording some facts...

 

 

 

 

No, it's not recording the facts at all. Its recording fiction.

Below are links leading to an exhaustive and major study of global temperatures over the last 2 millenia. It was ublished by the Nature organization, the world's preeminent publisher of scientific research. Well maybe Science qualifies for that, too.

 

No evidence for globally coherent warm and cold periods over the preindustrial Common Era

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1401-2.epdf?sharing_token=q9PsC8RkGv3YL8yRPCDQ2tRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OFAuvUf3smNPgQh_x6w3tkX-JXRoLf0zBLgBVwxe-KolOPDVVcajtao8b9HtkextpAX0RcP4MyZf8UC7psPM1wqrzHwqAYSFP4q8BzcVJ7qDVh672y1-WlRtqlGF2j61AlLsxqdIzQVAIthzGU3vU0xWUe4I38c8pajxdv7hQ4Y3mRahxdVoEhnbKnaiX8Ecc%3D&tracking_referrer=www.smithsonianmag.com

 

Consistent multidecadal variability in global temperature reconstructions and simulations over the Common Era

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0400-0.epdf?sharing_token=2fOrQ-ECCmhUfOVCVCB8GNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0N7bTxBqLecWapiK43Tv3o5PzlP3yU4M1aQfVsGAWcU8noAkDghrrd3WpWY1at2CNvthjRJgrIikCzt9_TdrD95_Ejxa-zhvMLmAkzemrdvri_G_H12tPFNMZ58cOfORRlA4qjJOL71YLwjVlPo6qrKsPf3nAOSas5kdVddDzTyXZgCXhbRbIl9anZr2-rBfD4%3D&tracking_referrer=www.smithsonianmag.com

[tso310]

The first itme I travelled to Bangkok I had seen pictures of severe flooding and people getting snake bites. The news report said it was an annual occurrence. Luckily for me when I got there the waters had rescinded. That was 1983. 

[placeholder]

3 hours ago, tso310 said:

The first itme I travelled to Bangkok I had seen pictures of severe flooding and people getting snake bites. The news report said it was an annual occurrence. Luckily for me when I got there the waters had rescinded. That was 1983. 

What comments like yours don't take account of is frequency and severity. It's best to look at meteorological evidence since infrastructure also plays a big role in flooding. paving landscape over will also tend to increase the likelihood of floods.

[tso310]

14 hours ago, placeholder said:

What comments like yours don't take account of is frequency and severity. It's best to look at meteorological evidence since infrastructure also plays a big role in flooding. paving landscape over will also tend to increase the likelihood of floods.

I don't disagree with you but back then the lack of drainage was cited. Look at the history of Bangkok or should I say the "Venice of the east". Monsoons were very more regular back then and floods were treated with a "mai pen rai". Yes drainage was finally built and look at the 2011 Bangkok floods caused by the drainage channels being blocked up with rubbish. Roads are still built without any reference to drainage. Even aircraft suffered, remember the Qantas B747 hydroplaning at Don Muang in 1999. Forward planning and then the  maintenance of any infrastructure has rarely been part Thai psyche. 

 

[placeholder]

10 minutes ago, tso310 said:

I don't disagree with you but back then the lack of drainage was cited. Look at the history of Bangkok or should I say the "Venice of the east". Monsoons were very more regular back then and floods were treated with a "mai pen rai". Yes drainage was finally built and look at the 2011 Bangkok floods caused by the drainage channels being blocked up with rubbish. Roads are still built without any reference to drainage. Even aircraft suffered, remember the Qantas B747 hydroplaning at Don Muang in 1999. Forward planning and then the  maintenance of any infrastructure has rarely been part Thai psyche. 

 

That's why I wrote it's best to look at factors that are independent of infrastructure to determine the trend.