Greening Bangkok

Abstract

For Thailand's capital of Bangkok, and its surrounding five provinces, green cities are a matter of survival.And with extreme rainfall and summer heatwaves becoming the norm, Bangkok must adapt and develop climate resilience, or risk disappearing.Bangkok lies in a flood-prone area, which climate change is now rendering more vulnerable.A flood in 2011, the worst in Thailand's history, inundated nearly a tenth of the country, particularly in and around greater Bangkok, and caused over 650 deaths and some US$50 billion in damage.No surprise, therefore, that the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), which consists of the city of Bangkok and its five provinces, should have a panoply of climate change action plans and green growth strategies.However, most of them focus on policies in the city of Bangkok, and not on the region as a whole.The 2013 Bangkok Comprehensive Plan lays out land-use, infrastructure and transportation plans for the city of Bangkok.Among its green measures, it requires 50% of open space areas to be given over to vegetation.It also provides incentives for developers to integrate rainwater storage and public parking spaces into new buildings.The 12-year Bangkok Development Plan, which was launched