Urban Flooding and Adaptation to Climate Change in Sukhumvit Area, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Flooding in urban areas is an inevitable problem for many cities in the world. In Thailand, Bangkok has serious problems related to urban flooding. The situation was highlighted in May 2017, when residences experienced ankle to knee-deep flood water on the streets. Daily activities in parts of the city were nearly paralyzed and heavy traffic jams occurred due to stagnant water on the streets. The study has depended on a combined approach of physically based modeling and GIS. The urban drainage is structured by iRIC software for the basis of two networks, one simulating the two-dimension free-surface flow over the streets and one for the pumping/canal/pipe system. The interaction between street and pumping/canal/pipe system is modeled in a simple way. In 2017, ADAP-T project carried out a pilot study about urban flooding and adaptation modeling for Sukhumvit area, Bangkok Metropolitan. This study is performed as an extension and improvement of pilot study in terms of analyzing drainage system on effect of flood hazard, vulnerability, risk map and adaptation under the issue of climate change in Sukhumvit area, Bangkok, together with suggestion of alleviation scenarios to relieve flood problems.