Academic literature on the topic 'Flood damage Thailand'

One of the Thailand’s worst floods occurred in the autumn of 2011. A wide area of the Chao Phraya River basin, including Bangkok, was inundated for a long time. Heavy flood damage expanded not only in Thailand but in many parts of the world. The authors formed a research group and carried out an interview survey in the field in Thailand in November 2011 and in January 2012. We investigated the flood situation and damage in and around Bangkok. We also did so in Ayutthaya, where a world heritage site and an industrial park are located. Based on our findings, we discuss suitable countermeasures for reducing flood damage in Bangkok.

In 2011, the Thai economy contracted by 9.0 percent, mainly due to severe flooding in Chao Phraya River Basin. Rainfall accumulated from January to October 2011 was approximately 35% higher than in average years. Overall damage from floods amounted to THB 1.44 trillion, making it the world’s fourth costliest disaster. Significant damage included the production chains of the manufacturing sector and logistics systems and reductions in household expenditures, investment, Thailand’s exports, and the number of foreign turists.

The 2011 flood on the Chao Phraya River in Thailand caused enormous damage. The damage was greatest to the industrial sector, accounting for more than 70% of the estimated economic damage, and the resulting disruption of the supply chains of global companies has spread not only throughout Thailand but to other countries around the world. In order to reduce such damage, it is necessary to prepare a flood manual that makes use of past flood experiences or a business continuity planning (BCP) that assumes floods. In addition, business continuity management (BCM) is needed to establish and enhance BCP. Thus, it is essential to obtain flood information on the scale of an industrial park. Therefore, in this study, to provide detailed flood information as above, in addition to a flood inundation analysis model for the Chao Phraya River Basin, a detailed model on the scale of an industrial park was developed. Specifically, we developed a 40 m mesh industrial park-scale model based on survey data using a local aerial laser and the local river channel shape. Furthermore, using the flood discharge and river discharge output obtained from a 1 km mesh model of the Chao Phraya River Basin as inputs for the industrial park scale model for the surrounding boundary conditions, we obtained a more precise inundation analysis. As a result, the flood risk information obtained from the above analysis model can be useful for BCP/BCM. In addition, detailed flood risk information such as road inundation conditions can be obtained at any location, which could be useful in creating evacuation plans for employees.

This study investigates characteristics of the damage to housing caused by the 2011 Thai flood and explores recovery processes. There are three research objectives. The first objective is to compile financial losses and support for residents affected by the 2011 flood. The second objective is to classify the types of reconstruction that residents chose to renovate their own homes. The third objective is to estimate residents’ capability for coping with future floods. Huntra, a sub district in Ayutthaya province, was chosen as the site for this study. The research results indicate that the disaster recovery budget provided by national government was too small, and was not enough for all of the reconstruction that the affected residents needed. Renovation that offers better protection against floods is classified into two groups. Type A is called elevated houses, in which the used spaces are elevated higher than before flood. Type B is called extended houses, in which the used spaces that are considered safe in a disaster are extended. Most residents could not afford this type of renovation. However, so far the most widely used option is painting the house in order to erase the watermark from the flood. In the three years since the flood occurred, residents have gained a greater awareness of flood evacuation; however, only a small number of residents decided to reconstruct their house using measures for flood protection. Flood relief policy that focuses on providing money for the affected homeowners has therefore not been successful. Our study suggests that the government should establish more systematic support, such as provision of construction materials or craftsmen/labor to communities or residents.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the large-scale flood response coordination across sectors and jurisdictions, investigating the characteristics and gaps of the 2011 Thailand flood response operations. Design/methodology/approach The large-scale flood response coordination was measured as an inter-organizational network. An extensive content analysis of news reports was conducted to identify the participating organizations and relationships among them that emerged during the initial flood response operations. Social network analysis was used to examine the patterns and gaps of coordination among the organizations. Findings The research identified three major gaps that might weaken the response coordination. First, the coordination structure was highly fragmented with many isolated actors. Second, the benefit of inter-sector relationships was not well leveraged in the system due to weak reciprocal relationships across sectors. Third, provincial level organizations did not serve as a strong liaison between local actors (cities) and national actors. Practical implications Based on the findings, the research offers suggestions to improve the performance of response coordination in recurring flood disasters. Originality/value This study is distinctive in its examination of structural characteristics of large-scale, inter-sector and multi-jurisdictional flood response coordination in Thailand. Previous studies have explored how citizens were organized and responded to flood disasters at the local level, and measured indicators or causes of response resilience at the provincial level system. Yet, studies examining the patterns of coordination structure among response organizations across all affected-jurisdictional authorities and sectors have been lacking.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Flooding is one of the major disasters occurring in various parts of the world. Estimation of economic loss due to flood often becomes necessary for flood damage mitigation. This present practice to carry out post flood survey to estimate damage, which is a laborious and time-consuming task. This paper presents a framework of rapid estimation of flood damage using SAR earth observation satellite data.</p><p>In Nakhon Si Thammarat, a southern province in Thailand, flooding is a recurrent event affecting the entire province, especially the urban area. Every year, it causes lives and damages to infrastructure, agricultural production and severely affects local economic development. In order to monitor and estimate flood damages in near-real time, numerous techniques can be used, from a simply digitizing on maps, to using detailed surveys or remote sensing techniques. However, when using the last-mentioned technique, the results are conditioned by the time of data acquisition (day or night) as well as by weather conditions. Although, these impediments can be surpassed by using RADAR satellite imagery. The aim of this study is to delineate the land surface of Chian Yai, Pak Phanang and Hua Sai districts of that was affected by floods in December 2018 and January 2019. For this case study, Sentinel-1 C-Band SAR data provided by ESA (European Space Agency) were used. The data sets were taken before and after the flood took place, all within 1 days and were processed using Sentinel Toolbox. Cropland mapping has been carried out to assess the agricultural loss in study area using Sentinel-1 SAR data. The thematic accuracy has been assessed for cropland classification for test site shows encouraging overall accuracy as 82.63 % and kappa coefficients (&amp;kappa;) as 0.78.</p>

Abstract. Thailand floods in 2011 caused an unprecedented economic damage in the Chao Phraya River basin. To diagnose the flood hazard characteristics, this study analyzes the hydrologic sensitivity of flood runoff and inundation to rainfall. The motivation is to address why the seemingly insignificant monsoon rainfall, or 1.2 times more rainfall than past large floods including the ones in 1995 and 2006, resulted in such a devastating flooding. To quantify the hydrologic sensitivity, this study simulated a long-term rainfall-runoff and inundation for the entire river basin (160 000 km2). The simulation suggested that the flood inundation volume in 2011 was 1.6 times more than past flood events. Furthermore the elasticity index suggested that 1% increase in rainfall causes 2.3% increase in runoff and 4.2% increase in flood inundation. This study highlights the importance of sensitivity quantification for better understanding of flood hazard characteristics; and the presented approach is effective for the analysis at large river basins.

Numerous global water disasters have devastated many regions, and some may be due to climate change. Severe water disasters not only may inflict heavily damage on industry but may also leave many persons dead or seriously injured. The 2011 Thailand flood is a typical example of such disasters. In it, a wide area of the Chao Phraya River basin, where Bangkok is located, was inundated for a long period. Damage by the flood affected not only the domestic scene but also economies and industries all over the world. Many academicians and researchers have executed field surveys from various academic aspects and have studied flood disasters to clarify what actually occurred and to consider what must be done to mitigate such flood events in the future. The Journal of Disaster Research has planned a special issue on this severe flooding in Thailand. Having participated in field surveys and found the flood worth studying more deeply, I decided to contribute to this special issue as a Guest Editor. This special issue contains 9 articles, 7 papers and 2 reports, all of which have been peer-reviewed. The broad topics covered range from a detailed field survey to flood and inundation simulation. I would like to extend sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved in producing these articles. Especially, I would especially like to express my gratitude to Dr. Hiroshi Takebayashi, Associate Professor, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, for his great support. I look forward with great anticipation to any feedback that readers may be able to provide regarding these articles.

Abstract. The Thailand floods in 2011 caused unprecedented economic damage in the Chao Phraya River basin. To diagnose the flood hazard characteristics, this study analyses the hydrologic sensitivity of flood runoff and inundation to rainfall. The motivation is to address why the seemingly insignificant monsoon rainfall, or 1.2 times more rainfall than for past large floods, including the ones in 1995 and 2006, resulted in such devastating flooding. To quantify the hydrologic sensitivity, this study simulated long-term rainfall–runoff and inundation for the entire river basin (160 000 km2). The simulation suggested that the flood inundation volume was 1.6 times more in 2011 than for the past flood events. Furthermore, the elasticity index suggested that a 1 % increase in rainfall causes a 2.3 % increase in runoff and a 4.2 % increase in flood inundation. This study highlights the importance of sensitivity quantification for a better understanding of flood hazard characteristics; the presented basin-wide rainfall–runoff–inundation simulation was an effective approach to analyse the sensitivity of flood runoff and inundation at the river basin scale.

Thailand was hit by a great flood in 2011 resulting from irregular rainfall during the typhoon season that was estimated at 140% more than average. The flood began in the north and slowly moved to the central region, where it remained for more than 4 months. The flood caused great damage to the economy because it adversely affected industrial estates and agricultural areas. In the north, there are four main rivers in the region that combine into a river called Chao Phraya in the central region. The Yom River is one of the northern rivers where no large-scale dam has been constructed, resulting in frequent flood and drought. Sukhothai Province is located in the Yom Basin, where flood and drought occur on a regular basis, and the province was also severely damaged in the 2011 flood. In order to estimate flood damage cost in 2011, a simple regression curve is presented first to relate flood areas and damage cost based on past records. The 2011 flood in Sukhothai province was then simulated by using a Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model with satellite based rainfall (TRMM). After simulation results were compared with the observed stream flow water level, discharge and inundation extent, this study estimates damage cost for the 2011 flood based on the simulated flood area. The proposed approach could be a useful guideline in damage cost computation.

Thailand has been often affected by severe flood events over the past century. The 2011’s Thailand Flood Catastrophe was the costliest in country’s history, and it was ranked to be the second most damaging natural hazard in the world in terms of economic losses. The Chao Phraya River Basin was noted to be the most vulnerable area prone to flooding in Thailand. The dynamics of flood risk in the river basin have changed drastically over the past fifty years. In particular, flood exposure increased due to rapid urbanization and population growth. Since 2012, integrated flood risk management has been addressed to be the major framework of water-related disasters with the goal of losses and damage reductions. However, there is currently little research in Thailand on how to quantify flood risks and mitigate flood inundation damage on the relation between the occurrence of flood events and their consequential socio-economic implications. In this study, a tradition method in flood risk assessment is implemented by integrating 2D hydrodynamic modelling and the assessment of socio-economic impact of floods into the Chao Phraya River Basin. More specifically, the fully 2D version of the LISFLOOD-FP model code was used to model flood inundation processes. The output of the model was then used to map inundation depth and assess the levels of physical/environmental risk associated to flood hazards on multiple receptors/elements at risk. The European Flood Directive and the KULTURisk methodology were applied to quantify flood risks in monetary terms for residential, industrial, and agricultural sectors. The 2011 flood event was used for model calibration, while a hypothetical flood event with a return period of 100 years was simulated to identify the potential flood losses. Depth-damage functions comprising of JRC-ASIA, the Flemish, and JICA models were used to estimate potential damage for residential and industrial structures. The results showed that LISFLOOD-FP could satisfactorily reproduce the flood inundation extent obtained from satellite imagery in 2011. The model performance (Critical Success Index or F1) was of 56%, with a Bias of 112%. The latter meant the total inundated area was 12% larger than flood extent’s observation. Moreover, the model could simulate flood levels with overall Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 2.03 m a.s.l. and 1.78 m a.s.l., respectively. For the estimation of flood damage and losses, the Flemish model showed the strongest agreement with the reported flood damage in the residential sector, while JICA-ASIA model underestimated flood damage for industrial sector by just 1%. The KULTURisk methodology also well-estimated crop losses in the 2011 event which an overestimation about 21% from the reported value. Apart from that, fully 2D numerical method could not perfectly represent 1-in-100 year flood inundation due to non-consideration of important features such as the precise river channel topography, hydraulic infrastructures, and flood protection schemes in the river basin. Lack of such features results in an overestimation of flood damage and losses for 1-in-100 year flood comparing to the national flood hazard map and damage assessment which are simulated and estimated by JICA’s study. Such features can be better handled by using a coupled 1D/2D numerical method in order to simulate flood inundation extent more realistically and estimate flood losses. This could help the Thai government to better prepare a budget for flood risk prevention. In addition, even if the Flemish model indicates a good representation of relative flood damage to housing structures, the government should establish depth-damage curves specific for Thailand.