living archive of spatial intelligence
Living with Water: Coping and Adapting in Flood-prone Areas in Bangkok–Nonthaburi Communities Along Khlong Mahasawat
Published in Inclusive and Integrated Disaster Risk ReductionSpringer, 2025 · ISBN 978-3-031-81071-8
Bangkok's waterfront communities have long defined their way of life through the canals — yet rapid urbanization has steadily severed that relationship, leaving residents more exposed and less resilient with each passing flood season. This study examines housing adaptation strategies along a 5.47-kilometer stretch of Khlong Mahasawat, the canal forming the boundary between Bangkok and Nonthaburi, comparing private dwellings built before and after the catastrophic Great Flood of 2011. Field observations of 32 housing units across three typologies — Bangkok-side residences protected by the Mahasawat flood wall, Nonthaburi-side vernacular stilt houses, and planned housing estates — reveal fundamentally different relationships with water. Findings show that the two-story stilt house with concrete terraces demonstrates the highest adaptive capacity, allowing floodwater to pass beneath while maintaining habitable space above, without displacing risk onto neighboring areas. Housing estates, while internally efficient through land-raising and pump systems, effectively disconnect residents from water culture and transfer flood burden to surrounding communities. The study argues that local vernacular wisdom embedded in stilt-house typologies offers a viable and contextually sensitive model for flood coexistence — one that planners and policymakers should integrate into waterfront housing guidelines as Bangkok's peri-urban edge continues to expand under an increasingly volatile climate.
living with floods, flood-proof home, Bangkok waterfront living, traditional Thai house, Thai stilt house, urban resilience, climate-adaptive design, water culture Bangkok, canal community Thailand
National Hydroinformatics Data Center. banthưk hētkān mahā ʻuthokkaphai pī songphanhāro ihāsipsī [Record of the 2011 flood event]: Hydro - Informatics Institute; n.d.
https://www.thaiwater.net/report/flood/view?url=https://www.thaiwater.net/uploads/contents/current/flood54.html.
The World Bank. THAI FLOOD 2011 OVERVIEW Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and Reconstruction Planning: The World Bank; 2012.
Dutch Risk Reduction Team. Reducing the risk of water related disasters Bangkok, Thailand2017.
Wutthichartwanich P. phonkrathop mư ̄ a prachāko ̜̄ n lōk rœ ̄ m khao sū phāwa Urban Sprawl [Effects when the world's population begins to enter the state of Urban Sprawl] 2015 [Available from: https://www.ftpi.or.th/2015/2791.
Jumrusjarongpol A, Anukulyuthathon E. The Effects of Urban Development on Conservation of Green Area: A Case Study at Klong Aom, Nonthaburi Province. NAJUA: History of Architecture and Thai Architecture. 2015;29:371.
Sukolratanametee S, Sukolratanametee S. kān khayāi tūa khong chumchon boriwēn chān muang kap khwāmyangyư ̄ n thāng sangkhom [ The expansion of suburban communities and social sustainability]. NAJUA: Architecture, Design and Built Environment. 2016;26(33).
Norris FH, Stevens SP, Pfefferbaum B, Wyche KF, Pfefferbaum RL. Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness. Am J Community Psychol 2007;41:127-50.
Wallipodom S, Songsiri W. lum čhaophrayā : rākngao hǣng Sayām prathēt [Chao Phraya River: The Roots of Siam Country]. 4th Ed. ed. Bangkok: Lek-Prapai Wiriyaphan Foundation; 2021.
Atlas of Urban Expansion. BANGKOK.
Gistda. Thailand Flood Frequency n.d. [Available from: http://gistdaportal.gistda.or.th/gmos/_Floodfreqstat/.
Drainage Bureau. phǣn patibatkān pongkan læ kǣkhai panhā thūam Krung Thēp Mahā Nakhon pra pī so ̜̄ ngphanhāroihoksiphā [Action plan to prevent and solve flood problems in Bangkok for the year 2022]2022.
Department of Drainage and Sewerage BMA. Water level measurement system n.d. [Available from: https://weather.bangkok.go.th/water/Summary.
Division of Academic Affairs and Programs. Nonthaburi Local Development Plan (2023-2027) Added No. 1: Nonthaburi Municipality; 2022.
Thaitakoo D, Mcgrath BP. Bangkok Liquid Perception: Waterscape Urbanism in The Chao Phraya River Delta and Implication to Climate Change Adaptation. Water Communities Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management,. 2010;2:35-50.
- Assemblage Theory
- The six key principles of Deleuze and Guattari's rhizomatic thought
Heterogeneity: connected elements need not be of the same nature or order
Multiplicity: the rhizome has no subject or object, only dimensions and directions.
Asignifying Rupture: the network can be broken at any point yet will continue to grow along its own or new lines.
Cartography: the rhizome spreads laterally and horizontally, always in the middle, with no fixed origin or end.
Decalcomania: the rhizome can be mapped, traced, and reproduced in multiple forms without returning to the same point.
(Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, 1980)