By Jamie Fullerton
Bangkok is sinking – fast. As urban development continues unabated, this city of more than 10 million people is getting lower by 2cm a year, according to Greenpeace estimates. Meanwhile, the surface of the Gulf of Thailand is rising by 4mm a year – above the global average.
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[The architect, Kotchakorn Voraakhom’s] ingenious answer was the 11-acre Centenary Park at Chulalongkorn University in the centre of the city. Hidden beneath the trees and grass lies its most interesting feature: vast underground water containers that, along with a large pond, can hold a million gallons of water.
Under normal conditions, water that is not absorbed by plants flows into these receptacles, where it is stored for watering during dry periods. When severe floods hit, the containers hold water and release it into the public sewage system after flooding has subsided.
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Dr Seri Suptharathit, director of the Centre on Climate Change and Disaster at Bangkok’s Rangsit University, says even more green has been turned grey since [a] survey took place in 2011. He says that in the past 20 years the amount of green space in Bangkok has dropped from 40% of total land to less than 10% – exacerbating flood risk.
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