VZCZCXRO1701
RR RUEHAST RUEHCHI RUEHDH RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHNH RUEHPB
RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBK #0454/01 0550909
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240909Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0031
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1076
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 7694

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 000454 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR OES, SECC 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA 
USDA FOR FAS 
STATE PASS TO USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KGHG KGCC SENV EAGR ECON ETRD TH
SUBJECT:  HOW FAST IS BANGKOK SINKING? 
 
BANGKOK 00000454  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY AND COMMENT:  With a decades-long history of land 
subsidence similar to that of New Orleans, rising sea levels now 
threaten the 12 million people of Bangkok with inundation by 2050. 
ESTHoff and Embassy Science Fellow met with various academic and 
government actors over several weeks to discuss climate change 
adaptation and mitigation strategies for Bangkok.  Inundation 
scenarios threaten the rice paddies of the Bangkok plain that 
contribute to Thailand's status as the number one global rice 
exporter.  Other Asian mega-cities such as Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh 
City face similar inundation scenarios.  One of the dramatic 
measures under consideration to protect Bangkok is the building of a 
dike between coastal resorts Hua Hin and Pattaya, with severe 
consequences for the tourism, fishing, shipping and other 
industries.  The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is keen 
to have USG scientific and engineering collaboration, to formulate 
realistic assessments of what needs to be done.  The eventual 
expansion of the USGS DRAGON program, as part of the Lower Mekong 
Initiative, to Bangkok and its Chao Praya River Delta would pay 
dividends.  END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
BANGKOK SUBSIDENCE HISTORY 
-------------------------- 
¶2. Bangkok lies in the Chao Praya River flood plain.  After the 
recent release of several assessment reports, there has been renewed 
concern over severe flooding in Bangkok and surrounding rice farms 
from a combination of sea level rise and human-induced land 
subsidence.  The Bangkok metropolitan area covers 7,761.50 square 
km, with an approximate population of 11,971,000 and has been 
pinpointed as a hotspot for a flooding disaster scenario by 2050 (as 
well as other large Delta mega cities in Southeast Asia like Ho Chi 
Minh City and Jakarta). 
 
¶3. A long history of subsidence in Central Bangkok and surrounding 
suburbs has resulted in gradual sinking between 2cm and 5cm a year. 
Subsidence from deep well pumping has been acknowledged at least 
since the early 1980s.  Much of the problem was caused by extraction 
of industrial water from underground aquifers faster than it could 
be replaced, causing the sandy soil of the aquifer to compress.  The 
subsidence reached its most critical state in the early 1980s when 
it occurred at a rate as high as 120 mm/year. 
 
¶4. Despite various attempts to regulate groundwater use, the 
subsidence-affected area has expanded in the last 20 years. 
Bangkok's city limits and water needs grew with increasing 
population and development.  Groundwater pumping (to meet these 
needs) from the thick aquifer system underneath the city has 
continued to increase from about 1.2 million cubic meters/day in the 
early 1980s to more than 2.0 million m3/day in 2000.  Water levels 
in the main aquifer layers have been drawn down by as much as 65m. 
Data from the Asian Institute of Technology suggested that for one 
cubic meter of groundwater pumped out in the greater Bangkok Plain, 
approximately 0.10 m3 of ground loss occurred at the surface. This 
would translate to about two feet of ground subsidence in the most 
affected areas. 
 
¶5. With the added problems of rising sea levels, which the UN 
International Panel on Climate Change estimates at between 18cm and 
59cm by 2050, and coastal erosion along the Gulf of Thailand, there 
are scenario estimates that Bangkok could soon be contending with 
regular flood waters up to 2 meters high.  Salt water intrusion 
scenarios could also compromise drinking water aquifers as well as 
agricultural production.  Present day estimations of infrastructure 
requirements and economic loss are calculated by academics and BMA 
at around US$5 billion to "climate-proof" Bangkok. 
 
BMA CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION ACTION PLAN 
----------------------------------------- 
¶6. Last month, ESTHoff and US Embassy Science Fellow met with 
Suwanna Jungrungruen, Director of Policy and Planning Division at 
the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).  (Note: BMA 
participated in WIREC (Washington International Renewable Energy 
Conference) in 2008.  At WIREC, BMA pledged renewable energy 
actions, but most of the Thai BMA staffers who went to this meeting 
have moved to new positions.  Renewable energy relates to Bangkok 
inundation scenarios in that BMA is encouraging clean and recyclable 
infrastructure as a way to mitigate climate change GHGs and curb 
water use.  End Note).  Thai research indicates that climate change, 
sea level rise, flooding and subsidence are creating future disaster 
scenarios for Bangkok similar to New Orleans. 
 
BANGKOK 00000454  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
IDEAS FOR COLLABORATION 
----------------------- 
¶7. ESTHoff asked BMA how the U.S. could best collaborate on issues 
associated with subsidence in Bangkok region, climate change, and 
flooding from both sea level rise and increased overland flow from 
river and intense precipitation events.  BMA is most interested in 
collaboration associated with their Action Plan on Global Warming 
Mitigation based on 5 initiatives: 1-Expand Mass Transit & Improve 
Traffic system 2-Promote use of Renewable Energy(Biofuels) 3-Improve 
Building ElectriQy Consumption Efficiency 4-Improve Solid Waste 
Management & Wastewater TQtment Efficiency 5-ExpanQark Area 
(plant more trees and increase open space to hold more water, absorb 
CO2 and lower air temperatures).  The goal of the Action Plan is to 
reduce emissions 15 percent by 2012 and to climate proof Bangkok. 
(Comment: This current action plan has little to deal with flooded 
infrastructure.) 
 
¶8. Presently soil maps are not used as references for city planning. 
 BMA is using diversions and holding ponds ("monkey cheeks") as 
flood water mitigation strategies on a small scale outside of 
central Bangkok.   USDA expertise on soil mapping could help BMA 
plan its water infrastructure measures.  BMA is interested in 
educating the public on green infrastructure; rooftop gardening; 
water consumption and runoff-cistern systems; recycling; and energy 
consumption.  USG public education materials would be helpful. 
Making the link between research and policy choices is also needed. 
 An international visitor program with multi-disciplinary 
participants could show BMA managers and scientists how the U.S. has 
dealt with similar issues in New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta. 
The USGS and USDA have experience in researching, managing and 
presenting to the legislature the issues associated with subsidence, 
flooding and sea level rise. 
 
A DIKE ACROSS BAY OF THAILAND? 
------------------------------ 
¶9. On February 1, ESTHoff, Staff and US Embassy Science Fellow went 
to a well-attended presentation, "Is Bangkok Sinking?"  that 
summarized Bangkok's subsidence history, the need for more research 
on cause and effect scenarios with climate change in SE Asia coastal 
regions, the need for a regional approach for adaptation and 
mitigation strategies already considered to contend with 
conservative future flooding scenarios, education of the general 
population in Bangkok to fuel political will to address the problem 
proactively. 
 
¶10. Dutch Professor Cor Dijkgraaf advocated a the building of a dike 
based on Netherland model designs in the Bay of Thailand to contain 
flood waters and protect the city from climate change sea level rise 
and storm or tsunami surges.  Similar dike strategies are being 
considered in United States (New Orleans), South Korea, Vietnam, 
Indonesia and Bangladesh.  Environmental consequences were mentioned 
as a concern but not addressed directly.  Other technological 
concerns such as positive pumping of wastewater for treatment 
outside the city, mangrove reforestation to protect coastlines and 
technology to reverse subsidence and increase holding capacity in 
groundwater reserves were mentioned as interests by the audience but 
not directly addressed by the panel as viable long term strategies. 
 
 
¶11. Comment: For Thailand, the proposed location of this dike could 
turn the northern portion of the Gulf of Thailand into a freshwater 
lake, encompassing the important tourist resorts of Hua Hin and 
Pattaya.  Shrimp and other fisheries would be devastated and 
commercial shipping affected if not strangled.  The billions of 
dollars price tag would significantly divert resources from other 
infrastructure priorities.  BMA officials noted that the dike is 
only one scenario under consideration but other ideas are few.  This 
is where the USGS expertise could play a significant role in 
educating the Thai how diking actions have had counterproductive 
effects in the U.S. New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta, with its 
extensive rice agriculture, are arguably more analogous to the Chao 
Praya Delta than it is to the Netherlands, upon which the diking 
plan is based.  End Comment. 
 
¶12. On February 3, ESTH officer and US Embassy Science Fellow met 
Dr. Anond Snidvongs (who led the Is Bangkok Sinking? Event), 
Director of the Southeast Asia START Regional Center (SEA-START) at 
Chulalongkorn University.  SEA-START is one of eight regional 
 
BANGKOK 00000454  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
centers of the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and 
Training (START) network, a joint project of the International 
Geosphere-Biosphere, International Human Dimension and World Climate 
Research Programmes.  The START network has been actively working 
with APEC on 2010-2050 climate change scenarios.  Anond explained 
that strategies to help Bangkok could adversely affect the important 
rice industries on the Bangkok plain.  He asserted that interagency 
planning to safeguard the citizens and infrastructure of Bangkok 
while maintaining the various economic sectors is relatively 
underdeveloped.  While Bangkok has a long history of dealing with 
flooding, the impending sea level rise challenges urban planning 
beyond the city's current ability to cope, he said. 
 
COMING EVENTS 
------------- 
¶13.  SEA-START and the East-West Center of Asian Pacific Network are 
co-organizing an international workshop entitled "Climate Change 
Vulnerability Assessment and Urban Development Planning for Asian 
Coastal Cities" August 23-September 1 in Bangkok to encourage 
locally led climate change risk and vulnerability assessment and its 
application to urban development and governance.  SEA-START 
especially supports education for the general public on climate 
change issues and future impact scenarios to fuel political 
government-supported action.  This workshop follows on a similar 
2008 workshop.  The APEC Center for Technology Foresight (based in 
Bangkok) also put on a workshop in 2008 for climate change dangers 
to Asian coastal mega-cities.  The upcoming International Visitors 
Program on Liveable Cities, to which Post is sending a Thai 
participant, should provide good exposure to U.S plans for dealing 
with coastal cities. 
 
NEXT STEPS AND RESEARCH NEEDS 
----------------------------- 
¶14. Interlocutors told us that USG scientific expertise would be 
helpful with respect to regional data collection and analysis for 
environmental impacts of climate change adaptation scenarios.  There 
is interest in the USG sharing emerging technology on clean urban 
infrastructure, flood control strategies, waste water treatment 
facilities and forecasting mechanisms through regional associations 
as well as Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and other mega-city 
entities.  Organizers of the SEA-START international workshop on 
Asian coastal cities' climate change vulnerability and risk 
assessment requested U.S. expert speakers.  Expansion of the USGS 
DRAGON program to encompass Hanoi's Red and Bangkok's Chao Praya 
rivers would bring these vulnerable cities into the Lower Mekong 
Initiative environmental collaboration. 
 
REFERENCES 
---------- 
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration 
Action Plan on Global Warming Mitigation 2007 - 2012 
http://www.baq2008.org/system/files/BMA+Plan. pdf.   Bangkok 
Assessment Report on Climate Change 2009 
http://www.roap.unep.org/pub/BKK_assessment_r eport_CC. 
JOHN