CHAPTER 3

BANGKOK LIQUID PERCEPTION:

WATERSCAPE URBANISM IN THE

CHAO PHRAYA RIVER DELTA AND

IMPLICATIONS TO CLIMATE

CHANGE ADAPTATION$

Danai Thaitakoo and Brian McGrath

INTRODUCTION

Along the 14th parallel, day and night oscillate exactly between predictabletwelve hour divisions and months pass with little change in temperaturebarely affected by the earth’s axial tilt. However between May and October,a shift in atmospheric currents brings monsoon rains from the Indonesianarchipelago north to the mountain ranges ringing northern Thailand whoserunoff feeds the Mae Nam Chao Phraya River Basin and Bangkoksprawling across its flat, silted tidal delta. Seasonal cycles of precipitationrather than temperature extremes of winter and summer bring rhythm to

$This chapter is an expanded version of an article ‘‘Changing landscape, changing climate:

Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River Delta’’ published in Places 20.2: Climate Change and

Place, Forum of Design for the Public Realm, edited by Nancy Rottle, Marina Alberti, and

Daniel Friedman, October, 2008, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Water Communities

Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Volume 2, 35–50

Copyright r 2010 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 2040-7262/doi:10.1108/S2040-7262(2010)0000002006

35

life just above the equator, putting into motion human cycles of planting,harvest and migration, as well as shaping Thai beliefs and rituals (Fig. 1).

During the beginning period of city establishment (1782–1900), Bangkokgrew rather slowly. Early settlements and early residents relied on canaland river water for their basic needs (Jarupongsakul & Kaida, 2000).The city’s rapid urbanization and increased population brought a number ofland-based infrastructure and other constructions that resulted in a rapid

Fig. 1. The Lower Chao Phraya River Delta and the City of Bangkok: Watery

Bangkok Sprawls over an Urban Agricultural Market Landscape Dominated by

Fruit Orchards to the West, Rice Fields to the East, Shrimp Farms along the Coast

and Fish Farms in the Lowlands. Source: The Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF),

University of Maryland (http://glcf.umd.edu/).

DANAI THAITAKOO AND BRIAN MCGRATH36

increase in built-up area (BMA, 2004) at the expense of cultivated landand the hydrological matrix. The liquid network once considered a lifelinebecame much neglected and ignored, yet fragilely persists in many areas.However, the major mechanism that keeps the delta habitable and prolifichas been damaged (Jarupongsakul, 2000).

The urban hydro-agricultural complex of the Chao Phraya River Deltawas radically transformed as a result of Bangkok’s rapid and expansiveurbanization over the past 50 years. Although the delta and the city are now inconflict, they were once entangled in a highly resilient absorbent agriculturalmatrix in concert with climatic cycles of monsoon and dry seasons.

Our research begins with a radical shift in emphasis from the current solidstate of landscape urbanism, towards a more systemic approach to urbandesign based on the dynamic liquid states of waterscape urbanism. This shiftin language also represents a shift in thinking about urban design in the ageof rapid climate change. Instead of the design of cities thought of aspermanent, static, solid land-based environments, liquid perception is basedon change, adaptation and the continuous reproduction of locality as anembedded and evolving cultural practice.Waterscape urbanism is inspired bythe philosophical concept of liquid perception, indigenous water-basedcultural practices as well as emerging scientific techniques of monitoringurban systems through watershed frameworks and networked technologies.Our argument about the liquid perception of waterscape urbanismpresents Greater Bangkok, Thailand as a critical case study. In addition toBangkok’s status as one of the most vulnerable and at risk cities in the world,already experiencing severe effects of rapid and unpredictable climatechange, it also presents a degraded, but still vibrant indigenous water-basedurbanism that remains a model of resilience and adaptability developed inconcert with the more predictable historical cycles of monsoon rains andwet rice cultivation. Combining new ways of seeing the world, new ecosystemscience and the case study of Bangkok liquid perception will contribute to anargument about making a redefined concept of waterscape urbanism centralto addressing the social and environmental challenges of climate change.

CONTEMPORARY ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE

Although ecology began in the 19th century through the study of individualspecies in relationship to their environment as models of balance andmutuality, contemporary ecosystem science models have much morecomplex biotic and abiotic interrelationships in constant flux. The CaryInstitute of Ecosystem Studies defines ecology as ‘The scientific study of

Bangkok Liquid Perception 37

the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms,the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organismsand the transformation and flux of energy and matter’ (Cary Institute, 2010).While ecologists began with the study of small island ecosystems, preferablyfar removed from mainland disturbances by invasive or migratory species,in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, a newapproach began and for over 50 years, small streams have been continuouslymonitored to understand the impact of changes in air quality, land cover,temperature and species diversity on the biochemistry of the water (Likens &Bormann, 1975). Recent research has been able to scale-up the results fromsmall sub-catchments to the watershed as a whole. This shift in research sitesmay be categorized as moving from understanding ecology through acontained terrestrial system (solid-state perception), to one that monitorsflow of water through a nested system of catchment areas (liquid perception).

The ecological study of species and landscape interrelations, thedistribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organismsand between organisms and the transformation of energy, flux and matternow includes humans and cities. The watershed framework has beenrecently employed in relation to novel land cover and social ecology in theBaltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) as a way to integrate research in thebiophysical and social sciences and design (McGrath et al., 2007). BESresearch has discovered that management practices, such as bufferingstream riparian systems, are not adequate in capturing and releasingnitrogen in rain, retention and evaporation cycles, and a more systemicapproach across entire catchments is necessary. New urban design andmanagement regimes are proposed and residents’ preferences are evaluatedrelative to the effect they will have on nitrogen retention, with the ultimateaim of revitalizing the Chesapeake Bay (Cadenasso et al., 2008, Chapter 12in this volume). If in Hubbard Brook, sub-catchment processes have provento predict larger scale systems, small design changes might be scaled-up topositively affect the entire ecosystem. One of the main challenges is that ofperception: how do homeowners switch their ‘solid-state’ perceptions oftheir homes and neighborhoods as static parcels of land to the more multi-scalar liquid perception of watersheds? Here design can make a significantcontribution in shifting perceptions.

A key element in the shifting of perception towards understandingthe transformation and flux of energy and matter in an urban systemis the H.E.R.C.U.L.E.S. (High Ecological Resolution Classification ofUrban Landscapes and Environmental Systems) land cover classificationsystem developed by plant ecologist Mary Cadenasso at the BES.H.E.R.C.U.L.E.S. operationalizes the ecological theory of patch dynamics,

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and through it land cover is seen as a dynamic system of change andadaptation. By looking at urban neighbourhoods as various combinationsof course and fine vegetation, bare soil, pavement and buildings, thepercentage of which is continually shifting, H.E.R.C.U.L.E.S. allows us todispense with separating ‘natural’ and ‘built’ elements of the city, and seesthe built environment as part of a natural system which can be monitored,evaluated and perceived in a new way (Fig. 2).

It is important for architects, landscape architects and urban designers,to understand the difference between liquid- and solid-based urban models.Although landscape urbanism has developed an argument for the salvationof North American post-industrial cities through the creation of large parksas islands in these cities (Czerniak & Hargreaves, 2007), we suggest, insteadthe more integrated and systemic watershed approach to embrace theecology of the city rather than ecology in the city (Pickett et al., 2010).Liquid perception also puts into question normative ideas about cities asbeing discretely bounded, situated and local. All sites are caught in largersystems of flow, the complexity of which we are just beginning to recognize.Climate change has demonstrated that even the most local of sites isvulnerable to global as well as regional processes and events.

LIQUID PERCEPTION

Philosopher Gilles Deleuze describes the filming of water by the French schoolof cinema as offering a new state of perception which allows us to see thesolid, material world dissolve into matter-flux. ‘(W)hat the French schoolfound in water was the promise or implication of another state of perception:a more than human perception, a perception not tailored to solids, which nolonger had the solid as object, as condition as milieu. A more delicate andvaster perception a molecular perception, peculiar to a ‘cine-eye’ (Deleuze,1986). This cinematic perception gained through framing matter-flux gets tothe heart of contemporary definitions of ecology. Our research in Bangkokuncovers evidence of a long history of such liquid perception in the builtenvironment as well in cultural practices. It influences both the way we see anddocument the city in the present, and the way we understand this water-basedurbanism as historically constructed in a harsh tropical delta landscapeseasonally modulated by extremes of wet and dry. This liquid urbanism hasbeen present for hundreds of years before land-based urbanism beganto dominate the Lower Chao Phraya Delta due to European influencein the past half of the 20th century (McGrath & Thaitakoo, 2005). Winichakul(1994) has described this shift as a shift in the ‘geo-body’ of the nation.

Bangkok Liquid Perception 39

Fig. 2. High Ecological Resolution Classification of Urban Landscapes and Environmental Systems (H.E.R.C.U.L.E.S.).

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Bangkok is situated in a slight high amidst a predominantly low lying,flat terrain of the lower Chao Phraya River Delta. The area was firsturbanized during the Ayutthaya period (14th–18th century) as vast plantedproductive landscape of mixed fruit orchards (Takaya, 1987). These deltasettlements not only supported an elaborate network of market townsinterconnected by natural and constructed waterways which served thegreat Siamese capital and international entrepot of Ayutthaya but alsoare the urban plantation matrix upon which modern Bangkok sprawls(Tachakitkachorn, 2005; Fig. 3).

Early settlements along the bank of rivers, canals and flood plains weresubjected to a seasonal surplus and deficit of water without serious flooddamage or drought. Excess water was a part of life and considered asbenevolent nourishment. People adapted to the rhythm of the rains bydirecting water through the small capillaries which fed the orchards andflooded rice fields beyond served as efficient retention basins. Today,Bangkok Noi and Bangkok Yai Canals are popular by the tourists who rentlong tail boats to see living fragments of this historical waterscape urbanism.However, these canals, following the unprecedented devastating floodsin 1995, have since seen the construction of a municipal flood protectionwall by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the abandonment oforchards, and the raising of the house and filling of the land by many privateproperty owners. The canal tours now offer the sad spectacle of the shiftfrom liquid- to solid-state perception (Fig. 4).

The waterscape of Chao Phraya River Delta in the 20th century wentthrough the processes of modification and transformation to become theworld’s rice bowl and the undisputed world leader of rice production forexport. In the early years, many canals were constructed and are functioningas highways for Ayutthaya now radiated outward from the centre of the newcapital in Bangkok, providing access to the city centre as well as theagricultural market towns along the waterways (Takaya, 1987). The locallymanaged system of rice farming was modernized beginning with theconstruction of Rangsit, a vast area of planned irrigated rice fields developedby the Siam Land, Canals and Irrigation Company. This private initiativebenefited from new legislation (1889) granted land to private companies whoconstructed canals. This created an incentive to develop a rice-exportingeconomy and created a class of citizen merchant rather than subsidencefarmers. Early modernization was achieved not only by encouraging roadbuilding, but also by incentives to private developers to expand the centuriesold water-based canal network in the Chao Phraya Delta (Figs. 5–7).

Bangkok’s rapid urbanization and increased population after the SecondWorld War brought a rapid increase in built-up area and land-based

Bangkok Liquid Perception 41

Fig. 3. Bangkok ca. 1890 (Left) and 2004 (Right): Bangkok’s Urban Morphology Follows the Pattern of Water-Based Rice

and Fruit Framing and the Wandering Chao Phraya River. Source: Bangkok circa 1980 Map: Sternstein (1982, p. 88)

Bangkok circa 2004 ASTER VNIR image: The acquisition of ASTER data was supported by a research project,

‘Investigation of Rapid Urbanization Processes Using ASTER, MODIS, and Landsat Data’, by Dr Philip Christensen,

Principal Investigator, NASA Grant number: EOS/03-0000-0502.

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Fig. 4. The Chao Phraya River in Bangkok is Lined Both with Traditional Dwellings and Markets and Monastery

Complexes, as well as Luxury Hotels and Condominiums.

BangkokLiquid

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43

Fig. 5. Since 1950, Road Building has far Out-paced the Canal Digging which was

the Dominant Transportation Infrastructure for the Previous Centuries of Delta

Inhabitation (Adapted from Sternstein, 1982, p. 89). The Result is a Two-level

Transportation Network Where the Land-based Infrastructure Dominates and

Comprises the Ability of the Hydrological Network to Operate. In Rainy Season,

the Opposite is Often the Case as Annual Floods Slow and Stop Traffic in much of

Bangkok.

Fig. 6. The Vanishing Waterscape: Canals are now often Drainage Channels and

have Become the Backs of Buildings Instead of the Front Face of the City.

DANAI THAITAKOO AND BRIAN MCGRATH44

infrastructure (BMA, 2004) at the expense of cultivated land and thehydrological matrix. The swift expansion of Bangkok’s industry andsuburban development occurred in the late 1960s and 1970s sprawledeastward into the paddy fields (Jarupongsakul & Kaida, 2000). Rapidurbanization also affected the city’s unique canal network which becamesecondary to the construction of roadways (Jarupongsakul, 2000). Manycanals were filled up for developments or replaced by the construction ofnew roads, whereas many others became stagnant and non-navigatable,reduced to drainage ditches and open sewers which create hardships formany farmers who continue to rely on the waterways. The ecologicalservices provided by the waterscape network could not be perceived in theface of the demands for modern landscape-based urbanism.

SOLID AND LIQUID PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES

Dictated by the tropical monsoonal climatic conditions and coastal tidaldynamics, the low-lying flat terrain of Bangkok’s land-based urbanism

Fig. 7. At the Periphery the Waterscape Provides Places for Life, Water and Food.

Fishing Traps and Edible Morning Glory Plants can be seen as well as a Flood Gate,

Fish Cages and Pedestrian Walkways.

Bangkok Liquid Perception 45

is now under the threat of flood during the height of the rainy season.The combination of the excessive flow generated by the rainfall in uplandwatershed of the Chao Phraya River and the excessive runoff created by therainfall in Bangkok and vicinity often puts many parts of Bangkok underwater. Compounded with the high tide that slows down the flow of the river,the draining of excessive runoff is impossible without the help of moderntechnology such as floodwalls and pumping stations. The landscape of thearea is greatly dominated by these three hydro-ecological characteristicswhich gave the symbolic name of Bangkok as ‘the city of three waters’(Jarupongsakul, 2000). The question Bangkok faces is which way ofperceiving these three waters can insure an adaptable and resilient urbanismin the face of the uncertainty of climate change (Table 1; Fig. 8).

Our analysis and interpretation is that liquid perception will providea good basis for resilience and adaptation instead of using hard solutionsbased on solid-state perception of protective engineered systems thatlack flexibility. Filling up the lowland of the delta and refusing to adjustto the fluctuation of water or against the changes of water level in the delta isfutile. Being a part of the water, adjusting local practices according to thelevel of water is a more reasonable approach. This is not a return to pre-modern, locally controlled, human ecosystem watershed model, but a canalnetwork/hydrological matrix restoration based on scientific monitoring andnetworked technologies. Dynamic flow management systems interact locallythrough locks and adjustable check dams, weirs and water gates. A systemof small polders can engage the sub-catchment watershed concept and

Table 1. Solid and Liquid Perceptions and Practices.

Solid Perception Liquid Perception

Rigid flood protection structures inhibit the

natural flow of water

Flexible and open traditional structures

allow the natural flow of water

Life behind the flood protection barriers will

be static and stagnant because the structure

separates the life behind the wall from the

dynamics and nutrient flow of water

Cultural and social life is tied to the

dynamics of water. Social and economic

patterns adjusted according to the

dynamic level of water

Resists any change of water level or quantity Resilience and adaptation evolve through

time with the seasonal flow of water

Incoherence between land and water Coherence between land and water

Water is a hazard and need to be eliminated/

mitigated

Water is a part of vulnerability and it is

manageable

Disjointed – separation among land–water–

human

Joined, linked and connected land–water–

human

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Fig. 8. Solid and Liquid Perception and Practices. (A) A Flood Wall and Water

Gate Blocks an Old House from the Canal. (B) Traditional Houses can be

Periodically Raised above Rising Flood Levels. (C) A New House is Constructed on

Raised Landfill and behind a Protective Wall. (D) A House Raising in Progress,

Finding a Higher Living Level. (E) A City Trunk Canal with Reinforcing Concrete

Beams across the Canal Preventing Navigation. (F) An Urban Fringe Canal with a

Walk Way and a Fish Trap. (G) A City Canal and a City Street in a Business

District. (H) An Urban Fringe Canal with Waterside Shop Houses.

Bangkok Liquid Perception 47

management. Owing to the extremely flat terrain, a network of several smallpolders and canal networks could adequately accommodate local watersurpluses and droughts. Not all parts of the city needs to be in the water, butplaces along the existing canal network that are already in direct relationto the water need to be able to maintain or to restore their waterscapeurbanism to provide necessary space for water during wet season andbecome water storage during dry season (Fig. 9).

CONCLUSION

Rapid climate change compounds an already complex urban ecosystemin the Lower Chao Phraya Delta. Predictions for the near future includemore hot days, longer summers, higher rain intensity, more rain water andsea level rise (SEA START RC, 2007). These changes compound theincreasing urban heat island phenomena, periodic flooding during rainyseason, drought during summer season, loss of land due to coastal erosionand land subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal. The delta and thecity will continue to present threats to each other due to a lack of bothrecognition of natural hydrological processes and the indigenous andtraditional knowledge of living in concert with natural cycles of wet and dryseasons. As the waterscape continues to vanish and landscape perceptioncontinues to dominate popular modern images of inhabitation, the roles andfunctions of natural processes and the landscape are perceived differentlythan in the past. These different perceptions play a major role in dictatingdifferent changes in the land- and waterscape and land and water use.

Constituting water communities, we suggest the possibility of a bottom-up approach for emerging democratic and sustainable development.In recognizing patchy rather than centralized urban development, localizedair-, water- and food-quality management could be strung among the under-utilized open spaces concentrated on the orchard meanders and the long,ancient irrigation canals, made visible and publicly accessible. Physicalconnections provide feedback loops between farmers, consumers and policy-makers. This is beyond an engineering solution towards sustainability,the recognition of a patchy new symbolic realm as well as a sensual andseductive new cultural space where water and agricultural lands can becomethe fuel source for the mobile culture on both roads and canals to reweavethe geo- and aqua-bodies into a new cultural landscape. We also suggesta fundamental shift in emphasis from the current ‘solid state’ of landscapeurbanism, towards a more systemic approach to urban ecosystem

DANAI THAITAKOO AND BRIAN MCGRATH48

understanding in urban design – a waterscape urbanism inspired by theconcept of liquid perception, indigenous practices in the Chao PhrayaDelta and long-term urban ecosystem research. A ‘water’scape urbanism – awater-based urbanization based on agriculture. We suggest the explorationof waterscape urbanism as a new model for urban design, allied with the newmodes of liquid perception.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Chulalongkorn University CentearyAcademic Development Project, Chulalongkorn University, Parsons TheNew School for Design and the U.S. National Science FoundationBiocomplexity and Baltimore Ecosystem Study of Long-Term EcologicalResearch program for their support of this research.

Fig. 9. Solid- and Liquid-State Perceptions in Comparison. The Land under the

House on the Left was Filled by Rubble and Soil and is Less Adaptable to Changing

Flood Levels than the House on the Right. Though the House on the Left Gives the

Perception of the City in a Stable Solid State, in fact the Structure Obstructs the

Natural Flow of Water and Limits the Accommodation and Retention of High

Volumes of Water. On the Other Hand, the House on the Right is, still, in the Water.

The Structure Allows the Natural Flow of Water and Provides a Lot of Space for a

Higher Volume of Water. The House on the Left is Bracing for Flood Hazard and

the New Ground Creates a New Environment – Landscape Instead of Waterscape

that is Prone to Flooding. There is Always Vulnerability and Risk in Relation to

Water for the House on the Left but Excess Water is always Manageable as a Part of

Life in the House on the Right.

Bangkok Liquid Perception 49

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