An ominous photo of Thailand, taken by from NASA spacecraft on Oct. 23, shows the scope of the flooding disaster that began in July and is now affecting the main city of Bangkok.
The colour legend on the photo above:
- bright red -- vegetation
- black, dark blue -- flooded areas
- brighter blue -- sediment-laden water
- grey -- houses, buildings and roads
Bangkok's city centre lies about 30 kilometres north of the Bay of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand. The Chao Phraya is the major river running through the city of nine million people. It drains about one third of Thailand's territory.
Numerous canals lead to the river, which once earned the city comparisons to Venice, Italy. But many have been filled in and converted to roads over the years.
The city itself is just over two metres above sea level, meaning it faces flooding problems during even routine monsoon seasons. At some points on Friday, floodwaters reached 2.47 metres in elevation.
It is located at the southern end of a floodplain that is ideally suited to growing west rice, although Bangkok itself has become progressively more industrialized in recent decades.
The monsoon season of heavy rains usually begins between late May and early June. It lasts into October, with August and September usually being the rainiest months.
However, this year, the heavy rains began in May. The flooding began in July and continues to the present. Some scientists blame La Nina -- the bubbling up of cooler waters in the Pacific Ocean, disrupting weather patterns -- for this year's floods.
The flooding problem first started in the highlands of Thailand north and moved southward to the more populous central region. Bangkok in the southern part of that area.
The country's far south and eastern regions are relatively unaffected. However, Thailand's boundary with Laos and Cambodia is formed in places by the Mekong River, which is causing flooding problems in those countries as well as Vietnam.
In total, about eight million people are believed to be affected by flooding across the wider region. Thailand's population is 75 million.
At least one-quarter of the nearly 800 known deaths in Thailand are children. Thailand's total death toll is pegged at least 370.
Asian Scientist noted in an Oct. 25 article that flooding has damaged more than 3,000 schools in Thailand.
That will damage Thailand's future. In the near term, crops are being wiped out and manufacturing plants forced to shut down. Some critics say those plants were built in poor locations from a flood-protection perspective.
Some economic projections suggest the flooding could shave two percentage points off Thailand's GDP growth in 2011. Others suggest the estimated $6 billion in flood damages will double if Bangkok is inundated.
The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction warned on Oct. 21 that while this is abnormal flood event, it might become more common in the future.
"These floods map exactly onto models for a one-in-a-hundred-years event, and things could get worse in the future," said Jerry Velasquez of the UNISDR's Bangkok office.
"If we know where the floods are going to happen and how high they are going to be, then we should be better prepared," he said.
