Greening Bangkok: a sustainable option for climate change adaptation

Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos

PhD in Natural Sciences
Stockholm Environment Institute Asia Centre
September 2015

1. Introduction
This report presents a proposal of public policies to expand green spaces in Bangkok, in
order to improve inhabitants quality of life and face with the challenges of climate change.
Bangkok Metropolis is an economic prosperous city with more than 14.5 million inhabitants (NSO,
2010) and receives more than 16 million tourists annually, being the most visited city in the world
(Hedrick-Wong, 2013). However, Bangkok is vulnerable to flood (such as the flood disaster of
2011) and faces heat waves up to 43 oC in the summer (TMD, 2013). Furthermore, recent studies
(World Bank, 2013) have shown that the frequency of extreme events of rainfall and temperature
is likely to increase in Southeast Asia, due the ongoing climate change. In this context, conserving
and expanding the green area in the urban center could bring many benefits, such as areas for water
infiltration, temperature reduction, pollution mitigation, as well as pleasant areas for recreation of
inhabitants and tourists. This report exposes how different options for greening Bangkok could
contribute a more sustainable metropolis. The important role of the Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration in each of these greening actions will be discussed, exploring how it should engage
with the individuals, communities, private sector, as well as other concerned stakeholders.
Some terms are important for this report. City greening can be understood as the expansion
and improvement of urban green spaces, including urban parks, green corridors, as well as
innovative approaches such as green roofs and vertical gardens (Blackmore, 2010, p. 141). Climate
change is another key point, and it involves the changes in the weather due to consequences of the
intensification of green house emissions by human activities, especially since the last century
(World Bank, 2013). A third important principle is sustainability, conceptualized as the ability to
attend the needs of present people, without compromising the needs of future generations, through
strategies that should be ecologically sound, socially just and economically viable (Brundtland et
al., 1987).
2. Why should we need a greener Bangkok?
The most pressing environmental concerns for the next decades will probably be related to
urban sustainability. As the population and the economic development is increasingly concentrated
in urban areas, the citizens and governments should direct a higher priority to provide a
comfortable environment in cities. If the environment is not well managed, the social and
economic costs of pollution, water scarcity, floods and heat waves would be progressively higher.
Furthermore, if cities become more sustainable, they would manage better their consumption of
natural resources, and then decrease the global demand from these resources.

Urban cities hold 54% of world population (World Bank, 2015), and are also hubs for
economic development, education and culture. On the other hand, urban areas are also the main
emitters of air and water pollution, threatening not only the local ecosystems balance, but the
global balance through climate change. In Thailand, the urbanization rate is 2.3%, higher than the
average world rate (2.1%) (World Bank, 2015). It has been an increasing challenge to provide
appropriate environmental services to cities, including water supply, flood regulation and
comfortable weather. Therefore, meeting the needs of the current and future city inhabitants (that
is, ensuring a sustainable city) involves a fundamental care of the urban environment.
One of the main reasons for greening Bangkok is flood regulation. The floods that covered
much of Bangkok in 2011, when the Chao Phraya river overflowed, caused a damage of 500 billion
dollars (Thongsawas, 2013). Besides the river flood, every year many districts in Bangkok suffer
floods from local rainfall and drainage problems. All these flood damages could be highly
decreased if there were more green areas for water infiltration in the city. With the real estate
speculation, many green areas in the city have been converted to impervious building structures,
and if this trend continuous, future floods may be even more devastating. Flood prevention
infrastructures, such as levees and dams are very expensive, and greening the cities can be an
efficient way to work with nature, instead of against it.
Another important benefit of greening Bangkok would be the thermal regulation. As the
city grows horizontally and vertically, the urban heat isle effect increases even more the high daily
temperatures. Trying to adapt to this heating effect, the use of air conditioners in Bangkok was the
main cause of the increase in energy consumption of 240% from 1998 to 2008 (Wangpattarapong,
2008). Greening the city could be a more sustainable way to control the urban temperature, because
the evapotranspiration process in the plants consume significant thermal energy from its
surroundings (Sherer, 2003). Green corridors can also allow the wind circulation, decreasing the
heat isle effects, while green roofs and vertical gardens can provide heat insulation for buildings.
Bangkok is flourishing tourism center, and the gateway for many touristic routes in
Southeast Asia. A greening embellished city could attract even more visitors to the city,
contributing to improve the citys economy. Public parks, green corridors and even street trees can
offer pleasant places for tourists in this warm city. With more places to visit in Bangkok, the
tourists would tend to stay more days in the city, before they follow on their tourism itineraries
along Southeast Asia.
Nevertheless, the greening policies must be evaluated comparing its costs to its benefits.
As the land value of Bangkok is increasing at 3.5% annually (AREA, 2015), reserving green areas
within the city may compete with the demand for new buildings and transportation infrastructure.
The maintenance of green areas may incur in different costs, depending on choices of design and
plant species that are utilized. However, the next section will highlight options that can reduce the
use of new spaces and the maintenance costs, while enabling an economic viable option for
greening the city.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration play an essential role in assuring a greener city.
If inhabitants and private investors follow on their business as usual behavior, usually they would
2

be tempted to make investments or perform activities that can bring more profit in the short term,
but these choices may not be the most sustainable for the city in the long term. Conversely, the
government agencies need to interpret these strategies of development in a wider picture, and
therefore try to implement policies and services that can give a better guidance to economic drivers
and result in a greener city.
3. Proposal for a Greening Strategy
In this section, the following options for Bangkoks greening will be discussed:
1. Providing economic incentives for buildings that implement green roofs and vertical
gardens.
2. Implementing a green corridor along the Airport Link railroad.
3. Implementing green shaded sidewalks along the city roads with intense pedestrian
flow.
Building gardens on the roof of condominiums in Bangkok has becoming increasingly
popular in the last years (Figure 1). The use of vertical gardens have also been a trend choice in
Bangkoks malls (Figure 2). Taking advantage of these trends and of the technical expertise
available in the town, the Metropolitan Authority could establish a partial tax abatement for
buildings that choose to implement these options. The proportion of the tax abatement could even
be increased for buildings that connect the gardens to systems that reuse the infiltrated water,
decreasing water demand, as well as runoff that could contribute to floods.

Figure 1 Roof garden of Sulapai Casa Riva Figure 2 Vertical garden in Siam Paragorn
Condominium, in Bangkok
Mall, in Bangkok
Much of the area along the Airport Link express train railroad, connecting Bangkoks
downtown to Suvanabumi Airport, still holds native vegetation (Figure 3). This area plays an
important role for flood regulation, but more and more buildings are advancing in to these green
areas, both in formal and clandestine buildings. In order to assure this green corridor as a public
space, the proposed idea is to transform the remaining green area into a linear park, with features
such as cycleways, running paths, gardens, as well as sport and leisure spots. As a multipurpose

space, the area should still be allocated as flood storage, in the case of floods, but after these
periods, people would be able to give other uses to it.

Figure 3 Corridor of native vegetation along the Airport Link Railroad. Image extracted from
Google Earth in 12 August 2015.
As a city used to face extremes events of heat and rain, it is not unusual to find some shaded
sidewalk in public areas of Bangkok to protect pedestrians from sunlight and rain (Figures 4 and
5). The proposal is to expand this idea for the sidewalks on roads with highest pedestrians flow
in Bangkok, but using a roof of intertwined bindweed instead of concrete structures. These
bindweed structures would be aesthetically pleasant, while would also provide shelter for the
heavy sunlight. The interception of rainfall would also provide relative shelter in precipitation
events, and also help to regulate floods. A careful choice of bindweed species should be carried,
to select the ones that are more adapted to Bangkoks weather and that would demand less
maintenance costs.

Figure 4 - Shaded sidewalk in Chulalongkorn

University, Bangkok
4

Figure 5 - Shaded sidewalk in Siam

District, Bangkok

In order to implement these three proposed features with best efficiency, Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration needs a good coordination plan among many institutions. The change
in the regulation for economic incentive on green roofs and vertical gardens would need to be
discussed and approved in the Bangkok Metropolitan Council. The policy implementation on the
tax policies would be carried by the Finance department.
The green corridor and the bindweed sidewalks would demand budget allocation, that also
needs to be approved by Bangkok Metropolitan Council. The building phase would need the
coordination of City Planning Department and Public Works Department. After built, these green
spaces would need maintenance by the Environment Department.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration would need a continuous interaction with other
interested stakeholders, particularly local dwellers and private real estate companies. Therefore,
before the start of the activities, the Bangkok City Authority should first engage with these
stakeholders, through participatory approaches, to collect suggestions and build a plan that is
accepted by the end users.
The economic benefits for green roofs and vertical gardens need to be economically
attractive for real estate companies and for the administrators of malls and other commercial
business. The choices of the private stakeholders would also be driven by their clients behavior in
favor these greener features.
In the case of the green corridor, the city authority would need to reinforce the urban land
use laws in order to avoid new buildings on the remaining green area along the airport link railroad.
The features in the linear park should be well selected to attract the local communities, to justify
the investment on building and maintenance of the public spaces.
4. Conclusion
The importance of cities sustainability in our contemporary world was highlighted in this
report, with Bangkok as an insightful example. The challenges that Bangkok faces with flood and
heat where exposed, followed by a discussion on how greening strategies could help to deal with
these issues. Above all, it was clarified throughout the report how a greener Bangkok could provide
a better quality of life for its inhabitants and tourists. The consideration of cost-benefit analysis of
greening options was also raised, reminding that economic viability is an essential criteria of
sustainable policies.
The three proposed options for greening Bangkok were economic incentives for green
roofs and vertical gardens, a green corridor along the Airport Link railroad, and bindweed shaded
sideways along the roads with high pedestrian flow. The proposed actions would require a
coordination of executive and legislative powers, through regulations, budget allocation and interinstitutional cooperation. Within Bangkok City Authority, the main agencies involved would be
Finance, City Planning, Public Works and Environment Departments. Furthermore, in order to
assure its efficiency, the policies should effectively engage with stakeholders such as real estate
companies, malls, local dwellers and visitors.

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