CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Urban drainage is a vital city infrastructure to cope with floods by conveying water away
from urban areas. To minimize the flood impacts, the main principle is to carry water away from
the urbanized areas as quickly and completely as possible. The built systems are often
susceptible which are likely to endure greater exposure to extreme events in the future, resulting
in increased demand for maintenance and upgrades. Water and sewage networks need to
accommodate more intense precipitation (Mehdi et.al. 2006). Berggren et al, (2007), the study
conducted in the climate change impact on urban drainage have discussed possible impacts on
urban drainage which are increased Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) causing environmental
problems and polluting drinking water sources, infiltration of the ground water into sewer
system, increased pollutants level in the WWTP affecting their normal treatment process,
flooding the pumping stations, increment in sediment volume in the storm water detention pond
in the separate system, decreased infiltration capacity in the infiltration basin.
The urban drainage infrastructures designed in most of the places have considered
stationary climate condition, as the consequences most of them are running over capacity before
their design period (Mailhot and Duchesne, 2010). Storm water management is not only directly
related to climate change. Apart from climate change, there is however other factors such as
increase in population, new developments. Urban storm water infrastructures in most of the cities
are under direct exposure of extreme events. Sukhumvit, in the Central Bangkok is one of the
representative urbanized cities where ground surface is mostly impermeable that generates
higher percentage of surface runoff and densely established buildings and structures makes flood
flow routing even complicated. It also represents the condition of urban cities where terrain is
flat and gravity discharge of storm water is difficult. Past studies done in Sukhumvit have shown
that, drainage capacity of the existing system is not adequate. The author stated “virtual
reservoir”, which is an advanced modelling technique to keep and exchange surcharged water
between pipe network and surface storage
1.2. Study Area

Sukhumvit sub-catchment, one of the parts of Central Business District of eastern sub-
urban area in Bangkok, has an area of 24 km2 and is bound Klongs and Chao Phraya River as
shown in Fig.1. At present, there are 10 polders exist in the primary drainage of Bangkok.
Sukhumvit sub-catchment is the one of them. Each polder area will have its own drainage
system, so-called secondary drainage system.

Figure 1 Map of Master Plan and Study Area (DDS, 1998)

This study area has a characteristic of flat plain. Although, this area can prevent floods
caused by overflow from Chao Phraya River in 1995 and 1996, removal of stormwater is
impossibly drained by gravity into existing canals. Some areas in Sukhumvit sub-catchment are
frequently inundated.

1.3. Problem Formulation

The problem formulation of this research as follow :

1. How is existing Bangkok Urban Drainage System formulated?

2. What is the main drainage problem that caused flood ?
3. How is the flood management and prevention policy carried out by the
government?
 CHAPTER II
EXISTING DRAINAGE SYSTEM

2.1 Primary and Secondary Drainage

The primary drainage system mostly depends on Klongs. Due to flat area, combination of
pumps and klongs is used to drain water to the main drainage canals or the river. To prevent
flooding from river, gates are also installed in this area. Nevertheless, drainage capacity of
existing system is still not adequate because hydraulic capacity of Klongs is limited. Existing
drainage system consists of 2 major parts. One is area in both side of Sukhumvit Streetand area
in the South of the street will drain rainwater to klong Toei finally to the river at klong Toei
pumping station.
Another one is area in the North of Sukhumvit Street will drain to klong Sean Seap,
klong Tan, and klong Phra Khanong. At present, the secondary drainage system, Sukhumvit area,
is operated by Department of Drainage & Sewerage (DDS). The characteristic of secondary
drainage system is to prevent floodwater from outside by level up its boundary and try to pump
rainwater out of the area to main drainage canals.
The pumping is mainly operated to drain rainwater. There is no retention pond inside this
area and unfortunately, in wet season, water levels in both surrounded canals, which are Klong
Phra Khanong and Klong Tan almost reach the embankment level. Drainage by pumps is only
one means to remove water. Due to flat area and insufficient drainage capacity, frequent floods
occur even a small local rainfall at the area of Sukhumvit Soi 39 to Rama 4th junction including
Soi Thong Lor and Soi Ekamai.

2.2 Canal network

Named “Venice of the East”, Bangkok is famous for the large and complex canal
network, functioning partly as transportation routes and partly as drainage. At normal time,
canals transport domestic waste water to the Chao Phraya River. Yet, during the monsoon
season, water level in the river could be meters higher than that in the canals. Therefore, some
water control gates were built at the places where canals connect the river, to avoid backflow
from the river into the city. To some degree, these gates do retard excessive water getting into
the canals and propagating in the dense urban area. However, this does not apply during the
extreme flooding events, which generate very high hydraulic pressure from the river side.

2.3 Flood protection

After the disastrous 1983 flood event, several flood prevention measures emerged to
solve the flooding problem in Bangkok, those are (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, 2004):
 Preventing excessive water from watercourses and outside Bangkok by construction of
water barriers, for instance, dikes, embankments and temporally sand bags.
 Improving the drainage efficiency of the city by pump stations, canals and sewer system.
 "Monkey Cheeks Project”: Construction and improvement of temporary retention basins.
In the last two decades, flood barrier with length of 88 kilometers along the Chao Phraya
River was partly completed. Dozens of pumping stations along the Chao Phraya River and canals
were established; among them eleven pumping stations had a capacity larger than 20 m3s-1 each.

Figure 1: Daily maximum rainfall in 1993-2002

(Source: Thai Meteorological Department)
 CHAPTER III
DRAINAGE PROBLEM IN BANGKOK AND THE SOLUTION

3.1 Drainage Problem in Thailand

Flooding problems of Bangkok have two separate causes. The 2011 floods were caused
by overland flow from the north of Bangkok, precipitated by breaches of the levees to the north
of the city in the Ayutthaya area, a well-known site of cultural interest, in combination with a
bottleneck in the river profile comparable to that of the river Waal at Nijmegen before the bypass
was constructed. Meanwhile in June 2016, flood in the Bangkok city which caused severe
disruptions, originated from a heavy rainfall of a huge magnitude that the city drainage system
could not cope with due to several serious problems such as insufficient draining facility to store
the amount of surface run-off water and clogging caused by garbages that flew within rainwater.
In the former years, there were constructed many canals in Bangkok. These canals were
utilized for navigation, agricultural concern and domestic water uses, as well as storm drainage
facility. Because of rapid development and industrial expansion in the past two decades, a
number of canals have been replaced by roads and sewers, as the result, the drainage capacity is
declining slightly while the surface run-off discharge increase because of those land conversion.
The increasing land development was not followed up by the establishment of adequate drainage
facility which furthermore, caused several flood problems when it comes the rainy season. For
instance, in Figure 1, it can be seen that insufficient draining facility such as draining inlet (that
used to discharge the surface water into drainage channels) may cause a huge puddle of
undrained stormwater that dwells on the street.
 Figure 1 Insufficient draining facility in Bangkok lead to serious flood on the street

In addition, insufficient draining facilities and street inlets are not the only disputes that
caused several plashes on the street when heavy rain occurred. Garbage and careless waste
disposal on urban drainage channel are the biggest concerns that need considerable and
sustainable action to prevent further draining failure. In Figure 2, It can be seen that garbage
clogged the channel and inhibit the water flow movement. It may affects to more sluggish water
velocity and blocks the water path into final disposal (ocean). When rainy season comes, surface
run-off water that come from high intensity rain may stumbled upon those blockages and
bloating up exceeds the channel freeboard space. The water then flew out from drainage channel
and floods the street. Bangkok has main drainage system with width approximately 70 m and
secondary drainage with 4-5 m in width. Despite the fact that drainage system has broad funnel
in dimensions, it does not guarantee and avoid Bangkok from flood if garbage keeps being
disposed in drainage channel. As shown in Figure 3, huge amount of rubbish that clogs the
channel, come out from drainage channel. It indicates that the wide drainage channel cannot
work properly in draining storm water if it is filled by rubbish because rubbish can stops the
water flow into the water disposal.
 Figure 2 Rubbishs and Garbages floating in Bangkok Canals

Figure 3 Rubbishs and Garbages disclosed from drainage channel

Flooding has long been recognized as the most damaging and costly natural hazard in
many countries. Due to better accessibility and settlement feasibility, floodplains have been
increasingly encroached by urbanization in the last few centuries. However, this aggravates the
problem – increasing risk and damage of flooding, which is severer in the less developed
countries. Generally, these countries have more population and land-demanding pressure, but
less mitigation capability towards the flooding hazards than the more developed countries. Most
modern cities in the more developed countries experience small scale and local floods due to
insufficient capacity of the sewer systems to transport excessive rainfall or the unexpected
breakdown of water-supply pipes (Mark et al., 2004. Especially Thailand has a big problem with
flooding in 2011
Caused of Flooding in Bangkok :
 Heavy rainfall intensity (local flood)
 Overflow from river bank due to high discharge from the northern part
 Effect of high tides from the sea
 Land subsidence
 Low efficiency of drainage system

3.2 Improvement of Drainage systems for rainfall

 Drainage system has been designed for rainfall intensity 60 mm./hr.
 Canals; 1,682 canals and 2,600 km.
 Pipe systems 6,400 km.
 Main roads have main drainage pipes length 1,640 km.
 Normal roads have secondary drainage pipes length 4,760 km.
 Pumping stations and water gates are 409 places. Total capacity is 1,638 cm.
 7 tunnels which total length are 19 km. and total capacity is 155.50 cm.
 25 storm water retention ponds in Bangkok area. Total volume is 12.88 million cm.
 Flood control center
Bangkok Metropolitan Area has implemented the drainage tunnels in case of where the
drainage systems are insufficient. The tunnels will drain the exceed storm water through the
tunnels lying 15-22 m. underground surface and pump out to the river by high capacity
pumps. Now there are 7 drainage tunnels which 19 km long and 155 cm of pumping capacity
There are several factors contributed to the severe flooding in upstream provinces and
Bangkok itself. Among them, 2 key responsible factors are:
 Excessive rainfall from major typhoons
 Insufficient flood drain system in Chaophaya Basin including Bangkok

As we all know, climate change is causing excessive rainfall in many parts of the world,
which is a natural phenomenon beyond our control. However, we have to defend this severe
natural disaster by improving flood drain system. Three major systems should be used to
improve flood drain or flood way. These 3 systems of the table should be integrated to optimize
the investment cost. Type 1 should be used in upstream area or suburban area of provinces in
northern Bangkok. Type 2 can be used in both suburban and urban area. Large Flood drain
tunnels are considered practical, most effective and hence the best solution to prevent major
flooding in the long term.

type System Practicality and effectiveness

Not practical in every area considering current land use
Open channels or canals on the (e.g. Bangkok suburban and urban land use). Expensive
1
ground surface to appropriate the land owned by ordinary citizens or
private sectors
Subsurface canals or shallow Practical to implement but relatively ineffective due to
2
underground structures limited flood drain capacity
Practical and effective in most areas and land use
3 Large Flood Drain Tunnels
especially in Bangkok

3.3 Multi-Service Flood Tunnel System (MUSTS)

Using diaphragm walls (underground earth-retaining walls), cut-and-cover tunnel could

be constructed beneath the existing Eastern Outer Ring Road. Using special but common
construction method called “Top-Down Construction” (similar to method adopted for
construction of subway station underneath Bangkok roads), this system will have minimum
impact on current use of Outer Ring Road during construction. This system will also minimize
the cost of land appropriation; the major part of the flood drain tunnel will be underneath existing
road (motorway).

The cut-and-cover tunnel can be constructed as double-deck underground structure (similar

to 2 levels underground basement) – please see attached illustration (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 Multipurpose Underground Service Flood Tunnel System (MUSTS)

 Upper Deck – will be used as road tunnel in normal condition, no flood or minor
flood as shown in Fig. 3 and during moderate flood Fig. 4
 Lower Deck – will be used as flood drain in normal condition, no flood or minor
flood as shown in Fig. 3 and during moderate flood Fig. 4
 Figure 3 Normal or Minor Flood Situation (upper deck using as motorway, lower deck draining out

Figure 4 Moderate Flood Situation (upper deck using as motorway, lower deck draining out
water)
Upper Deck – will be stopped using as road tunnel or underground motorway and will be used as
flood drain or flood way once major flood comes
Total length of this underground system is approx.100 km depending on the final
selection based on further feasibility studies.
 CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION

1. Existing drainage system consists of 2 major parts. One is area in both side of Sukhumvit
Streetand area in the South of the street will drain rainwater to klong Toei finally to the
river at klong Toei pumping station. Another one is area in the North of Sukhumvit
Street will drain to klong Sean Seap, klong Tan, and klong Phra Khanong. The
characteristic of secondary drainage system is to prevent floodwater from outside by level
up its boundary and try to pump rainwater out of the area to main drainage canals. The
pumping is mainly operated to drain rainwater.
2. Draining failures and problems in Bangkok triggered by several element, such as :
 Heavy rain intensity
 Drainage function alteration due to Land development
 Land subsidence
 Low efficiency of drainage system
 Lack of street inlet and draining facilities
3. Several attempts to fix drainage system are carried out by the government is divided into
two parts, namely the construction of structural and non-structural. Structural
development includes building giant tunnels, repairing existing drainage systems, raising
embankments, and developing Multi-Service Flood Draining System (MUSTS). While
non-structural development is more focused on increasing awareness of the community
about the importance of keeping drainage channel clean from rubbish.

Reference

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GIS with Hydrologic and Hydraulic Flood Modelling. Water Resources Management,
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3. The World Bank. (2012).Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk
Management for the 21st Century [Press release]. Retrieved July 15, 2017