Chong Nonsi Canal Park

Once known as the Venice of the East, the city of Bangkok was famous for its vast interconnected network of canals rich in life, brimming with culture and spiritual significance. When the first settlements in Bangkok were created, important communal hubs like temples and markets were built into the canal banks utilizing the canals as a primary means of transportation making them the lifeblood of the city. Being in the tidal zone, the water levels in the Chao Phraya River and subsequently the connected canals frequently change in height, traditional Thai homes were built on stilts on the canal banks as the people lived in harmony with the changing water levels. Regrettably, the vibrant and harmonious blue-green spaces that once dominated that Bangkok cityscape are now but a distant memory. The modern canal shares little resemblance to the canals of the past. Rapid urban development has pushed the city to fill in its waterways disconnecting canals from its neighboring communities causing a deterioration of its ecosystem services that the communities of Bangkok previously relied on. No longer receiving the regular flow of current it used to, the modern canal has become filled with stagnant sewage covered with grey infrastructure to hide the unsightly view. At the current rate of carbon emissions and warming, the IPCC predicts global sea levels to rise 33cm by 2050 which in conjunction with Bangkok sinking at a rate of 2cm per year, due to the city being built on the soft alluvial soils of the Chao Phraya River delta, has caused the country to be named as one whose future is most at risk in the Global Climate Risk Index. With a warming climate comes the increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events that the city must be ready to face. The ever-growing nature of the city amplifies previously unresolved issues while also creating new challenges that the cities infrastructure must be able to adapt to.