Climate Change: Green oasis could alleviate impact of flooding in Thailand

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02:26

Not just Indonesia, Thailand is also among the countries that are trying to find urgent answers to tackle the effects of climate change. Our correspondent Martin Lowe looks at one possible solution in the Thai capital Bangkok.

Thailand's worst-ever floods in 2011, more than 500 people died, 13 million had their lives severely disrupted. As changing climates cause sea levels to rise, communities across the globe are bracing for similar disasters.

Bangkok is just one-and-a-half meters above sea level, and as water is pumped out of the ground to enable development, the weight of the buildings is causing the city to sink by two centimeters a year. Some forecast it could be under water by the middle of the century.

Drastic times call for drastic measures, and a Bangkok architect has designed one possible solution. This is Centenary Park, an oasis of grass and trees in the concrete metropolis.

But its most unusual feature is hidden, a series of underground tanks which between them can hold up to a million gallons of floodwater.

KOTCHAKORN VORAAKHOM ARCHITECT "The idea is from seeing the bigger picture of the city, everyone knows Bangkok is a city at risk in terms of water and really the design of this public space is about how we live with water rather than getting rid of water."

The park has been built to slope, channeling rainwater into the underground tanks where it's retained until flooding subsides.

MARTIN LOWE BANGKOK "A big part of the problem is construction. There's so much building going on here that there are hardly any open spaces left for rainwater to drain naturally. Twenty years ago, 40 percent of Bangkok was open land, today it's less than 10 percent."

Bangkok has announced a raft of flood measures, it's constructing barriers and enlarging canals, and is looking at schemes to retain flooding in rice fields outside the city, to protect the capital.

And a second flood park like this one, with an even bigger underground tank, is already under construction.

Martin Lowe, CGTN, Bangkok.