© 2011 Flickr/Remko Tanis
Dramatic flooding has occurred throughout Thailand during this unusually long and intense 2011 rainy season. It’s been called the country’s worst monsoon season in 50 years. And by now, floods have engulfed nearly a third of the country.
The damage can be ascribed to not only intense rainfall, but also, in part, to poor water management. Mr. Smith Dharmasaroja, a former director of the Thai Meteorological Department, explained:
“They miscalculated the water levels and did not discharge water from the dams early enough in the rainy season,” he said. “The dams are almost full now, so they discharge the water at the same time, and all the discharge water comes down to the low-lying areas.”
Such a devastating “miscalculation” serves as an important lesson for all of us. Heavy rain and other extreme weather events can have devastating impacts on our infrastructure and human welfare. But the severity of these impacts depends a lot on how well we prepare. Human failures of management can make natural disasters even worse.
With climate change, we can expect intense rain events, like those that contributed to the Thai floods, to become more common and severe. That’s why, to prepare for this reality, we’ll need to adjust our infrastructure and management plans accordingly.
As we watch the situation in Thailand, we can only hope that Bangkok’s defenses continue to “hold firm.” Meanwhile, back at home, there’s more we can do. We can take a look at how climate change is likely to affect our cities, towns and infrastructure and what we can do to prepare. What kinds of impacts will climate change have on your community? And are you ready?
Christine Edney
October 19th
This website makes it look like this is all down to ‘Mother Nature’. Whilst I believe that emissions have caused higher temperatures, the main cause of flooding and hurricanes, etc. is the weather modification programme being implemented by “climate scientists” who believe that spraying poisonous substances into the air (chemtrails) worldwide will reflect the sun away from our planet. It’s a quick fix method of cooling the earth but is having devastating consequences………..
Asandiswa "Alex" Manatha
October 19th
People still do not grasp the seriousness of global warming, its not rocket science guys. Just reduce, re-use and recycle- that’s it. My worry is just when this thing hits the African continent as I’m from there and mostly when it affects the most poor people. Why must they suffer when they haven’t done anything??????
Laxminarayana Paladi
October 19th
CLIMATE CHANGE
Clouds were doing their job of raining; now they seized to do
Land wet earlier, became dry ; semi-dry lands dried altogether
It is true the planet is in peril and life is in threat of perish, if situation persists
Man made or GOD made, we know; but we need to combat the change
Arms of atomic and other kinds are the main culprits; man being on top
Tsunamis, storms, cyclones, droughts and melting of icecaps became common
Culprit, main, being man injured the climate system in a huge way
Hunger is the final result; if clouds seize to do their normal duty of raining
Autumn in summer, summer in winter and shortest spring are the order of the day
No rains, over rains, droughts, famines and floods have become sequential
Ground or surface water, the offspring of precipitation became scarce; CLIMATE being the mother of all
Existence of life on Earth is dependent on CLIMATE and not independent by itself.
Laxminarayana Paladi
Zeeshan Iqbal
October 19th
We in Pakistan have face the same sort of flooding for the past 2 years. Mother nature is ill and when it weeps it weeps much more than we expect. Please heal our Mother Earth and reduce, reuse, recycle. Common everyone, “RE-think”
David Weddell
October 29th
We have started a program to help people become more resilient towards extreme weather in our state. Check it out at http://www.hardenup.org