An Impact of River Flooding on Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study of the Historic City of Ayutthaya

KRIENGKRAI WATANASAWAD
Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand

Thailand has also been threatened by climatic change according to the report of Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Ministry of Interior. This contributes to the obvious situation of prolonged droughts and intense flooding in Thailand. The Historic City of Ayutthaya is located on the lower land area in the Chao Phraya River basin surrounding with two major rivers, namely Chao Phraya River in the West and the South, as well as Pasak River in the East and the North. Consequently, the city always floods in the high water season of each year. It is evident that the heavy flood in Ayutthaya is caused by the northern flood which results from the climate change and deforestation. Although there are a system to solve flooding problem and a plan to prevent flooding inside the heritage sites and associated heritage areas following the Master Plan of the Historic City of Ayutthaya proposed by the Fine Arts Department after becoming a World Heritage Site in 1991, it seems that this plan is unsuccessfully implemented since the city still overflows with a high water level every year and the Royal Thai government wasted a lot of budget to construct the flood prevention system within the city isle. This study aims at providing an in-depth picture of an impact of river flooding on the management and preservation of heritage sites in the ancient Ayatthaya area and evaluating the success of the Master Plan in handling the river flooding problem. The data will be collected from all stakeholders in Ayutthaya and be analyzed based upon the concept of an impact assessment.