Zone Map, the hatched green zone is the rural and
agricultural conservation area, the solid green zone
is the rural and agricultural area (Figure 4). These two
green zones are supposed to be areas for water
detention and floodways. The water’s edges were
once rural, but now they barely have any green space
left and no natural edges. Properties along the water
edges, where public recreation and multifunctional
purposes should be facilitated, are instead owned
privately while few public developments have taken
place.
When looking at Bangkok’s green spaces, it
can be seen that the city has scattered green space.
Figure 5 has gathered all the green areas of Bangkok
together and overlaid them with green areas of
rural and agricultural land from the Bangkok Urban
Planning and Land Zone Map (Figure 4) to show the
proximate locations of these areas. This shows that
there is no network connecting these green areas.
Rivers and “Klongs” (canals) are forms of natural
borders and also linkages, but they are hardly used
to connect these green areas. Today, most of the
klongs are structural with solid embankments, used
only for the city’s drainage system. The detention
areas as shown are undeveloped and vacant:
mostly wetlands and marshlands. The detention areas
appeared on the map already included 20 of the 21
“Kaem Lings”. The Kaem Ling Project was initiated
by His Majesty the King as 21 detention areas all
over Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The last one is
located right outside of Bangkok. This project seems
to be the only functional green infrastructure system
in Bangkok. Yet for a city situated only 2 meters
above sea level, a high tide is sufficient to flood some
of the areas along the river and klongs. Is this system
adequate for the whole of Bangkok? The system that
we have now is surely not enough, unconnected and
unmaintained.