Characteristics of the 2011 Chao Phraya River flood in Central Thailand

Komori, Daisuke; Nakamura, Shinichirou; Kiguchi, Masashi; Nishijima, Ayumu; Yamazaki, Dai; Suzuki, Satoshi; Kawasaki, Akiyuki; Oki, K.; Oki, Taikan

doi:10.3178/hrl.6.41

Cited by 185 publications

(127 citation statements)

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“…The 2011 flood was the maximum ever recorded in Thailand (Komori et al, 2012), and predominantly involved the Chao Phraya River which drains 30% of the country and passes from the North of the country through a topographical narrowing at Nakhon Sawan and then through to the low-lying and relatively flat coastal plain that contains Bangkok city ( Figure 2). This flood caused tremendous damage, including 813 dead nationwide, inundation damage and business interruption to seven industrial estates and 804 companies, and total losses estimated at 43 billion dollars (Komori et al, 2012).…”

Section: Site and Event Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface water connectivity dynamics of a large scale extreme flood

Trigg

Michaelides

Neal

et al. 2013

Journal of Hydrology

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During flood inundation, river water passes from the main channel into the floodplain through floodplain channels and diffusive overbank flow. This flood water is then distributed within the floodplain depending upon internal connections, barriers and storage, and finally returns back to the river through drainage connections. This surface water connectivity can be complex and is important to many aspects of floodplain functioning, including ecology, sediment movement and flood risk. However, there is currently no accepted way of quantifying this connectivity objectively. We quantify surface water connectivity geostatistically as an objectively measurable characteristic of an observed flood event using a time series of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) surface water product for an extreme large scale flood event (11,000 km 2 flooded area and 6 month duration) during 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. We develop and apply a new gap filling method that better preserves the dynamic information of the event than simple aggregation methods. Comparison of MODIS results with the higher resolution Earth Observer 1 shows fundamental differences in the resolved connectivity with scale despite similar flooded area. The effect of the passage of the flood wave is directly observable in the river reach, as out-of-bank flooding progresses and increases connectivity along the river during rising water. Around peak flow, there is an increase in connectivity of the floodplain adjacent to the river as low lying areas fill. A step increase in connectivity is correlated with a major levee breach. During recession there is a rapid reduction in along river connectivity in the first week after the peak. This rapid reduction contrasted with a slow decrease in the floodplain connectivity as flooded depressions gradually drained reducing depth, while flood extent remained static for long periods. The connectivity analysis of the threshold in floodplain draining indicates that although spatial flood extent changes are small at this time, there is a reorganisation of the internal surface water connectivity within the flooded area. Thus through this measure of connectivity, we can see a clear structure to the event progression with new insights into flood dynamics that were not anticipated a priori.

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Section: Site and Event Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface water connectivity dynamics of a large scale extreme flood

Trigg

Michaelides

Neal

et al. 2013

Journal of Hydrology

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“…Thus, rainfall accumulation alone is not a universal indicator for flooding in the CPRB. Likewise, heavy monsoon rains emphasized by previous studies (Thai Meteorological Department 2011;Aon Benfield 2012;Komori et al 2012;Gale and Saunders 2013;Rakwatin et al 2013) could not be held as a primary cause for flooding. In the case of 2011, wintertime and premonsoon rainfall anomalies in the upper CPRB appear to be critical.…”

Section: A Rainfall Distribution and Changesmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Water Rakwatin et al 2013;Haraguchi and Lall 2014;Mateo et al 2014). As Komori et al (2012) pointed out, had the water been drained from these reservoirs earlier in the monsoon season (instead of storing it as is common practice), 1 3 10 9 m 3 of floodwater could have been stored in the reservoirs during the monsoon season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This continual surplus in soil moisture stands out from other flood years during which soil moisture was uniformly lower than normal, with the exception of 2006 when soil moisture was near normal. Arguably, the abnormally high soil moisture content in 2011 so early in the season facilitated the release of discharge when large rainfall events occurred in subsequent months, increasing runoff in the CPRB (Komori et al 2012). The importance of concurrent increases in soil moisture and rainfall during the premonsoon season to the flood magnitude is clearly illustrated.…”

Section: B Role Of Soil Moisture and Sea Levelmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Previous studies suggest that the 2011 flood was caused by heavy rainfall in the northern and central CPRB (Thai Meteorological Department 2011;Aon Benfield 2012;Komori et al 2012;Gale and Saunders 2013;Rakwatin et al 2013). The large rainfall amounts that accumulated from March to October were compounded by five tropical storms that affected Thailand from June through October (Thai Meteorological Department 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The 2011 Great Flood in Thailand: Climate Diagnostics and Implications from Climate Change

2015

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Severe flooding occurred in Thailand during the 2011 summer season, which resulted in more than 800 deaths and affected 13.6 million people. The unprecedented nature of this flood in the Chao Phraya River basin (CPRB) was examined and compared with historical flood years. Climate diagnostics were conducted to understand the meteorological conditions and climate forcing that led to the magnitude and duration of this flood. Neither the monsoon rainfall nor the tropical cyclone frequency anomalies alone was sufficient to cause the 2011 flooding event. Instead, a series of abnormal conditions collectively contributed to the intensity of the 2011 flood: anomalously high rainfall in the premonsoon season, especially during March; record-high soil moisture content throughout the year; elevated sea level height in the Gulf of Thailand, which constrained drainage; and other water management factors. In the context of climate change, the substantially increased premonsoon rainfall in CPRB after 1980 and the continual sea level rise in the river outlet have both played a role. The rainfall increase is associated with a strengthening of the premonsoon northeasterly winds that come from East Asia. Attribution analysis using phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project historical experiments pointed to anthropogenic greenhouse gases as the main external climate forcing leading to the rainfall increase. Together, these findings suggest increasing odds for potential flooding of similar intensity to that of the 2011 flood.

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Assessing the impacts of reservoir operation to floodplain inundation by combining hydrological, reservoir management, and hydrodynamic models

Mateo

Hanasaki

Komori

et al. 2014

Water Resources Research

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125

105

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A catastrophic flood event which caused massive economic losses occurred in Thailand, in 2011.Several studies have already been conducted to analyze the Thai floods, but none of them have assessed the impacts of reservoir operation on flood inundation. This study addresses this gap by combining physically based hydrological models to explicitly simulate the impacts of reservoir operation on flooding in the Chao Phraya River Basin, Thailand. H08, an integrated water resources model with a reservoir operation module, was combined with CaMa-Flood, a river routing model with representation of flood dynamics. The combined H08-CaMa model was applied to simulate and assess the historical and alternative reservoir operation rules in the two largest reservoirs in the basin. The combined H08-CaMa model effectively simulated the 2011 flood: regulated flows at a major gauging station have high daily NSE-coefficient of 92% as compared with observed discharge; spatiotemporal extent of simulated flood inundation match well with those of satellite observations. Simulation results show that through the operation of reservoirs in 2011, flood volume was reduced by 8.6 billion m 3 and both depth and area of flooding were reduced by 40% on the average. Nonetheless, simple modifications in reservoir operation proved to further reduce the flood volume by 2.4 million m 3 and the depth and area of flooding by 20% on the average. By modeling reservoir operation with a hydrodynamic model, a more realistic simulation of the 2011 Thai flood was made possible, and the potential of reducing flood inundation through improved reservoir management was quantified.

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Characteristics of the 2011 Chao Phraya River flood in Central Thailand

Cited by 185 publications

References 0 publications

Surface water connectivity dynamics of a large scale extreme flood

Surface water connectivity dynamics of a large scale extreme flood

The 2011 Great Flood in Thailand: Climate Diagnostics and Implications from Climate Change

Assessing the impacts of reservoir operation to floodplain inundation by combining hydrological, reservoir management, and hydrodynamic models

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