A Study Of Resilience Shown By People Of Bang Luang Community During Flood In Thailand

Flooding is a natural phenomenon and Thailand has been victim of such event afterevery few years. Land degradation, deforestation and bad urban practices have aggravatedthe impact of flood disasters. This study of flood management in Thailand shows howhuman activities and interventions have impacted on the river basin system. This researchfocuses on the resilience to such floods of the people living or working near the ChaoPhraya River. The case study is of the community living or working in the proximity ofWat Bang Luang (Bang Luang Temple) of the Pathum Thani Province, Thailand.This research explores the capacity of communities to live with or cope withfloods.Their adaptations to changes in flood regimes will depend on several factors:political (especially when Thailand has a long history of preoccupation with engineeringand technological solutions as the main approach to disaster response), economic,ecological (human modification to flood plains), social (kin-based networks) and culturalfactors. The data collected from the target community showed a power struggle betweenThai culture and the dominant hazard management paradigm. This research put a humanface on natural disaster and looked at the issue of flooding from the experiences ofordinary people. The findings showed that some members of the community are resilientwhile others are passive and are more vulnerable to floods. However, it is important not tolabel any individual or group as either vulnerable or resilient as people can be both at thesame time and policy makers need to build on the strengths thereon, rather than focus onthe weaknesses and on offering emergency relief.