Environmental Analysis

As defined by the Millenium Ecosystem assessment, ecosystem services are benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. These benefits include provisioning services, regulating services, and cultural services. The ecosystem we look at for this analysis, are the canals and rivers in Bangkok. The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) in Bangkok depends solely on main surface water sources such as the Chao Praya and Mea Klong rivers for its water supply, and therefore we will take a closer look at these ecosystems.

Provisioning services include goods or products that are produced by the ecosystem. In our case, we identified that the rivers and canals in Bangkok provide us with water (for cleaning, drinking or agriculture), food and fish, plants and vegetation and also the possibility to implement aquaculture. In order to valuate these benefits obtained, we can use several techniques. Water, food and plants can be valued by looking at market prices or substitution prices of comparable products. Aquaculture can be valued by looking at added value created by other production methods.

In addition, we found that the rivers and canals in Bangkok provide us with regulation services. These are natural processes regulated by the ecosystem.
An important regulation service is the regulation of diseases. Human health, particularly risk of exposure to many infectious diseases, may depend on the maintenance of biodiversity in natural ecosystems. When the ecosystem is out of balance, this might cause to spread disease more easily. In addition, In some parts of Bangkok, poor sanitary conditions exist, which may be associated with water related diseases such as acute diarrhea.
In addition, the rivers and canals of Bangkok regulate sediment retention, which is important to for animal life and plants in the ecosystem. Other than that, canals and rivers in Bangkok are also responsible for waste processing, as a lot of waste and waste water is dumped here by industry and households. These services can be valued by looking at costs that are avoided or prevented from being necessary.

Lastly, the ecosystem of Bangkok also provides us with many cultural benefits. The most important benefit provided is recreation and ecotourism activities. Bangkok is known as ‘The Venice of the East’ as it has so many canals, which are used for several purposes. Floating markets on the canals are important tourist attractions, and also function as a trading place for locals. Next to this, Bangkok citizens and tourists both use the canals as a form of transport, using ferries to cross the rivers, or longtail boats to move along the river. Moreover, the rivers and canals also provide nice scenery.

Besides this, water also plays a cultural role in Bangkok. The Songkran festival is an important event in Thailand, as it celebrates the Thai New Year. The most common way of celebrating this event is the throwing of water. Water from the canals and rivers thus play a signifcant role in this cultural event. An example of a spiritual event, where water plays a key role, is Loy Kratong. During this event, citizens float offerings on the canals or river to thank the goddess, and ask for good luck for the coming year.