Host: The Association of Japanese Geographers
The city before the modernization was a scale of an extremely small range among a castle wall and the castle towns. In the investigation for the Asia Metropolis, after modernization in approximately 150 years before, a range of the city area began to enlarge it by increase of the population and the urban infrastructure. Metropolis enlarged toward each direction although there was limitation of the topography such as the river and hill part. It is important to decide a setting range so that aging compares these as from a topographical map to GIS data or statistics document.
Especially Bangkok is suited for analysis about the relationship between urbanization and hydrological environment. Bangkok is located at the lower delta of Chao Phraya. The Thailand dynasty has replaced its capital to downstream along the river. In the latter half of 18c, Bangkok became the capital of the Kingdom. There was transportation network with river and canal which called klong in Thailand. As the road network has constructed, the klong system also has effected on urban function. After the period of growth, Bangkok has extended to outer BMA (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration) with industrial urbanization. They have caused traffic jam. Because many workers live on suburb and factories are located on periphery of the city. As same as other developing countries, Bangkok has been judged the primate city for the rest cities. Recently, new railroad system (Bangkok Transit System and subway) has constructed in Bangkok. Under the suburbanization, shipping service has remained. In addition to that, the major facilities (e.g. temples which called Wat in Thailand) are concerned with the klong network. Its location has been regulated with water (re)use and the transportation system.
So, one of human impacts can be analyzed by the urban hydrological environment.
