Enhancement of Flood Countermeasures of Japanese-Affiliated Firms Based on the Lessons Learned from the 2011 Thai Flood

Abstract

The flood in the Chao Phraya River basin in 2011 caused 815 deaths and more than $45 billion in economic damage to Thailand. The industrial sector, the main contributor to the country’s economy, suffered especially devastating economic damage due to inundation of the industrial areas in the river basin. Seven industrial areas, where the total share of Japanese-affiliated firms was more than half, were most severely hit by the flood. In this study, a survey was conducted with Japanese-affiliated firms from February–March 2015 with the purpose of further strengthening their flood countermeasures in the future. The firms’ factories were asked which lessons from the 2011 flood they considered important and whether their experiences from the flood had been applied to strengthening their flood countermeasures. It was found that these factories, regardless of their inundation status in 2011, considered “preparation of a business continuity plan or manual for possible floods” to be the most important lesson from the 2011 flood. However, when it comes to actual implementation of flood countermeasures, the factories that were inundated in 2011 strengthened flood countermeasures much more than the factories with only indirect damage. In both groups, however, collaboration with business partners and local communities as well as use of reliable flood-related information were revealed to be the areas where further strengthening would be possible.