21st Century (2000–present)

Bangkok Comprehensive Plan 2013

2013 · Thailand · Southeast Asia · Ecological, landscape-led, and resilience planning · Planned by BMA
Future land-use zoning plan of the Bangkok Comprehensive Plan, third revision (promulgated 2013): yellow to brown residential density bands radiating from the red commercial core, purple industry, and the large green rural-agricultural 'green belt' flood-way areas east and south-west of the city.
Future land-use zoning plan of the Bangkok Comprehensive Plan, third revision (promulgated 2013): yellow to brown residential density bands radiating from the red commercial core, purple industry, and the large green rural-agricultural 'green belt' flood-way areas east and south-west of the city. · © Bangkok Metropolitan Administration — used with credit · City Planning Department, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration - 'Future Land Use Plan' sheet of the Bangkok Comprehensive Plan, 3rd revision (draft for consideration, 8 August 2011; plan promulgated 2013)

Core idea

Land-use zoning + flood resilience

Why it matters

Statutory plan for a delta metropolis

Description

The Bangkok Comprehensive Plan of 2013 is the statutory land-use plan for the Thai capital, prepared by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) as the third-generation comprehensive plan under Thailand's town planning law. It zoned the metropolis by density and use, encouraged higher-intensity development around mass transit stations through floor-area incentives, and incorporated flood-management measures, including protected green and agricultural floodway areas in the eastern periphery, following the severe 2011 Chao Phraya floods. It regulates development across a low-lying delta metropolis of over eight million people.

Significance

The plan is significant as an attempt to bring statutory order and flood resilience to one of Southeast Asia's largest and most flood-exposed megacities, marking a shift towards linking land use with the expanding rail transit network. Its floodway protections and density bonusing entered regional debates on delta urbanism after 2011, though enforcement gaps and the persistence of development in flood-prone zones have been widely criticised. It illustrates both the reach and the limits of master planning in Southeast Asian megacity governance.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.