“Sucking up or soaking in? Climate resilient upgrading of informal settlements in Bangkok”: this is the title of a research project that is being conducted by a group of Bachelor students in the Spatial Planning programme of TU Dortmund University. Since the climate is having an increasing impact on society and the environment, the student project is exploring whether and to what extent the upgrading measures that are currently being implemented in informal settlements in Bangkok are impacting their climate resilience.

Since 2018, the Wilo-Foundation has been supporting similar excursions of young spatial planners in the field of water, climate resilience and settlements, providing funding for trips to Oman, San Francisco and Berlin and helping students in this way to gain important international experience.

The area investigated in this year’s project, Bangkok, will be severely affected by climate change in the years to come. The Bangkok Metropolitan Area has 14.6 million inhabitants, making Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, the country’s largest city. More than 10 % of the population live there. Although Bangkok is the economic centre of Thailand and contributes 40 per cent of the country’s GDP, not all its inhabitants benefit from the city’s prosperity. Up to 30 % of Bangkok’s communities are defined as informal settlements where, due to the planning and building regulations, it is not permitted to build houses. The inhabitants of these settlements are often more exposed to the challenges of urbanisation and climate change. So far, there have been only very few research publications on the topic of "resilient upgrading" in Bangkok. Through their project, the students want to close this gap.

Under the project, field studies including site visits and expert interviews were conducted in February. In this context, 11 students and two lecturers of TU Dortmund University participated in a five-day study trip to Bangkok. The Wilo-Foundation supported the trip with a grant for travel expenses. Having the opportunity to visit informal settlements in Bangkok enabled the project members to take a differentiated approach to the topic.