nexus — Activities and Events — Center for Social Development Studies

The inaugural interdisciplinary seminar highlighted ongoing graduate student research related to the water-food-energy nexus. Students presented cross-cutting research in the areas of political ecology of water, bioenergy, agriculture, and the politics of water allocation in Southeast Asia.

Presentation:

"A political ecology of Bangkok waters: the institutional interplay between subsidence, floods and water infrastructures" by Thanawat Bremard, ABIES, AgroParisTech, France
Bangkok’s position in the Chao Phraya River delta confronts it to the risks of flooding from three fronts: local rainfall, the tidal cycle of the Gulf of Thailand and the cumulated waters from upstream during rainy season. As the urbanisation of the capital progressed, the city left its aquatic nature to adopt a terrestrial paradigm of development focusing on roads, polderisation and infrastructures that keep the city dry from the floods. The flooding vulnerability of Bangkok is further enhanced by the subsidence caused by groundwater over-extraction and building weight. The research, at the confluence of urban political ecology, historical geography and institutional analysis, aims to study the leeway, conflicts and interests between varying organisations dealing with flooding and subsidence risks. The thesis will focus on the underlying trade-offs and the fragmentation of policies and institutions regarding the management of the various waters of Bangkok by looking into how the situation evolved since the 2011 great floods and the efforts to limit subsidence by controlling the usage of groundwater within Bangkok and its vicinity.
Download the presentation here.
"Alternative approaches toward agriculture and energy nexus thinking: historical, geographical and political processes of socio-‘techno’-nature interactions" by Hiromi Inagaki, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
"The politics of water policy making process in Indonesia" by Tanaporn Nithiprit, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
"Industrialization and water quality in Rayong Province, Thailand: are international, national and local water management strategies complimentary or contesting?" by Wipawadee Panyangnoi, GRID Program, Chulalongkorn University
How is water allocated, who benefits, and who is impacted by the cycle of Thailand’s industrialization?
Download the presentation here.

Discussants:

Dipak Gyawali, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology
Dr. Takeshi Ito, Graduate Program in Global Studies, Sophia University, Japan

Join your fellow graduate students for an engaging exchange of ideas in a relaxed atmosphere! To be updated about the next events, you can follow the CU Graduate Student Seminar Series Facebook Page here.