BMA vows faster response to floods with better weather forecasts
Close cooperation between the city administration and the Thai Meteorological Department during the upcoming rainy season would help officials respond faster to flash floods after heavy rains, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said on Thursday.
Chadichart was speaking to reporters after he led senior Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) officials to a meeting with Kornrawee Sitthichivapak, director-general of the meteorological department, and her subordinates at the BMA’s Drainage and Sewerage Department.
Chadchart said the cooperation would allow the BMA to speed up its response to heavy rains and floods due to more precise rain forecasts.
The governor said the BMA and the meteorological department would focus on three main areas of cooperation:
Sharing weather data: He said the two agencies would share their forecast data so that the weather forecast agency could simulate more accurate and precise forecast models.
Chadchart said the cooperation might allow the BMA to be forewarned about which districts would be hit by heavy rains.
Communication: The two agencies would cooperate in warning Bangkok residents of weather conditions in easier to understand language.
Other cooperation: The two agencies would cooperate on monitoring accumulating heat in the capital that could affect PM2.5 ultrafine pollutants in the air, Chadchart added.
Kornrawee said she expected the cooperation with the BMA would help her department make more accurate weather forecasts.
She said Bangkok would be the pilot city in the cooperation project on weather forecasts.
The BMA would provide data from its radar for the meteorological department to simulate its forecast models.
Chadchart said the meteorological department had expensive equipment, as a result the BMA would not have to invest in such equipment.
He said the BMA could support the department with data from its rain monitoring radar while the department could share data from its satellite.
