Disaster Management Reference Handbook – Thailand (January 2022) – Thailand

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Thailand is exposed to flooding, landslides, drought, earthquakes, tsunamis, heat waves, forest fires, and epidemics. Thailand is also exposed to technological hazards such as chemical accidents. Flooding is the natural hazard with the most significant impact on human life, livelihoods, and the economy for the country. The occurrence of droughts has increased in recent years due to the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, which brings drier-than-average rainfall conditions. Drought has adversely impacted the country’s agriculture sector, which employs around one third of the country’s workforce.

Thailand’s disaster management system has been built over the past four decades, with the enactment in 1979 of the Civil Threat Prevention Act as the country’s first comprehensive disaster management law. In 2002, the Royal Thai…