Nature-best Solution (NbS)
Location: Old-town Bangkok (Rattanakosin)
Year of work: 2025
Role: Researcher and designer
Collaborators: Locolab, Wan C, Urban Ally, local communities, and local shop owners
Today, we, Bangkokians, are at a point where if we are asked about wildlife in Bangkok, we would respond with a confused gaze. We then would try to search every corner of our memories only to find urban wildlife or feral animals such as dogs, cats, pigeons, squirrels, rats, cockroaches, or even monitor lizards, which are species that have survived amidst the dwindling natural environments in this urban jungle centralized around humans.
But Bangkok has not always been like this. If we rewind the time through historical maps, we would be able to find traces of natural environments and rich biodiversity. On the map from 1896 (129 years ago), Bangkok’s boundary had yet expanded much farther from the Phadung Krung Kasem canal. Beyond the canal, the horizon was filled with fruit trees and rice fields. Inside the old city, houses, temples, and palaces were sparse, leaving over 40% of space for nature to thrive with people. When Bangkok continued to grow past 1910 (115 years ago), 1932 (93 years ago), 1974 (51 years ago), and until today, the city’s boundary has expanded farther out, the old town became denser, and natural areas and species disappeared one by one.
Methodology
Physical historical maps were provided by Chulalongkorn University's Research Unit on Historical Maps and Documents on Urban and Architecture. They were photographed, adjusted to greyscale, and changed brightness and contrast for clarity in Photoshop. In Photoshop, a new layer for open space was created by painting open space areas within blocks (exclusive of buildings, streets, canals, and potential hardscapes). The maps and the open space image files were then inserted through Georeferencer tool, using 6 GCPs (ground control points), Helmert transformation type, and nearest neighbor resampling method. Raster Unique Values Report tool was then used to calculate the open space areas.
We also collaborated with the Urban Ally team, who went around to ask small local business owners and employees, who have lived and seen changes in this old town district over a long time, about their past experiences with wildlife. The result is as we expected: only some of those who are older than 60 years old can reminisce about the times when the city co-existed with biodiversity.
“Before there were natural canals. So some prawns and crabs would crawl up the walls. There were various types of fish too, but they don’t exist anymore today. Nowadays there are only monitor lizards, which we can only observe in the past few years. There weren’t any before.”
—Restaurant owner on Samranrat Rd. aged 60+
“What does wildlife mean? Dogs, cats, or something else? Other than those, I haven’t seen many others.”
—Antique store owner on Samranrat Rd. aged 60+
“We rarely see butterflies anymore. Before, we would see them often. Now we might see one flying meekly once in a while. Before, I also used to see small lizards–one ran into my house, and I could see it. And there were also plenty of snails. They would be slugging around plants, especially in the rainy season. Nowadays they’re completely gone. At my old place, plenty of frogs were jumping about as well.”
–Pharmacy owner on Mahannop Rd. aged 60+
Full interview
What kind of wildlife have you seen in the past? (In addition to the 3 above)
“Before there were many pigeons around here, but the BMA (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration) took care of the problem.” —shopowner aged 40-60
“Not that many. There used to be birds, dragonflies, and doves, but that was over ten years ago. There used to be giant squirrels, but not anymore. Other than these there are only pets.” —restaurant owner aged 40-60
“There used to be squirrels. Before they began constructing the pink train line, there used to be rows of large Pink Trumpet Shrubs and people would feed the squirrels.” —business owner aged 40-60
“There haven’t been many because there are large streets around here. Maybe snakes, squirrels, and birds.” —store worker aged 40-60
“Swallows, bats, and squirrels.” —homeowner aged 40-60
“Tree shrews.” —store worker aged 40-60
“Boa constrictors.” —noodle shop owner aged 40-60
“Green snakes and monitor lizards.” —laundry shop owner aged 60+
“Cats.” —former hair salon owner and fortune-teller both aged 60+
“Pigeons.” —beverage shop owner aged 60+
“Butterflies.”—duck stew shop owner aged 60+
Note: 6/20 interviewees said there had been no wildlife.
In the future, what kind of wildlife would you like to have in this area?
“I want more of them, but there are not many trees so there are fewer animals. This location is not conducive for wildlife as there are only small parks around.” —restaurant owner aged 40-60
“Normal animals like dogs and cats.” —worker in a badminton store aged 40-60
“I want to see more cats, but many of them get hurt because people don’t like them. I want them to be safe.” —sweet shop owner aged 40-60
“Squirrels. Before I would hear them coming into my house but not anymore.” —business owner aged 40-60
“Birds would be nice, but I’m worried about their poops. I also want to see butterflies to add colors in the rainy season.” —store worker aged 40-60
“Butterflies, I want to see their colors.” —hair salon owner, homeowner, and store worker all aged 40-60
“Anything that won’t harm humans.” —noodle shop owner aged 40-60
“Nothing, they probably can’t survive because there are no trees.” —antique shop owner aged 60+
“Birds. If nature becomes as rich as it was, birds might come back.” —restaurant owner aged 60+
“Pigeons, fireflies, and butterflies.” —pharmacy owner aged 60+
“Trees.” —fortuneteller aged 60+
Note: 6/20 interviewees said no to wildlife in the area, and 4/20 interviewees wanted to see dogs and cats.
However, if we look closely, attend to small movements, and focus on seeking biodiversity around us, many people can still find wildlife in Bangkok. Today we have iNaturalist, a citizen science platform for all of us to contribute to the global database and scientific studies by posting wildlife photos that we see around us.
Open spaces in the city that have yet found its commercial use, like this land, have the potential to become green spaces that would serve the ecosystems and biodiversity, so that nature can survive and thrive in the urban context. Such space transformation aligns with the growing nature-based solution concept, 15-minute parks that contribute to people’s well-being, and learning city of biodiversity and natural’s context.
“Nature-best Survival” is suggesting such a potential. We use nature photographs taken from around Thailand as background for embroidery of all kinds of wildlife informed by locals’ oral history and the iNaturalist platform. Moreover, we integrated playable sculptures to increase people’s interactions with the space. Spaces where nature can best survive are not just vacant spots scattered in the city, but they are spaces that allow for people to see and have positive interactions with nature and animals so that nature can continue to nurture our city and the souls of its people. When nature survives, cities survives too.
Data source:
iNaturalist community. Observations of all species with 500-m radius from [13.753468, 100.502826], Bangkok, Thailand. Exported from https://www.inaturalist.org on 15 January 2025.
