Extensive flooding across Thailand is the product of both geography and an especially active monsoon season. The latter, which generally stretches from May to October, has been characterized by a large number of tropical storms this year, dropping copious moisture throughout the region; indeed, meteorologists report that rainfall across much of Southeast Asia has been the heaviest in more than fifty years.
Most of the severe flooding has occured throughout the western half of Thailand, the majority of which is drained by the Chao Phraya River System. Rising in mountains across the northern and western borders of Thailand, the tributaries of the Chao Phraya flow inward, toward the Central Plains, where most of the country's agricultural land is found; from there, the merging streams feed the primary river channel, which flows south to the Gulf of Thailand, crossing Greater Bangkok enroute.
While nothing can be done about geography and seasonal monsoons, human suffering from the current flooding is, in part, due to the destruction of wetlands and the development of floodplains. As occurs across the globe, we humans, relying on the narrow perspective of our brief lifespans and on the short-term records of human society, ignore geophysical evidence of past flooding and minimize the importance of natural flood control. Relying on dams, canals and levees, we suffer the consequences.
