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Chao Phraya Delta:

Paddy Field Irrigation Area in Tidal Deposit
Suphat Vongvisessomjai

Abstract
Due to the recent interest of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage
(ICID) on Sustainable Development in Tidal Areas (SDTA) but no report on this subject from
Thailand has been included, motivated the author to contribute to this article entitled Chao
Pharya Delta which is the recommendation of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1948
that Thailands economic strength lay in exporting high yielding rice 2-3 times/year to alleviate
world-wide food shortages caused by the war. In 1950, Thailand secured a World Bank loan,
and in 1952 commenced work on a 25 year irrigation enhancement program. Work began in
1953, and at its completion in 1957, the Greater Chao Phraya Project was considered Asias
largest irrigation project. In 1961 additional components, such as Bhumibol dam and irrigation
canal system were constructed and became operational in 1964. The construction of Sirikit
dam was finally finished in 1977.
The Greater Chao Phraya and the Mae Klong irrigation projects, located in the Asian
monsoon region with heavy rainfall and high tides at the head of the Upper Gulf of Thailand
which provide effective silt-deposits due to strong tidal action is the most fertile areas for rice
production located in the upper part of freshwater zone of the delta. Fruit orchard is in the
middle part of blackish water while aquaculture is in the lower part of saltwater zone.
This paper summaries development of irrigation projects by Royal Irrigation
Department in the Chao Phraya delta, its sustainable development on drainage and flood
mitigation. Interaction of tides and river flow is clearly illustrated by means of analytical models
based on harmonic analysis and perturbation method.
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Introduction

1. Chao Phraya Delta

The Chao Phraya delta is at the southern part of the Chao Phraya basin as shown in
Figure 1 which has a catchment area of 162,000 km2 shown in Figure 2a while the Mae Klong
basin is on the west as shown in Figure 3. Based on geographic setting, topography and flow
conditions, the Chao Phrya basin has been divided into regions and sub-regions as follows.
a) The Upper basin has two parts, the mountainous area and the central plains
upstream from Nakhon Sawan. The valleys are long and narrow, with steep densely vegetated
slopes. In places the valleys widen into alluvial flood plains and settlements such as in Chiang
Mai, Lampang, Phrae and Nan on the Ping, Wang, Yom and Nan rivers respectively. The
catchment of the Ping is the most mountainous, rising to a height of 2,576 m MSL, and the
longest with a river length over 600 km. The limit of the mountainous area is marked by the
confluence of the Ping and the Wang at Tak at a level of approximately 100 m MSL and 570 km
from the Gulf of Thailand, close to Phrae on the Yom and Uttaradit on the Nan at an elevation
of 100 m MSL and 740 km from the gulf, and Amphone Pattananikom on the Pasak at an
elevation of 25 m MSL and 300 km from the gulf (see Figures 2a and 2b)
The Upper central plains lie below the mountainous region and above the
confluences near Nakhon Sawan on the Chao Phraya, and above Saraburi on the Pasak. The
plains comprise sedimentary deposits, with isolated limestone outcrops. The Yom and the Nan
are less steep and are embanked below Phitsanulok, protecting irrigation project areas from
flooding.
b) The Lower Chao Phraya basin, downstream from the confluence of the Ping,
Yom and Nan, commences at Nakhon Sawan. The basin covers an area of 37,300 km2 and is
mainly an alluvial plain formed by the river system. Nakhon Sawan is at an elevation of 25 m
MSL, 360 km from the Gulf of Thailand (see Figures 2a and 2b)
The river system has elements of a delta commencing at Chainat, 70 km south
of Nakhon Sawan, where the main Chao Phraya branches in the Suphan and Noi Rivers, and
further downstream into the Lopburi River. The Suphan River continues as the Tha Chin and
discharges directly to the Gulf of Thailand, while the other channels rejoin the main Chao
Phraya near Bangsai, 110 km north of the mouth at the Gulf of Thailand. The rivers are
embanked protecting the vast irrigation project areas from flooding. Numerous artificial
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channels interconnect the natural rivers, initially used mainly for transport, and now mainly for
irrigation. The reach is referred to as the Upper delta.
The Lower delta reach downstream of Bangsai is influenced by the tide in the
flood season. The City of Bangkok lies on both banks of the river, with the urban area
extending from the river mouth to Pakkret, some 70 km upstream; the urban area covers
around 535 km2. The city and the surrounding area have a dense network of canals which
drain the area; the general land level is around one meter above mean sea level and pumping is
necessary as the land has settled by as much as up to 1.5 m in some areas, largely owing to
ground water abstraction.

2. The Mae Klong Basin

The Mae Klong basin as shown in Figure 3 is on the west of the Chao Phraya basin
as shown in Figure 1. The characteristics of the basin are as follows:
a) The total area of the river basin is about 31,000 km2 , of which about 15,000 km2
and 11,000 km2 are catchment areas of the Khwae Yai and Khwae Noi rivers respectively.
Forest land, agricultural land and water body presently occupy 73% , 19% and 3% of the whole
river basin respectively.
b) Administratively, the river basin is divided into 25 districts of 8 provinces,
though about 70% of the basin area belongs to Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Samut
Songkhram provinces.

3. The Greater Chao Phraya Project

The Chao Phraya project began in 1953, and at its completion in 1957, it was
considered Asias largest irrigation project. The dam, renamed the Chao Phya Dam, stretched
237.5 m across the river and was fitted with 16 sluice gates, each 12.5 m wide. Its maximum
high-water discharge was 3,300 m3/s. (Van Beek, 1995).
RID in 1957 reviewed the 117 years since the stone gauge at Ayutthaya had been
erected. It noted that in 4 years unusually high floods had damaged crops. Conversely, in 60
years the lower valley had suffered drought, with 21 years of moderate drought, 35 years of
severe drought, and 4 years of extreme drought, a total of 51 percent of the entire period, by no
means a small percentage. It further noted that high-yielding 180-day rice required 1,800 mm
of water to produce a bountiful harvest (excluding an extra 800 mm to compensate for
evaporation and canal leaks) and that normal rainfall was in-sufficient to provide it. It
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concluded: it is clear therefore that without irrigation, the central plains, the rice bowl of
Thailand cannot be made to produce the maximum yield it is capable of producing for the
benefit of the rice-eating peoples of the world.
To extend irrigation to the extremities of the basin, trunk canals were dug along the
far edges of the valley. On the east, the Chainat-Pasak Canal was excavated from the Chao
Phya Dam to Rama VI Dam on the Pasak River (see Figure 4). On the west, the Makham Tao-
U-Thong Canal was excavated south-wards from the dam to a point near U-Thong. The area
between the eastern and western borders of the project would be served by the Tha Chin River,
the Chao Phraya and Noi and by a specially constructed trunk canal which ran from Chainat to
Ayutthaya along the high left bank of the Chao Phraya. The height of the latter enabled it to
feed the adjacent fields and distribution channels by gravity, even when the dry-season river-
levels were low. During the rainy season, the five channels would also help draw flood waters
away from the river, spreading them across the valley, thereby reducing the rivers destructive
force. This phase of the project became operational in 1962.
In 1961, the Government approved the construction of a large scale dam across the
Nan River, a tributary of the Chao Phraya River at Phasom Sub-district, Tha Pla District,
Uttaradit Province. This dam was under taken to be a multipurpose project as the Bhumibol
Dam due to its appropriate location. The project was also funded by a World Bank loan. The
construction was finished in 1977 and was graciously named by H.M. the King Sirikit Dam.
The dam provides benefits of electricity generation and water drainage to the Greater Chao
Phraya Project and its merging with water releasing from the Bhumibol Dam also provides
water for cultivation in the Chao Phraya basin (RID, 2002)
The irrigation project areas of the Tha Chin river are listed in Table 1, those of the
Mae Klong river are listed in Table 2 and those of the Chao Phraya river are listed in Table 3
which are shown in Figures 5 while schematic diagram of the Chao Phraya river and its
tributaries are shown in Figure 6. This irrigation area of 13 million rai is the largest oneof Asia
and Thailand is ranked first as rice exporting country of the world.
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Table 1 Large Irrigation Projects in the Tha Chin River.

Command Area Irrigation Area Project Year

Project Name
(Rai) (Rai) Begin Finish
Pholathep 103,000 96,000 2495 2506
Tha Bote 218,356 196,356 2495 2506
Sam Chuk 372,100 305,000 2478 2498
Pho Phraya 415,940 370,000 2464 2476
Krasieo 124,151 111,736 2509 2525
Sum of Upper Part 1,233,547 1,079,092
Chao Chet-Bang Yihon 437,850 406,000 2482 2493
Phraya Banlu 485,530 358,650 2482 2493
Phra Pimon 293,840 266,000 2482 2493
Phasi Charoen 350,000 124,800 2448 2450
Sum of Lower Part 1,567,220 1,155,450
Overall Sum 2,800,767 2,234,542

Table 2 Large Irrigation Projects in the Mae Klong River.

Command Area Irrigation Area Project Year

Project Name
(Rai) (Rai) Begin Finish
Nakhon Pathom 375,300 364,200 2507 2516
Kamphaeng Saen 316,000 252,800 2508 2518
Nakhon Chum 289,000 265,000 2505 2515
Ratchaburi (Left Bank) 281,000 258,000 2510 2515
Damnoen Saduak 333,080 333,080 2445 2450
Sum of Phase 1 1,594,380 1,473,080
Tha Maka 314,400 283,800 2513 2523
Ratchaburi (Right bank) 337,300 303,600 2516 2532
Phanom Thuan 369,200 332,300 2520 2536
Song Pinong 346,400 311,750 2524 2536
Bang Len 351,500 316,350 2526 2537
Sum of Phase 2 1,718,800 1,547,800
Overall Sum 3,313,180 3,020,880
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Table 3 Large Irrigatin Projects in the Chao Phraya River (2526-2538)

Project Name Irrigation Area

(Rai)
Upper East Bank
Monorom 130,038
Monorom, Chongkhae 252,786
Chongkhae, Khok Kratheim 251,448
Khok Kratheim, Rueng Rang 373,202
Maha Ratcha 485,400
Lower East Bank
South Pasak, Tha Luang 507,640
North Rangsit, South Rangsit 971,600
Khlong Dan, Phra Ong Chaiya 1,035,000
Upper West Bank
Phola thep, Borom That 273,683
Borom That 171,204
Chana Sut, Yang Mani 486,828
Yang Mani, Pak Hai 102,268
Tha Bote 71,474
Sam Chuk 305,000
Pho Phraya 370,000
Pholathep, Tha Bote, Don Chedi 287,325
Lower West Bank
Bang Bal 137,000
Pak Hai 185,476
Chao Chet-Bang Yeehon, Phraya Banlu, 1,155,450
Phra Pimon, Phasi Charoen
Lower West Bank
Overall Sum 7,552,822
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Sustainable Development

The Greater Chao Phraya and the Mae Klong irrigation projects are located in the Asian
monsoon region with heavy rainfalls due to cyclones from the South China Sea and the Bay of
Bangal cause severe flood damages which must be properly mitigated. High tides in the head
of the Upper Gulf of Thailand provide strong tidal actions cause problems of salinity intrusions
and high rates of sedimentation which should be appropriately alleviated. Analytical and
numerical models of interaction of fides and river flow are developed for used as tools in solving
the above problems.

1. Flood Mitigation and Management

a) Floods cause high casualties and extensive damage. Any activity which would
reduce flood losses would be desirable. AIT River Network Model was developed by
Vongvisessomjal and Suppataratarn (1998) to simulate floods of Chao Phraya delta. The model
was calibrated with the flood of 1980 and then verified with the flood of 1983. Good agreement
between the observed and computed water levels were obtained for both years with the root
mean squre errors of about 10 cm in the river and 7 cm in the flood plain.
Physical layout and schematization of the model are shown in Figures 7a and 7b
respectively and comparisons of observed and computer water levels in the calibration of the
1980 flood were shown in Figure 8 where cell numbers were shown in Figure 7b. which
illustrated flood ware heights attenuated as they propagated from upstream to downstream
locations in both rivers and flood plains.
An analytical model describing completely the interaction of flood and tidal waves from
the river mouth are successfully developed by Vongvisessomjai and Rojanakamthorn (1989) to
mitigate floods of the city of Bangkok using perturbation method and harmonic analysis. Its
separated the water levels into nonperiodic and periodic components as well as decomposing
the complex tides into their individnal constituents, thus enabling a rigorous comparison to
analytical solutions. It was found from the study that the river flow raised the mean water level
but damped the tides and reduced their celerities as shown in Figures 9 and 10 respectively.
The zeroth order solution was for mean monthly water levels due to freshwater
discharges from upstream which is a straight line with a slope of mean water level
Sfo = -uo2 /[Cz2 (h+o )] shown in Figure 9.
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The first order solution was for tides of 4 major constituents (M2 , S2 , K1 and O1) in each
month of 1980-1983 shown in Figure 10; the tide attenuated exponentially a(x) = ao exp(-x)
where ao was the amplitnde of tide at the river mouth.
The above results are obtained from harmonic analysis of observed tides in dry and
rainy seasons shown in Figure 12 while Figure 11 shown the 5 recording stations of tides in the
lower reach of the Chao Phraya river.
The three-dimensional plot of the analytical model of water surface fluctuation in the
rainy season with respect to distance and time in Figure 13 while their longitudinal profiles of
water level between theoretical computation and measurement on October 15 and 16, 1983 with
3 hour interval are shown in Figure 14.
The analytical model converses the water levels in dry and rainy seasons to more useful
discharges in dry and rainy seasons as shown in Figure 15.
The three-dimenriand plot of a numerical model results of water levels with respect to
distance and time of the Tha Chin river on January 12-19, 2002 and its longitudinal profiles at 3
hour interval on January 15, 2002 are shown in Figures 16a and 16b respectively.
The three-dimensional plot of a numerical model results of water level with respect to
distance and time of the Mae Klong river an January 5-12, 2000 and its longitudinal profiles of 3
hour in terval an January 9, 2000 are show in Figures 17a and 17b respectively. Due to sleeper
slope of the Mae Klong, the tidal action cannot go beyond 70 km from the river mouth.

b) Flood management of the Chao Phraya river is presented as follows.

In 1995, there was a severe flood affecting many people all over Thailand. It
resulted in extensive flood damage of about 50 billion Baht and the loss of many lives. As a
result, the World Bank provided financial support to the Royal Thai Government for a study on
Chao Phraya Flood Management Review. The author was invited to serve as the Project Team
Leader in order to assist the government in the identification of high priority flood management
projects, as well as to chart a conceptual program for basin-wide flood management. The
period of study was 16 weeks from August 12 to November 30, 1996. More delails could be
seen in a report by Vongvisessomjal et.al (1997).
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2. Salinity Intrusion
It can be seen from the three-dimensional plots of water levels with respect to distance
and time of the Chao Phraya, the Tha Chin and the Mae Klong rivers in Figures 13, 16 and 17
respectively that these 3 rivers have very high tidal ranges of about 3 m at spring tides which
provide strong tidal actions on salinity intrusions in dry season that can domage rices and fruit
orchards.
AIT (1978) provided rule curves for controlling maximum salinity intrusions in the Chao
Phraya and the Mae Klong rivers in the dry season while TEAM (1997) provided rule curve for
controlling maximum salinity intrusion in the Tha Chin river as shown in Figures 18a, 18b and
18c respectively.
RID at present controls the salinity intrusions in the Chao Phraya, the Mae Klong and
the Tha Chin rivers by releasing the upstream discharges of 100, 50 and 35 m3/s respectively.

3. Silt-deposit in Navigation Channel

Due to high tides and their strong actions at the Chao Phraya, the Mae Klong and the
Tha Chin rivers, high rate of sedimentation existed in the there river months. The navigation
channel of the Chao Phraya river from its mouth to the Bangkok port is 27 km and from the
river mouth to the deepsea is 18 km. The high rate of siltation is in the 18 km navigation
channel in the sea which is about 4 million cubic meters per year listed in Table 6 taken from
an AIT (1994) report on Mathematical Model of Siltation in Second Navigation Channel of
Bangkok Port, Research Report No. 282.
As a result of high rate of siltation, a 20 m deposit of Bangkok day from the head of the
Upper Gulf of Thailand for more than hundred kilometers upstream from the river mouths to
Ayutthaya province.
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Table 4. Measured and Computed Annual Siltation Volume in the Existing Bangkok
Navigation Channel (AIT, 1994)
Distance along Measured Measured in Computed
the Channel Averaged from 1993 By
(km) 1981-1985 Model
(103 m3) (103 m3) (103 m3)
1 110 79 80
2 190 96 120
3 230 127 200
4 410 91 493
5 515 460 671
6 540 639 494
7 475 456 285
8 310 145 172
9 195 156 353
10 180 155 330
11 215 97 100
12 160 113 72
13 180 115 138
14 205 114 120
15 170 77 65
16 190 87 18
17 80 71 9
Total 4,355 3,078 3,720
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Summary

1) FAO initiative that Thailand exporting rice to alleviate world-wide food

shortages caused by war has come true as Thailand is ranked first in rice export. The quantity
of 5-10 million tons and value of 50-100 billion baht of rice export for the last 10 years from
1996-2005 are listed in Table 5.
2) RID has been working very hard in planning and executing this important
irrigation project in the Chao Phraya Delta. Efficient irrigation and flood protection systems
have been introduced including a recent set-up of telemetering system of the lower Chao
Phraya river in the flood control room of RID. This is a good example of Irrigation Technology
for Sustainable Agricultural Development.
3) Excellent analytical and numerical models have been developed to be used as
tools for solving future problems in other river basins.

Table 5. Quantity and Value of Rive Export in 1966-2005.

Year Quantity Value

A.D. (tons) (billion baht)
1996 5,460,219 50.7
1997 5,567,360 65.0
1998 6,540,235 86.8
1999 6,838,793 73.8
2000 6,141,341 65.5
2001 7,691,209 70.1
2002 7,334,448 70.0
2003 7,345,971 76.6
2004 9,989,910 108.3
2005 7,537,341 93.5
Source: Office of Agricultural Economic, 2006
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Reference

AIT (1978). Salinity Intrusion is the Chao Phya and Mae Klong Rivers.
Final Report Submitted to the Water Resources Planing Sub-committee. NESDB, EGAT.

AIT (1994). Mathematical Model of Siltatin I Second Navigation Channel of Bangkok Port,
Research Report No. 282. Final Report Submitted to Siam DHC Ltd.

RID (2002). History of Water Resources Development in Thailand. 100 Year Anniversary of RID
and 50 Year Anniversary of THAICI.D. 316 pp.

TEAM (1997). The Lower Regulator of Tha Chin River. Report Submitted to RID.

Vongvisessomjai, S. and Rojanakamthorn, s.(1989). Interaction of Tide and River Flow. J. of

Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Eng., ASEC, 115 (1) 86-104.

Vongvisessomjai, S., Mac Donald, Alastair, Cowley, James E. (1997). Chao Phraya Flood
Management Review. Water Resources Journal. ST/ESCAP/SER.C195.

Vongvisessomjai, S. and Suppataratarn, P. (1998). Numerical Simulation of Delta Flooking in

Thailand. Water Resources Journal, St/ESCAP/SER.C/97.

Vongvisessomjai, S. and Chatanantavel, P. (2007). Analytical Model of Tide and River Flow.
Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol., 28 (1) : 1-19.

Van Beek, Steve (1995). The Chao Phya: River in Transition. Oxford University Press, Duala
Lumpur, 244 pp.