Safeguarding World Heritage Under Recurrent Flooding: A Sustainable-Development Policy Framework for the Historic City of Ayutthaya, Thailand

Despite mitigation efforts following Thailand's severe 2011 floods, the UNESCO-listed Historic City of Ayutthaya remains vulnerable to recurrent flooding, as evidenced by the 2025 central-Thailand floods. This policy analysis frames heritage flood protection as a sustainable-development imperative, aligning it with SDG 11.4 and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It introduces a six-pillar framework—governance mainstreaming, proactive water detention, Earth-observation monitoring, financing and risk transfer, community and tourism resilience, and international partnership—to safeguard riverine cultural heritage under climate-driven flood risks. The study leverages documented flood events, conservation reports, and satellite evidence to propose a transferable model for other at-risk World Heritage Sites.

Delmaire, C., Malisuwan, S., & Yooyen, S. (2026). Safeguarding World Heritage Under Recurrent Flooding: A Sustainable-Development Policy Framework for the Historic City of Ayutthaya, Thailand. International Journal of Scientific Research and Modern Technology, 155. https://doi.org/10.38124/ijsrmt.v5i7.1589