From Gravitational Machine to Universal Habitat: The Drainage Basin and Amphibious Futures in the Chao Phraya Delta, Thailand

Abstract

This paper elucidates the development of the drainage basin model, one particular frame for capturing the relative motion between water and land, by highlighting the parallel developments between scientific notion and water management infrastructures. Facilitating a continuous movement back and forth between science and infrastructure, the drainage basin allows for the revelation of unexpected forms of relatedness and has played an important role in the emergence of a form of relational morality. To make this argument, this paper focuses on the Chao Phraya Delta in Thailand. While located in the periphery of the centers of modern science, the delta holds significance as a place where colonial hydrological technoscience and indigenous development intersected. The encounter between the two has resulted in a new vision of the city as a waterscape, a sort of drainage basin that connects natural, social and economic processes through numerous, complex water flows.