Research & Article

The use of soil landfill for urban construction， aimed at raising land above flood levels， is common in and around Bangkok. Fleets of ten-wheeler trucks， loaded with soil destined to in-fill low lying swampland， are a common sight. Until about eight years ago， the govemment of the day was beginning to recognize some of the environmental impacts associated with this activity and measures were being discussed about how to address it. The economic crash of 1997 effectively solved their problem by significantly reducing the work of the construction industry. With the recent uptum in the economy， however， soil excavation and landfilling is once again becoming an issue.

The objective of this paper is to make a preliminary assessment of the extent of soil excavation for use as landfill with some basic estimates of the areas and amounts involved. Some of the environmental impacts of these activities， both in terms of the areas where the soil is being taken from， as well as where it is deposited， will also be examined. A case study will be used to evaluate a number of different scenarios.