Cities That Are Sinking

Geography Expert · Sep 28, 2026 · 14m

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Bangkok is sinking. So are Jakarta, New Orleans, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, and dozens of other delta metropolises around the world. Thai landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom likes to joke that her version of a climate-change photo isn’t a melting glacier — it’s a crocodile swimming down a flooded Bangkok street. The joke points to something deadly serious: a city of 15 million people, built on a soft river delta, is losing its fight against water. Voraakhom has spent the last decade turning that fight into her life’s work, and her career offers something rarer than a…