Water and Anger: How Digital Pressures Shape Urban Flood Management in Khon Kaen, Thailand

Abstract Book of the 12th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Water and Anger: How Digital Pressures Shape Urban Flood Management in Khon Kaen, Thailand

Panu Suppatkul, Rukchanok Chumnanmak

ABSTRACT:

Urban flooding is often treated as a technical problem of rainfall intensity and drainage capacity, yet such approaches overlook the social, political, and affective dimensions through which floods are produced and managed. This study examines urban flooding in Khon Kaen City, Thailand, through the lens of socio-ecological assemblages, drawing on actor-network theory to conceptualize floods as outcomes of interactions among infrastructure, governance, urban space, and digitally mediated publics. Focusing on recurrent urban flood events between 2020 and 2025, the study combines infrastructural analysis with digital ethnography of sentiment using posts and comments from public Facebook groups and local news pages related to Khon Kaen. The analysis reveals that flooding in the central business district (CBD) generates disproportionately high levels of online anger compared to non-CBD areas, where humor and acquiescence are more prevalent. These affective differences are closely tied to economic stakes, traffic disruption, and digital visibility. Social media functions as an urban sensor that amplifies emotional intensity and unevenly channels public pressure toward municipal authorities, shaping the speed and prioritization of flood responses. The findings demonstrate that flood management is inherently political, as municipal attention and resources follow digitally amplified emotions rather than hydrological necessity alone. Understanding urban floods therefore requires integrating engineering perspectives with urban geography and digital ethnography to capture the socio-ecological dynamics through which disasters are experienced and governed.

Keywords: Actor-Network Theory; Digital Ethnography; Socio-Ecological Assemblages; Urban Flooding; Urban Governance