Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

New Year for example), which are celebrated in succession throughout the year.
Handicrafts, dance, puppet making, massage and food are all expressions of the diversity
and vibrancy of activities related to this sub-sector.
The cultural heritage sector cross-cuts the creative industries. 121 It is estimated that the
sector accounted for about 7.72 percent 122 of GDP in 2009. If and when linked to tourism,
which accounted for about 10.14 percent of GDP in 2009, it is of prime importance.
However, the sector’s significance cannot be attributed to its economic contribution alone,
as it is a source of pride to the average Thai citizen that is difficult to quantify.
Damage and Losses
Damage refers to the direct impact, i.e. total or partial destruction of physical assets existing
in the affected area. Damage occurs during and immediately after the disaster and is
measured in physical units. For the heritage sector, the destruction of heritage buildings
or irreplaceable assets that have survived for centuries cannot be measured purely in
monetary terms. Under this framework, damage estimates will provide an initial indicator of
reconstruction requirements.
Losses refer to the indirect impacts, calculated as changes in economic flows arising from
the disaster, such as in the case of lower revenues due to declines in ticket sales and
donations, temporary closing of culture-related facilities, cancellation of scheduled exhibitions
and activities, the loss of revenue associated with any annual or recurring cultural
event – such as carnivals, music festivals, fairs and cultural festivals. Equally included are
the cost of provisions of temporary safety measures to prevent damage or aggravation
thereof, and the cost of storage or relocation of moveable goods and objects of cultural
value, including the costs of providing adequate conservation/protection systems. Losses
occur until full economic recovery and reconstruction is achieved, in some cases lasting for
several years, and they are expressed in pre-flood values.
Methodology: Due to the unique nature of tangible heritage assets, overall generalizations
about damage and losses are difficult to make. As such, damage (and related
economic losses) should ideally be estimated for each individual structure, asset, site or
group of buildings due to the highly heterogeneous nature of heritage elements. However,
considering the overwhelming number of structures and assets damaged or lost by the
floods, and the very short timeframe for this assessment, the Rapid Assessment adopts,
in general, gross estimates and a sample approach to estimated damage and losses.
Keeping in mind that the results of this exercise aim to provide an estimate at the country
level, we established a methodological approach to enable the estimation of the overall
cost of damage and losses for the sector in each province. In order to assess the heritage
structures and sites, limited information was available, especially regarding privately
owned assets. This information, combined with provincial reports enabled us to calculate
a gross estimate that should be treated with caution and should not be used to determine
an estimate per site/structure.
121 Creative industries in Thailand are comprised of the following elements: Arts, media, functional creation and heritage.
Heritage is dealing with crafts, cultural and heritage tourism, traditional medicine, and food. Arts are divided between
performing arts and visual arts, while media deals with publishing, broadcasting, film and video, and music. Functional
creations deal with design, fashion, advertising, architecture and software.
122 NESDB and TCDC, Preliminary Report : The Creative Economy, May 2009
176 THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING