1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Chao Phraya River
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The Chao Phraya is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand, on many old European maps, the river is named Menam or Mae Nam, Thai for river. H. Warington Smyth, who served as Director of the Department of Mines in Siam from 1891 to 1896, in the English-language media in Thailand, the name Chao Phraya River is often translated as river of kings. The Chao Phraya begins at the confluence of the Ping and Nan rivers at Nakhon Sawan in Nakhon Sawan Province, after this it flows south for 372 kilometres from the central plains to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand. In the low alluvial plain which begins below the Chainat Dam, the khlongs are used for the irrigation of the regions rice paddies. The rough coordinates of the river are 13 N,100 E and this area has a wet monsoon climate, with over 1,400 millimetres of rainfall per year. Temperatures range from 24 to 33 °C in Bangkok, the lower Chao Phraya underwent several man-made modifications during the Ayutthaya period. Several shortcut canals were constructed to bypass large loops in the river, the course of the river has since changed to follow many of these canals. In 1538, Thailands first river engineering of a 3 km long canal was dug at the order of King Chairachathirat and it was called khlong lat, today known as Khlong Bangkok Noi. It shortened the route by 13–14 km for ships from the Gulf of Siam to the then-capital city, in 1542, a two kilometre-long canal, khlong lat Bangkok, was completed. Today its called Khlong Bangkok Yai and it is said to have shortened the river route by 14 km. In 1608, a seven kilometre-long Khlong Bang Phrao canal was completed and has shortened the Chao Phrayas original route by 18 km, in 1636, the khlong lat mueang Nonthaburi was completed. In 1722, the two kilometre long khlong lat Kret Noi shortened the Chao Phraya by 7 km and this route was from the island of Ko Kret. Cities along the Chao Phraya include, from north to south, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani, Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Bangkok, and Samut Prakan. These cities are among the most historically significant and densely populated settlements of Thailand due to their access to the waterway, in Bangkok, the Chao Phraya is a major transportation artery for a network of river buses, cross-river ferries, and water taxis. More than 15 boat lines operate on the rivers and canals of the city, the principal tributaries of the Chao Phraya River are the Pa Sak River, the Sakae Krang River, the Nan River, the Ping River, and the Tha Chin River. Each of these tributaries is augmented by minor tributaries referred to as khwae, all of the tributaries, including the lesser khwae, form an extensive tree-like pattern, with branches flowing through nearly every province in central and northern Thailand. None of the tributaries of the Chao Phraya extend beyond the nations borders, the Nan and the Yom River flow nearly parallel from Phitsanulok to Chumsaeng in the north of Nakhon Sawan Province
3.
Bangkok
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Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres in the Chao Phraya River delta in Central Thailand, over 14 million people live within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailands other urban centres in terms of importance. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam—later renamed Thailand—during the late 19th century, the city grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailands politics, economy, education, media and modern society. The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is a hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a regional centre for the arts, fashion. The city is known for its vibrant street life and cultural landmarks. The historic Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the scenes of Khaosan Road. Bangkok is among the top tourist destinations. It is named the most visited city in MasterCards Global Destination Cities Index, Bangkoks rapid growth amidst little urban planning and regulation has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure systems. The city has turned to public transport in an attempt to solve this major problem. Five rapid transit lines are now in operation, with more systems under construction or planned by the national government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The history of Bangkok dates at least back to the early 15th century, because of its strategic location near the mouth of the river, the town gradually increased in importance. Bangkok initially served as a customs outpost with forts on both sides of the river, and became the site of a siege in 1688 in which the French were expelled from Siam. After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Empire in 1767, the newly declared King Taksin established his capital at the town, in 1782, King Phutthayotfa Chulalok succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern banks Rattanakosin Island, thus founding the Rattanakosin Kingdom. The City Pillar was erected on 21 April, which is regarded as the date of foundation of the present city, Bangkoks economy gradually expanded through busy international trade, first with China, then with Western merchants returning in the early-to-mid 19th century. As the capital, Bangkok was the centre of Siams modernization as it faced pressure from Western powers in the late 19th century, Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932
4.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
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The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is the local government of Bangkok, which includes the capital of the Kingdom of Thailand. The government is composed of two branches, the executive and the legislative, the administrations roles are to formulate and implement policies to manage Bangkok. Its purview includes transport services, urban planning, waste management, housing, roads and highways, security services, the Governor of Bangkok is the head of the local government of Bangkok. The governor is also the executive of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The governor is elected to a term of four years. The office is comparable to that of a city mayor, the current incumbent is Pol Gen Aswin Kwanmuang. He was appointed by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha using Section 44 of the charter to replace Sukhumbhand Paribatra. The reason given for his ouster was. because he was involved in legal cases. Appoint and remove deputy governors, advisors, board members, city officials, coordinate and carry out the orders of the Cabinet of Thailand, the Prime Minister of Thailand, and the Ministry of Interior. Oversee the smooth running of the agencies and services of the city. The governor is also invested with the powers as any other governor of a province of Thailand. The power to draw up legislation and bills for the city, since 1973 the city was administered by a single executive appointed by the cabinet from city civil servants. However soon it was determined that the office should a popularly elected office instead. The passage of the Bangkok Metropolis Administrative Organisation Act, BE2518, created the Bangkok Metropolis to replace Bangkok Province, the first election for the office was held on the 10 August 1975. Thamnoon Thien-ngern was elected the first elected Governor of Bangkok, conflicts between the governor and the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, however, became so fierce that Tanin Kraivixien, the Prime Minister of Thailand removed him and reinstated the appointment system. Elections resumed with the passing of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Act, elections were held on 14 November 1985. Unless otherwise indicated, they were elected, the Bangkok Metropolitan Council or BMC is the legislative branch of the administration. It is vested with legislative powers as well as the power to scrutinize
5.
Cable-stayed bridge
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A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers, from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables run directly from the tower to the deck. The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and this is the range where cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier if the span were lengthened, while suspension bridge cabling would not be more economical if the span were shortened. Cable-stayed bridges have been known since the 16th century and used widely since the 19th, early examples often combined features from both the cable-stayed and suspension designs, including the famous Brooklyn Bridge. The design fell from favor through the 20th century as larger gaps were bridged using pure suspension designs, Cable-stayed bridges date back to 1595, where designs were found in Machinae Novae, a book by Venetian inventor Fausto Veranzio. Their designers found that the combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge, john A. Roebling took particular advantage of this to limit deformations due to railway loads in the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge. Eduardo Torroja designed an aqueduct at Tempul in 1926. Albert Caquots 1952 concrete-decked cable-stayed bridge over the Donzère-Mondragon canal at Pierrelatte is one of the first of the modern type, the steel-decked Strömsund Bridge designed by Franz Dischinger is, therefore, more often cited as the first modern cable-stayed bridge. Other key pioneers included Fabrizio de Miranda, Riccardo Morandi, early bridges from this period used very few stay cables, as in the Theodor Heuss Bridge. However, this involves substantial erection costs, and more modern structures tend to use many more cables to ensure greater economy, Cable-stayed bridges may appear to be similar to suspension bridges, but in fact, they are quite different in principle and in their construction. In suspension bridges, large main cables hang between the towers and are anchored at each end to the ground and this can be difficult to implement when ground conditions are poor. The main cables, which are free to move on bearings in the towers, before the deck is installed, the cables are under tension from their own weight. Along the main cables smaller cables or rods connect to the bridge deck, as this is done, the tension in the cables increases, as it does with the live load of traffic crossing the bridge. The tension on the cables is transferred to the ground at the anchorages. Difference between types of bridges In the cable-stayed bridge, the towers are the primary load-bearing structures which transmit the loads to the ground. A cantilever approach is used to support the bridge deck near the towers. The mono design uses a cable from its towers and is one of the lesser-used examples of the class. In the harp or parallel design, the cables are nearly parallel so that the height of their attachment to the tower is proportional to the distance from the tower to their mounting on the deck
6.
China State Construction Engineering
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The China State Construction Engineering Corporation is a Chinese construction company ranked the 3rd largest in the world and the 20th largest general contractor in terms of overseas sales. Thus, CSCEC granted the listed company supervising rights, the CSCEC has numerous branches or subsidiaries. The main business units of the group are planning and design, project development, equipment leasing, trade, construction and its subsidiary and listed company, China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, was established in 2007. It was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2009 with its IPO price at RMB$4.18 per share, the shares closed at RMB$6.53, 56% higher than its IPO price, at the first trading day. It was the worlds biggest IPO in 2009, raising the capital of US$7.3 billion, the CSCEC was founded in 1957 as a state company. Early on the country had an international profile building heavy industry and infrastructure in Asia, Africa, the predecessor company opened its first overseas office in Kuwait in the late 1970s. The company broke from its regionally confined work pattern when it entered the U. S. market in 1985, opening an office in Atlanta. With the encouragement of the Chinese government and financing assistance from the Export-Import Bank of China, CSCEC has taken bold steps as a builder. It was the largest construction project undertaken by a Chinese company outside of China, the China State Construction Engineering Corporation is also constructing the new Athletics and Football Stadium in Grenada
7.
Annual average daily traffic
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Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning and transportation engineering. Traditionally, it is the volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a year divided by 365 days. AADT is a useful and simple measurement of how busy the road is, newer advances from traffic data providers are now providing AADT by side of the road, by day of week and by time of day. One of the most important uses of AADT is for determining funding for the maintenance, in the United States the amount of federal funding a state will receive is related to the total traffic measured across its Highway network. Each year on June 15, every state in the United States submits a Highway Performance Monitoring System HPMS report, the HPMS report contains various information regarding the road segments in the state based on a sample of the road segments. In the report, the AADT is converted to Vehicle Miles Traveled, VMT is the AADT multiplied by the length of the road segment. To determine the amount of traffic a state has, the AADT cannot be summed for all road segments since an AADT is a rate, the VMT is summed and is used as an indicator of the amount of traffic a state has. For federal-funding, formulas are applied to include the VMT and other highway statistics, to measure AADT on individual road segments, traffic data is collected either by an automated traffic counter or hiring an observer to record traffic. There are two different techniques of measuring the AADTs for road segments, one technique is called continuous count data collection method. This is where sensors are embedded into a road and traffic data is measured all 365 days. The AADT would be the sum of the traffic for the entire year divided by 365 days. There is a problem calculating the AADT with this method. The continuous count equipment is not operating for the full 365 days due to being shut down for maintenance or repair, because of this, seasonal or day-of-week biases might skew the calculated AADT. In 1992, AASHTO released the AASHTO Guidelines for Traffic Data Programs, for every month and day-of-week, a Monthly Average Day of Week is calculated. Each day-of-weeks MADW is then calculated across months to calculate an Annual Average Day of Week, finally, the AADWs are averaged to calculate an AADT. The United States Federal Highway Administration has adopted this method as the method in the. While providing the most accurate AADT, installing and maintaining continuous count stations method is costly, most agencies are only able to monitor a very small percentage of the roadway using this method. Most AADTs are generated using data collection methods sometimes known as the coverage count data collection method
8.
Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
9.
Phra Pinklao Bridge
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The Somdet Phra Pinklao Bridge is a bridge over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, in Thailand near the Grand Palace linking Rattanakosin Island with Thonburi. It is named after Pinklao, vice-king of Siam, 1851-66, in the project phase, the bridge was referred to as the Tha Chang Wang Na Bridge, however, in June 1973, it was officially named the Somdej Phra Pinklao Bridge. The Chalerm Sawan 58 Bridge, along Saphan Siaw or Crescent Bridge, had to be dismantled to make way for the new bridge, Construction of the bridge started on August 4,1971 and it was opened on 24 September 1973 to traffic by Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn. The bridge was built by the joint company of Obayashi Gumi Ltd. Ltd under the supervision of Swiss Engineering Project who acted as the trustee of the Department of Public and Municipal Works. Some residents expressed their desire in 2010 to have the bridge dismantled mainly due to the air, Phra Pin Klao Bridge at Structurae Bureau of Maintenance and Traffic Safety, Thailand
