Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemDevelopment ideologies strategies and rural poverty in Thailand : a comparative analysis of rural development strategies( 1999)Rural agricultural communities have played an important role in Thailand's drive for industrialisation. Yet despite the recent rapid economic growth and social transformation they have fallen far behind in economic performance in both relative and absolute terms, and have become areas where low incomes and poverty are prevalent. Their basic community resources and ecosystems have been significantly degraded in the process. This pattern of so-called 'uneven development' is becoming so great that without some radical adjustment to existing values and socio-economic structures, the national drive for industrialisation itself could be undermined by such social and environmental destabilisation. It is clearly worthwhile, therefore, to appraise both the ideological and material responses to change in these rural communities. This study explores and questions the ideas and practices of existing development models, examining in particular the central argument as to whether they can both overcome these problems and provide solutions to the goals of sustainable rural development. To achieve this aim, development ideologies and models are reviewed and selected representative projects are analysed. The approach is thus principally that of comparative case studies. Three rural community development models: market-based, ecological, and moral/ethical - were evaluated. They are seen to be associated with the basic philosophies of either 'individualism or 'totality', which involve policy choices between 'market', 'state', and 'people', or between market-based capitalism, state planning, and a people-centred paradigm. A significant finding suggests that achievement of the goal of sustainable rural community development will depend primarily on the basic philosophy underlying the model adopted. This is because it determines the model's 'trade-off system' between interdependent social values and goals, or the 'correct' balance struck between the different 'spheres' of development. A basic philosophy that recognises the interdependence of all life and things appears to support sustainable rural community development. While most village communities were interested primarily in increasing `family income', others were capable of successfully devising appropriate village organisations and programs to promote 'community empowerment' and 'alternative livelihoods' at the same time. However this desirable synthesis of `family income', `community empowerment', and `alternative livelihoods' has only been demonstrated at regional and local levels: it is too early to claim its application at a national scale
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ItemManagement of coastal aquaculture in Thailand( 1998)Intensive shrimp farming r Thailand has developed significantly since the 1980s. The industry has played an important role in the Thai economy. However, the high profit from shrimp farming has driven the industry into unsustainable development. The indiscriminate and rapid expansion of shrimp farming has created many environmental problems, such as the destruction of mangrove forest, salt water intrusion, conflicts with other uses, water pollution and land abandonment. To solve these problems, the present study aimed to answer two questions. Firstly, how can we identify potential areas for developing shrimp farms as well as other types of aquaculture which minimize environmental problems and conflicts with other uses? Secondly, how can we calculate an upper Iimit to the area of shrimp farms to avoid creating adverse impacts on the receiving environment? Based on these questions, the main goal of this research was to initiate an appropriate planning approach to sustainable aquaculture. Two models were developed: a model for the assessment of suitability of sites using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) together with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP); and a model for the assessment of carrying capacity. GIS was found to be a very useful tool for the first model. Although GIS alone cannot deal with the relative importance of factors, it provides a mechanism whereby weighting can be assigned, calculated and updated. The incorporation of AHP provides an effective method for dealing with complex situations involving many factors, such as aquaculture. The assessment of site suitability deals mainly with the problems on the landward side of the coastal zone, but not with the problems of the seaward impacts such as water pollution in the receiving water. Therefore, the assessment of the carrying capacity of the receiving environment was also needed to properly address the problems of coastal zone management. Although, both models need improvements in data acquisition and further research to improve the analysis methods, the integration of the two models provides the basis for a greatly improved method for making decisions about the development of sustainable aquaculture in the coastal zone.