9.

Thailand Urban Environmental Management:

Case of Environmental Infrastructure and
Housing Provision in Bangkok Metropolitan
Region

Vilas Nitivattananon and Chalika Noonin

9.1 Introduction

Dramatic increase in urban growth, both in Bangkok and regional cities of

Thailand has been seen over the last two decades. The implications of ex-
isting patterns of urban development on the growth indicate that a variety
of urgent measures are required to facilitate economic growth and oppor-
tunities as well as provide citizens with adequate quality of life. Additional
development is required in public infrastructure and housing in both Bang-
kok Metropolitan Region (BMR) and other regional cities to meet the
growing demand and prevent further destruction of the environment.
The urbanization trend is also related to infrastructure investment. As
shown in Table 9-1, using transportation and utilities most closely

Table 9-1. Infrastructure investment in Thailand (Unit: Baht million) (Source:

ADB (1996b))
5th Plan 6th Plan 7th Plan 8th Plan*1)
Sector 1982-1986 1987-1991 1992-1996 1997-2001
B mil-% B mil-%t B mil-% B mil-%
lion lion lion lion
Energy 94,358 46.80 233,822 44.80 446,634 34.40 422.878 21.83
Transportation 53,784 26.70 189,120 36.20 516,381 39.8 1,090,201 56.28
Telecommunications 33,945 16.80 69,506 13.30 234,078 18.04 194,939 10.06
Utilities 19,340 9.60 29,420 5.60 100,110 7.72 229,263 11.83
Total 201,427 100.0 521,868 100.0 1,297,203 100.0 1,937,281 100.0

1) Estimate
188 Vilas Nitivattananon and Chalika Noonin

corresponding to the urban development, an increase is estimated of more

than 100% in the 8th plan over the 7th plan. According to Tomuro (2006),
the level of urbanization was estimated to have increased from 26.5% to
28.7%, with Bangkok share in the total population declining from 41.4%
to 36.2%, but with its share in urban population remaining high at 56.8%.
As a consequence of rapid population growth accepting huge migration
into the city without proper reserved governmental policy and urban plan-
ning for infrastructure and public service such as accommodation and em-
ployment insurance system, low-income communities called slum and
squatter settlements have been created and have increased rapidly in the
city. In 2003, 1,720 slum communities with 1.63 million population,
27.9% of Bangkok’s population, were recorded (BMA (1997), cited in
Tomuro (2006)).
This paper utilizes data from several sources together with some previ-
ous studies recently conducted with the involvement of the authors. It aims
at using both the framework and specific cases in order to draw lessons
learned in relation to urban regeneration and environmental management
in Thailand, for comparison with similar types of cases in Asia, Europe
and the US.
The next section and sub-sections provide information on the overview
of urbanization in Thailand covering policies and plans, roles of stake-
holders and partnership practices, followed by a section on environmental
issues and framework on the management of environmental infrastructure
and housing in the BMR, and then a section on practices and cases in dif-
ferent sectors. The last two sections present key lessons learned in relation
to regional planning and local governance with recommendations, fol-
lowed by conclusions.

9.2 Overview of Urbanization and Environmental

Management in Thailand

9.2.1 Policies and Plans

The policies relating to urban management in Thailand may be divided

into two categories (as given in Fig. 9-1 together with implementing agen-
cies) --- implicit and explicit policies. For example, two significant poli-
cies that are being promoted, under implicit policy of competitiveness, are
the ‘Kitchen of the World’ program and the plan to make Thailand the
health tourism hub of Asia.