Environmental Management in Thai Cities: Local Challenges, State Responses

This chapter examines the organizational, institutional, legal, and fiscal setting within which urban planning, development, and environmental management are conducted in Thailand; and more specifically, how that setting affects these functions in intermediate size cities. It also identifies components of the urban environment that are in need of improved management in Chiang Mai, an intermediate size city in northern Thailand which we studied intermittently over a period of five years, and the management problems associated with these environmental components. The chapter finds that local governments in Thailand are impeded in their development and management efforts by: (a) the high degree of centralization and policy dominance of the central government; (b) the lack of clear lines of authority between central agencies and local administrations; (e) a shortage of financial resources for efficient program implementation; (d) the inability of secondary cities to take initiatives to solve their own problems; and, (e) a neglect of the secondary cities by the central government and a lack of recognition of their potential as agents of growth and decentralized development.