Managing Intermediate Size Cities

This first chapter sets the tone of, and the parameters for, the field project in Chiang Mai and for the content and emphasis of the book chapters. It begins with a discussion of Chiang Mai as an intermediate size city within the urban system of Thailand, which was formally planned in the 1980s to provide the country with a network of growth poles in an attempt to decentralize the fast growing Bangkok metropolitan region. It uses this designation, and the inadequate support it received from the central government over the last twenty years, to explain why Chiang Mai, the designated regional growth center of the Northcm region, has been falling further behind in its efforts to provide quality services to its population. It continues with a brief treatment of the issue of sustainability as it is adopted by the project and is used in the book, and then discusses the potential role of intermediate size cities in the sustainable development of their regions. It then uses the framework provided by these discussions to present and explain the structure and organization of the book and its sections, to introduce the chapters, and to explain the approaches taken by their authors in fulfilling the requirements of the book project.

The attempt to study and evaluate development in Thailand within the framework of sustainable development raises the philosophical question of the extent to which Buddhism in Thailand might be amenable to the adoption of a sustainable development approach. I contend that a Buddhist approach to development affirms the core elements of sustainable development and so ought to be receptive to its implementation. In the course of my chapter, I briefly explain the basic ideas of Theravada Buddhismthe form of Buddhism in Thailand; isolate what I believe are the core objectives of sustainable development; clarify what prominent Thai monks and scholars believe are the limitations of traditional western liberalism; and, finally, suggest that sustainable development and Buddhism emphasize different dimensions of sustainability and hence can learn much from each other. Proponents of sustainable development have focused primarily on the realm of policy making and formulation of specific indicators to measure scientifically the sustainability of policies and practices, whereas Buddhists in Thailand have focused far more on attaining moral and spiritual awareness and have neglected the importance of public policy making. Both dimensions are essential to truly free and sustainable societies.

In this chapter, the authors examine the general concept of citizen participation and then consider the factors that are shaping the emerging role of citizens in planning and public decision-making in Thailand. Although public involvement of citizens is ordinary in the United States and other Western democracies, citizen participation is less common in Thailand, and may take different forms. Citizen involvement in Thailand is looked at in a broad perspective, inclusive of various influences, such as culture, religion, governmental structure, and national history. The authors contend that citizen participation is beginning to occur in Thailand, often through informal means, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs have found a niche in involving Thai citizens mainly on local issues. As the concept of Thai citizen involvement continues to emerge, it will take the unique characteristics of Thai culture into account and will build on existing methods of participation.

The spatial distribution of manufacturing within Chiang Mai Province, an “outlying” region in an “emerging” country, reveals extreme urban/rural distinctions; these are similar to the national pattern. The manufacturing profile of the Province is somewhat consistent with expectations. Traditional wood products, fabrics, food, and agro-industries are strong. Within the Province (and the nearby Northern Region Industrial Estate), there are also many large and modem factories, in traditional sectors, especially food, and in newer sectors such as electronics. The long-run sustainability of manufacturing in the Province and its contribution to a viable regional economy are assessed. It is argued that: (1) sector balance, (2) geographic balance, and (3) relatively high capital investments promote economic stability and prosperity. The core area within 50km of Chiang Mai City is diverse and strong. Beyond the core area, outlying districts within this outlying Province have little manufacturing employment, will not likely experience growth, and will continue to be areas of out migration. The little manufacturing in these districts has low levels of capital investment. The industrial viability of outlying districts is questionable, and hinterland weaknesses detract from the core.

Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai Province in Northern Thailand have experienced rapid growth, development, and subsequent urbanization, in part as a result of the growth of the manufacturing sector of the local economy. The expansion of the manufacturing sector has been fueled by technological change in agriculture, the rapid expansion of basic literacy, and a national economic policy focused on economic development. Thailand’s educational structures have been slow to respond to this change in work-force education needs. Its focus has been on providing “basic education” to make Thailand a literate nation, and a secondary focus has been to strengthen its colleges and universities to supply an educated elite. The concept that educational institutions need to develop the capacity to supply people with marketable work force skills has been slow to develop. Thailand lags behind Malaysia and Singapore in International Standards of Operation (ISO of its local industries. There is a serious shortage of workers with the technical skills necessary to meet the demands of the manufacturing sector. Thailand needs to change its educational policies to support the development of a workforce with the skills needed for an industrializing society that hopes to remains competitive in a world economy.

For centuries the city of Chiang Mai has been synonymous with traditional crafts worked from materials as varied as silk, cotton, silver, wood, and lacquer. This former capital of the Lanna Tai Kingdom has been populated with a wide range of craftspeople who could meet the whims and needs of a cultural and religious center backed by the wealth of a powerful kingdom. Now one of the country’s primary tourist destinations, it is populated with artisans using the same materials to serve the whims of the tourist market, both locally and globally. This chapter is an attempt in making a first cut at assessing the contribution of handicrafts towards a sustainable future for the urbanizing region of Chiang Mai. We operationalize our conception of sustainable development as it would be applied to an economic sector and its relationship with the urban area in which it operates. We then proceed to tell the story of the handicraft sector in Chiang Mai, first with a brief account of the historical evolution of the sector followed by a description of the sector as we observed it in 1998, with particular attention to operations and relations within the production-distribution/promotion-consumption network and their geographic arrangement. We then analyze Chiang Mai’s handicraft sector using our sustainable development framework and conclude with our recommendations for the sector based on our analyses.

Tourism has been emphasized extraordinarily in the development plans of Thailand in the last thirty years, with some significant results. Its contribution to the GDP has been considerable, and public investments in its infrastructure have also benefited many other sectors of the economy and the development of the provinces, while private investments have stimulated local economies. But tourism has also raised many questions about its ability and appropriateness to support long-term sustainable development, especially at the local level. This chapter reports on an exploration of a range of issues associated with tourism in Chiang Mai and its impact on the local economy, quality of visitors, physical infrastructure, environment, public health, and local culture. It also assesses the tourism sector’s sustainable development potential for Chiang Mai and identifies some courses of action that can be taken in order to shape future local tourism policies.

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.

The ultimate goal of the study was to assess the human disturbance in an urban system and to provide valid information for sustainable urban planning. This chapter identifies current major issues in Chiang Mai, Thailand, related to water supply and demand, wastewater management, and water quality. Existing institutional and government structures regarding environmentally sustainable development are analyzed to identify players in urban sustainable planning and development. Data obtained from the field show that the quality of surface water has been negatively affected by the urbanization of Chiang Mai. The chapter explores the nature of urban stream degradation and the relationships between this degradation and specific urban activities or “human factors”. Currently, the water supply only reacts to the demand from land development. There is not an overall plan to guide development. The authors recommend that the Chiang Mai municipality establish a water quality monitoring system, integrate water supply planning and water quality management with land use planning, and use GIS to share data and to support decision making.

As a component of the 1998 Joint Study in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this chapter examines solid waste management approaches in Chiang Mai in terms of human impact as a function of three major criteria: population size and growth rate, per-capita consumption, and environmental damage caused by the technology used to produce what is consumed and inability to absorb the resultant waste. Survey analysis, problem evaluation, and strategy formulation were used to focus on the feasibility of shifting management practices from traditional waste handling and disposal to an increasing prioritization of sustainable practices such as waste reduction, recycling, and reuse. In the midst of the current Asian economic crisis and faced with probable major growth in the near future, Chiang Mai has had a unique opportunity to assess its ecological capital using municipal solid waste generation as an indicator, and to subsequently rapidly develop the mechanisms to shift to sustainable solid waste management practices. This paper begins by reviewing the debate over sustainable development and considers the question of how and whether an urban center in a developing nation could shift from traditional waste management approaches to environmentally sustainable practices. In Section 2, the solid waste study site is assessed. Sections 3 and 4 reveal research results and describe specific proposals for sustainable solid waste management as applicable to unique conditions in Chiang Mai.

Sustainable development is often associated with a trade-off between social and economic development on the one hand, and environmental protection and enhancement on the other. Optimizing these conflicting goals requires a computing environment that integrates storage and analysis of spatial and statistical data related to both development and environment. Geographic information systems (GIS) provide such an integrated computing environment to facilitate the complex data analysis and decisionmaking for sustainable development. This article addresses issues surrounding a GIS for the sustainable development of Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. Based on the information collected from literature search, personal communication, and interviews with municipal and provincial officials, university professors, and local GIS professionals, the authors provide a systematic analysis, including the examination of the costs, benefits, and challenges for developing the system. The analysis suggests that most digital datasets needed by the GIS arc available in various state government agencies. Tax collection, a pressing issue for the municipality, is used as a case study for illustration.

Sustainable cities require appropriate management of the urban environment and an understanding of the dynamics of urban growth. Unfortunately, local urban problems are poorly understood in developing countries and require major research, development, and evaluation efforts to identify effective approaches to problem solving and remedial policies. This chapter identifies several issues of urban development in Chiang Mai and suggests policy interventions to address these. It is argued that to ensure the sustainability of Chiang Mai, it is of fundamental importance to properly manage and control the urban growth of the city. In order to be able to do this, it is necessary to better understand factors, patterns, and consequences of the growth itself. This chapter begins by describing the forces and patterns of growth in Chiang Mai. This is followed by consideration of the consequences of growth regarding both physical and socio-economic dimensions. By assessing the way in which growth and its related problems are managed, the need for increasing the capacity of the local government in managing urban development is highlighted. The chapter concludes by presenting a number of policy recommendations for improving Chiang Mai’s capacity to manage its urban growth.

This chapter compares the morphology of the traditional central areas of Chiang Mai with the emerging morphology of its suburbs. In particular, the morphological analysis is used to compare elements that could affect long-term sustainability of this rapidly growing region. The thesis is that traditional settlement patterns, created when energy use was very low and when local production dominated, have much to offer as models of environmental and social sustainability. Traditional forms promoted social cohesion, walking, nearby agricultural work, local economic interactions, and an evolved response to climate. The paper compares the settlement patterns in qualitative and quantitative terms. It examines one particular central city neighborhood in particular, using principles of sustainability. At the same time, the analysis shows the patterns of change in the central city and suburbs that are a response to new development priorities. Historic preservation management is discussed as a tool of development, protection, and tourism.

This chapter uses a sustainable development framework to assess the status of the informal settlements in Chiang Mai, an intermediate size city in the north of Thailand, and considers the lessons from these settlements that may be useful for the sustainable development of intermediate size cities in Asia. Informal settlements serve a critical role in providing affordable shelter close to jobs for poor urban residents, yet impose substantial costs on those living in and near the settlements as a result of significant externalities. A sustainable development framework is well suited for the issues of informal settlements that encompass social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts. This is especially true in intermediate size cities, where most Southeast Asian urbanization is currently focused. Such cities are more readily able to adopt the decentralized public management approaches needed by their informal settlements than their mega-city counterparts. The lessons for sustainable development include: recognition that residents of informal settlements are a community asset; eviction and relocation programs should be approached with caution; community networking and cooperation should be nurtured; social service provision must be made a priority; and, environmental infrastructure has tremendous potential for return on investment and need not impose a financial burden.

Cultural preservation is becoming an urgent concern of urban residents worried about the loss of their cities’ cultural identity, history, and heritage. The conservation of this urban heritage and the preservation of the social and economic activities that make use of it, are now seen as part of the community’s sustainable development effort. This chapter addresses this approach to development while exploring the conditions for the preservation of historic buildings and urban spaces in the city of Chiang Mai. The methodology used included reviews of national and local regulations, assessment of the findings of previous studies, structured interviews with residents, businesses, community leaders and local government officials, field work, and a ground survey for the Tha Phae Road case study. The study’s findings are: (a) that Chiang Mai cannot avoid the inevitable influence of cultural and economic modernization; (b) that it is unclear at this point if the efforts of citizens and government can contribute to the long-term sustainability of the city, despite their enhanced awareness of the need for preservation of the local cultural heritage; and, (c) that to become a more important component of the development process, preservation in Chiang Mai should be institutionalized as part of a strategic urban development plan, including documentation, legal and financial support, and community participation.

The challenge of visually documenting specific issues in a very different milieu is the ideal assignment for the photojournalist interested in capturing a sense of place. It was the interdisciplinary nature of the project, the objective, and the location that motivated me to respond to a university-wide call for participants. Working with a team doing fieldwork in Chiang Mai was an extraordinary opportunity to document an existing situation, the city, being quantitatively and qualitatively studied for its sustainable prospects. This was also a unique opportunity for me to work day-to-day with individuals who moved from concrete particulars to the conceptual and who are qualified to make specific recommendations based upon their fieldwork findings. The images compliment the research as a document, a kind of qualitative evidence, assisting the researcher in making conclusions that may lead to recommendations which directly affect a community. This is unlike conventional deadline driven photojournalism, that at best impartially records a situation with images that are rarely considered as evidence for change by policy makers.