Urbanising Thailand: implications for climate vulnerability assessments

This report summarises a series of studies carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of Thai scholars. It focuses on the dynamics of urbanisation and climate change risks, and on the linkages between urbanisation, climate change and emerging patterns of urban poverty and vulnerability. It provides new and key insights, serving as a comprehensive background foundation for further research on urban climate vulnerability and resilience. Urbanisation processes as transformative processes are under-researched themes, not only in Thailand, but also in countries in Southeast Asia. Rapid physical and social transformations are taking place in these countries, yet the implications contributing to vulnerability are less well-understood. The research has focused on case studies from established and growing urban centres from across the country - Bangkok and the neighbouring area of Lad Krabang, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen. Each case study presents its own specific insights into the history, drivers and implications of urbanisation, and also highlights many similarities.

Drawing on a review of historical patterns of urbanisation and future risks associated with climate change, this research argues for a fundamental rethinking of future urbanisation in Thailand. This is a future that will need to be very different from current trajectories of urbanisation, based on a policy process that will need to be founded on informed public dialogue.

Much of the planning, regulatory structures, and technical approaches for urban development are in place, but application and implementation remains lacking. A change in mindset among key actors is required.

The additional element that gives greater urgency to these longstanding challenges of urbanisation in Thailand comes from climate change. So far issues of climate change are not considered in urban planning. Much of the demand for the necessary changes to urban planning and management will need to come from a more informed and more engaged citizenry, and from a private sector that can recognise the benefits and opportunities that might emerge from addressing climate change.

From a research perspective, the case studies summarised in this report also reveal some of the conceptual and methodological challenges of addressing urban climate change impacts in Thailand. The focus of each of the case studies has been on urbanising – or recently urbanised – parts of the country. The case studies have not engaged directly with established urban groups. Increasingly such groups are diverse, with a growing number of migrants now working and living, and making invaluable contributions to the growth of urban areas in Thailand. Many of the research methods that have been applied in these studies have a grounding in more rural-oriented approaches; these do not always fit the needs of urban studies. Building the capacity of a new generation of academics and researchers to address challenges of urbanisation and climate change will be an essential element towards putting these issues on the public policy agenda.