Publication Code: Y90I

Urbanization and Environment: Managing the Conflict

by Banasopit Mekvichai et al.

Contents

At the same time that rapid urban growth is making a major contribution to the economy of Thailand, that same growth is placing a major burden on the physical, environmental, and social infrastructure. Air and water pollution are growing rapidly and the traffic congestion in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region is among the worst in the world. The demand for water in the rapidly growing suburban areas far exceeds the available municipal supply and the resultant groundwater pumping has led to serious ground subsidence. Even the visual amenities of the pastoral landscape threaten to be replaced by a polluted agglomeration of factories and dense housing while critical environmental areas are threatened with extinction.

As part of its ongoing research efforts in environmental quality management, TDRI has undertaken a study to analyze current land use patterns in suburban provinces surrounding Bangkok and make recommendations regarding future policies and strategies for land use planning. The provinces in this suburban ring (Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Samut Sakhon, and Nakhon Pathom) are the most rapidly growing in Thailand, and potentially among the most important. Each year they receive the largest share of new investment and produce the largest portion of new jobs.

While free market systems have made a major contribution to the Thai economy, it is now evident that total reliance on unbridled private interests will provide neither adequate protection for the environment, nor adequate infrastructure for the community. In the absence of effective government policy, there are insufficient market incentives to assure that the private sector will provide adequate investment in roads, drainage, water supply, or pollution controls. Under the current structure, benefits from land development fall largely to private landowners while the costs (both the financial costs of providing infrastructure and the social and environmental costs of failing to provide adequate infrastructure) fall largely on the public. While it is probably too late to do much advance land use planning for Bangkok itself, the suburban provinces still offer an opportunity to guide development in such a manner that Thailand can obtain the desired mix of economic activities and environmental quality. major policy issues include the following:

1. Given the history of Thailand's development, as well as that of most developed countries, is it realistic to expect that land can (or should) be reserved for agricultural use where significantly highly economic and employment benefits can be obtained through allowing its conversion to other uses under appropriate supervision?
2. To what extent does the current absence of environmental controls, betterment levies, and effective property taxes constitute a subsidy to irresponsible industries and developers and a penalty to responsible ones?
3. Are land use controls necessary, and if so what forms should they take?
4. Are there appropriate mechanisms such as transferable development rights or development impact fees, which can supplement zoning in order to make it a more equitable and effective tool for guiding development?

The study seeks to analyze current land use patterns, to examine the above mentioned issues, and to provide an overview of emerging policy options for land use planning in the rapidly urbanizing fringe around Bangkok.

December 1990