Environmental management system for infrastructure development projects in extended urban areas : a case study in Samuth Sakhon Province, Thailand | |
| Author | Suparb Trethanya |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.UE-09-02 |
| Subject(s) | Urbanization--Environmental aspects--Thailand--Samut Sakhon Environmental management--Thailand--Samut Sakhon |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Environmental Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. UE-09-02 |
| Abstract | Many cities in developing countries grow beyond their administrative limits without adequate backbone support of infrastructure networks, and development control processes. As a consequence, environmental problems arise in extended urban areas where urbanization is allowed to spill over from city limits. Two reasons are identified as root causes of these problems; (1) inadequate infrastructure provision to meet the growing demand in such areas, (2) implementation of infrastructure projects without any assessment of socio-environmental impacts. This study focused its attention on the second cause. The study questions the legal requirement of imposing Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) only for large and prescribed infrastructure development projects (IDPs) and argues that small and medium IDPs also require environmental sanction. The need for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in the local government units (LGUs) that govern extended urban areas is raised in the light of this argument. In order to support the main argument, the study analyzed the socio-environmental impacts caused by small, medium and large scale road infrastructure projects implemented since 1994 in an extended urban area next to the city of Bangkok. In the absence of data on social and environmental status of the study area, before and after implementation of these projects, a social survey was conducted involving a randomly selected sample of 402 people, who have been affected by these road projects. The survey results show that according to people's perceptions, small, medium and large scale projects have caused similar impacts with respect to air quality and noise. In terms of water related issues such as ground water contamination and local flooding, the small and medium scale projects have created more negative impacts than large scale projects according to the respondents. In contrary, the social survey revealed that there exist a significant difference among the perceptions on social impacts caused by different scales of road projects. Since the perception on environmental impacts were found to be similar, the study assert the necessity of environmental assessments for small and medium projects as well. In addition to the social survey, key informant interviews were conducted with 20 experts and professionals identified from national and provincial level authorities in order to verify the potential of LGUs to establish EMS. Their assessment revealed that urban LGUs have limited ingredients of a generic EMS such as; an environmental policy, environmental plan and regulations and appropriate management procedure. However, these limitations were not seen as severe by the key informants. Inadequate human resources and technical capacities were also seen as limitations but not as very severe. Another set of key informant interviews involving 17 local authority officials and 8 community leaders revealed that stakeholder participation in decision making is slowly becoming the part of organization culture of municipalities. In the light of these revelations the study recognized the need to strengthen the Technical and Planning Divisions of urban municipalities to undertake the overall coordinating responsibilities of EMS to comply with the directive of the Ministry ofInterior (Mol). The study views that urban LGUs have the ability to establish purposive EMS with 'citizen audit committees' for verification purposes. Hence it concludes that LGUs should establish purposive EMS for IDPs by capitalizing the directive of Mol as a quasi-legal basis to integrate environmental assessment as a part of their planning clearance and development permit issuing process |
| Year | 2009 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. UE-09-02 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Perera, L.A.S. Ranjith |
| Examination Committee(s) | Amin, A.T.M. Nurul ;Hadikusumo, B.H.W. ;Vilas Nitivattanon |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The National Energy Policy and Planning Office |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2009 |