Integrating GIS with spatial data analysis to study the development impacts of urbanization and industrialization : a case study of Chiang Mai-Lamphun area, Thailand | |
| Author | Tran Hung |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no. SR-98-3 |
| Subject(s) | Urbanization--Thailand--Chiang Mai Urbanization--Thailand--Lamphun Industrialization--Thailand--Chiang Mai Industrialization--Thailand--Lamphun Geographic information systems |
| Note | A disse1tation submitted in pa1tial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The urbanization and industrialization are believed to be the main forces behind the development of a region. These processes have not only favorable (e.g., increasing the income level and standard of living of the population), but also unfavorable effects (e.g., widening core-periphery and urban-rural disparities, labor migration) on the sunounding rural areas. This research's goal is to analyze the development impacts of urbanization and industrialization in a regional city on its hinterland using advanced spatial data analysis techniques and spatial modeling within an integrated GIS. The Chiang Mai - Lamphun area was chosen as case study due to its rapid development during the last decade in the context of Thailand's decentralization development policy. The study had studied the regional problems at the macro level using tambol as primary geographic unit to explore the intra-regional disparity (variation) in three major aspects of development (economic, demographic and social development). Guided by research concepts and propositions (derived from review of previous researches), the data on the study area were extracted from satellite images and collected from secondary database of Thailand's government offices. The two years of 1986 and 1994 were selected for study as comparison of not-yet-affected by rapid industrialization and after-8-years of implementation period. GIS was used as technical vehicle in the research for integrating disparate data sets, deriving appropriate spatial indicators, integrating with spatial statistical techniques and visualizing analysis results. After building-up complete GIS spatial database and deriving full set of study spatial variables, principal factor analysis was employed to reveal and explain the structure and patterns of economic growth. The three major composite economic indicators -- Index of Urban-Biased Economy, Index of Industrial-Based Economy and Index of Lacking Economic Opportunities -- were then subjected to explorat01y spatial data analysis (ESDA) techniques. The spatial patterns in terms of the indicators had been found significantly clustered and the focal areas ('hot spots') of the economic development had been identified. The change in economic growth between 1986 - 1994 was detected by tracing the ranking orders of those focal areas. The ESDA techniques also were utilized to explore the spatial structure of demographic (population density) and social (education attainment) developments and their cross-correlation with economic indicators. As new spatial exploratory technique, the spatial cross-correlograms were suggested as combined graphs of spatial correlation coefficients by different distance-based or contiguity-based adjacency between pairs of spatial phenomena. The spatial impacts of economic development on socio-economic life of smrnunding rural areas, therefore, were explored based on amplitude and wavelength of interaction between those spatial phenomena. Findings from urban-rural classification by discriminant analysis using alldevelopment-aspects suggest that the DTCP classification of urban centers were to be reviewed since it was not taking into account the cmTent status of development. The combined significant impact zones (SIZ) of urban centers were defined by modified ring analysis. Comparing the urban-rural and inside SIZ-outside SIZ dichotomies using ANOV A analysis iii had revealed significant intra-regional disparity in terms of different development aspects and in income distribution. The significant impact zones well represented the spatial effects of major economic factors as well as clustered spatial pattern of urban-rural interaction. The intensity of urban-rural interaction and the intra-region income disparity were then modeled to identify the significant socio-economic factors underlying the variation of spatial development. Thus, the development impacts of two most important economic growth phenomena in the study area -- urbanization and industrialization -- were studied. The average household income and the percentage of population working outside their living location as indicator of both 'push' and 'pull' factors in urban-rural relation, were subjected to spatial regression models. The spatial regression models had shown a significant improvement in terms of model fit and coefficient estimates due to it had accounted for the spatial effects of the exploratory variables, which had significant high spatial association in the study area. According to the exploratory and confirmatory analyses on both spatial and temporal dimensions, the results revealed that the level of urban-biased economy (urbanization) had significant effects, while the level of industrial-based economy (industrialization) had no significant dii'ect impacts on demographic characteristics, income level and high education level of local people. In fact, the rapid industrialization occm1·ed in the study area during 1986-1994 had indirect impacts on rural surroundings through the labor flow and increasing urban functions (services, utilities) in neighboring urban centers. Both urbanization and industrialization appeared to have no significant impacts on basic education level and illiteracy rate. Concerning urban-rural interaction, the level of urban-biased and industrialbased economies appeared a real force in pulling labor from neighboring tural tambols in 1986. However, in 1994, the urban-biased economy was no longer significantly affecting the outflows of labors from rural areas, while the industrial-based economy still significantly attracted the rural labor. The comparative analysis of two spatial statistical models for 1986 and 1994 suggested that the urban-rural disparity has widened from 1986 to 1994, and thus encouraging more rural-to-urban labor migration. And spatially, the limit of significant spreading impacts of urbanization and industrialization on rural peripheries was found around 25 - 30 km. With significant concentration of development around Chiang Mai City and Lamphun municipality, this could be interpreted as the people close to these major growth poles get much benefit from rapid economic growth during last decade in terms of employment, income, urban utilities, etc. The significant contributions of education attainment and accessibility on the intensity of urban-rural interaction and on income distribution suggested some development policy implications. Finally, regional development policy implications for Chiang Mai - Lamphun area were drawn from the findings of the study. The integrated methodological framework using GIS & SDA techniques based on the experience of this study was recommended to other researches on regional planning and development strategies. |
| Year | 1998 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Space Technology Application and Research (SR) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kaew Nualchawee; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Weber, Karl E. ;Delsol, Jean-Pierre ;Freitag, Ulrich; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The French Government AIT/ST AR Doctoral Student Research Fund ; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1998 |