The Perception of Pathumthani Residents Toward Its Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand

Pawinee Iamtrakul; Sararad Chayphong

Pawinee Iamtrakul Assoc.Prof. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1362-2995
Sararad Chayphong Research assistant, Center of Excellence in Urban Mobility Research and Innovation, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University

Keywords: built environmental; health; satisfaction; quality of life; urbanization

Abstract

The urbanization process is often concentrated mostly in urban areas, resulting into urban development sprawl. This has effects on the lifestyles and activities of urban people, which in turn significantly affects the health of the city. The quality of the urban environment plays an important role in public health with respect to urban issues ranging from quality of utilities and services to quality of life. This study aims to study the perception of Pathumthani residents toward its environmental quality through spatial cluster analysis. A total of 1,000 sets of data collected from the interview survey among residents or commuters traveling through Pathumthani province was used for this study. The residents’ response towards environmental factors was examined through the classification of their different opinions among built environment and health aspects. The statistical analysis which was performed in this study was cluster analysis to demonstrate its relationship. With the level of satisfaction on environment aspect and health status in indicating number of congenital diseases, the result of this study found that condition of living environment (through Likert scale) affects the urban health with statistical significance of (P <0.05). Therefore, provincial health policy should focus more on developing a healthy city in consistence with economic and social development while putting adequate mechanisms for environmental surveillance monitoring at the community level. The result of study can confirm the usefulness of this unconventional approach by asking residents or commuters about their satisfaction on built environment which can represent as an evidence-based planning approach by linking local people attitudes and translating them into creating liveable and better urban environmental quality. To have a good understanding of local people preferences, the recommendation to be given to the capacity of communities can be focused for improving people’s quality of life by providing better accessibility, high quality of infrastructures and services. Finally, a set of features of satisfied built environment can help to support the continued growth of the city in term of basic need and sufficiency provision of facility and utility system.

Author Biography

Pawinee Iamtrakul, Assoc.Prof.

Assoc.Prof. Pawinee IAMTRAKUL, a Thai national, is currently working as a lecturer at the Department of Urban Environmental Planning and Development, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, THAILAND. She received her undergraduate degree of civil engineering from Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University and her master of infrastructure and transportation engineering from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. She earned her Ph.D. in Urban and Transportation Planning from Saga University, Japan. Furthermore, with opportunity supported by Erasmus Mundus Mobility for Life Scholarship, she could pursue her postdoctoral position of the Department of Development and Planning, Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine at Aalborg University.

She has been working as a lecturer for 13 years before being appointed to her current position as the director of Center of Excellence in Urban Mobility Research and Innovation (UMRI), Thammasat University. She worked together with a multi-disciplinary team of planners and engineers for her research works and project experineces. Her research interest is on Urban and Transportation planning by considering all aspects related to urban transport; sustainable transport, road safety, public transport and nonmotorization. Furthermore, her expertise is also focusing on the integrated planning in view of the integration of all urban elements; land use, infrastructure, economics, social and environmental. She has published her research works in many international and local journals over 50 peer-reviewed articles.

She has also participated in many local firms and government organizations at national level related to urban and transportation planning, e.g. sustainable smart city, artificial intelligent (AI) city, circular village, smart mobility planning. As a director of center of excellence, she has put her efforts to take multiple projects at local and international levels which reveal her significant professional experiences by getting support from well-known agencies, e.g. the European Commission, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, etc.

With her research capabilities, she has published many books on subjects ranging from urban and transportation planning to infrastructure and sustainable development. Her recent book “Sustainable urban planning and development” is available in bookstores across the country. In addition to the listed above, she also contributes herself to serve for academic activity as an editor in chief of Journal of International Journal of Building, Urban, Interior and Landscape Technology (BUILT). Her strong background in research has allowed her to keep up with latest development in urban development research as well as to manage her own focus to contribute also to society works and serving as a secretary of Thai Society for Transportation & Traffic Studies (TSTS). She has continued to develop her research knowledge and networks at national and international to identify new approach to enhance urban and transportation planning level in the country.

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