Population Change and Growth of Chatchai PONGPRAY00N*

The final report of the consultant team is known I. Justification as Greater Bangkok Plan 2533. "Greater Bang- kok" as conceived by the American planners , one of the dynamic, developing coun- should be borne out of Bangkok and Thon Buri tries on mainland South-east Asia, has recently because both cities would constitute a single, overleaped in its economic development and large metropolitan area of Thailand. For the sake social change. The burgeoning expansion of the of planning and administration, one contiguous country's economy has evidently stamped an spatial area could be more efficiently handled than impact on its population growth and en- the fragmented one because both cities faced sim- vironmental degradation and hosts of other unex- ilar problems, especially the rapid growth of pop- pected side-effects. Due to the rise of the stand- ulation from in-migration and the deterioration ard of living, improving health-care and other of the natural environment. amenities, the population has steadily increased The importance of Bangkok has been recog- and the average life expectancy of the Thai people nized in the text-book named Five Faces of Thai- extends beyond sixty. Moreover, the basic struc- land. An Economic Geography. Professor Wolf ture of the population has gradually altered from Donner (1978), the author of the book, regarded a predominantly agrarian society to the urban- Bangkok as a region equally significant as the oriented one. This is mainly due to its alteration North, the Northeast, the Central and the South of the economic structure. From agricultural, of Thailand. Even though Bangkok contained sedentary society, the Thai people gradually begin less than 1 percent of the land and 10 percent of to move out of their birth-place in order to adjust the population of the country, it contained more to the new life. Consequently, the migratory than 56 percent of the nation's urban residents in process has been triggered after 1950 and con- the early 1970s. Besides, according to Romm's tinued up to the present time. Almost every report (1972), metropolitan Bangkok is one of provincial administrative center has naturally the most dominant primate cities in the world. It become a centrifugal force to attract the rural had overwhelmingly more than its share of all migrants. Particularly, Bangkok the capital city facilities, infrastructures, motor vehicles registra- of the country outpaced other urban areas be- tion, business taxes, commercial bank deposits cause of its comparative advantages. Right at the and construction investment. beginning of the migration process, Bangkok has The rapid population growth and areal expan- steadily attracted more migrants than any of its sion of metropolitan Bangkok is often cited as an rivals, resulting in a primacy status in every example of excess growth beyond control in de- aspect, such as population, economic status as veloping countries. Such kind of desperate devel- well as environmental problems. opment is counted as one of the most critical The notorious primacy of Bangkok, for one factors that have accelerated the local en- reason or another, has undoubtedly called atten- vironmental change. Bangkok is a case in point. tion among academics and field researchers to Through its 2W year long history of development, investigate the problems closely. Early in the only the last 50 years are more significant to an 1950s, Bangkok and Thon Buri were systemati- understanding of its urbanization and relations cally studied for the purpose of future planning with its surrounding hinterland. This researcher by the American planning teams (Litchfield, Whi- has intently followed the predecessors to look into ting, Bowne and Associates, 1960). The burgeon- the population change and its impact on the en- ing growth of Bangkok-Thon Buri at that time vironmental problems of the Bangkok metropolis was perceived as a threat to the country's well- in the 1990s. being unless some drastic measures were adopted.

* Professor of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

-1- Regional Views No. 9 1996

dents in Bangkok (Sternstein, 1982). There were II. Historical Background of Bangkok about 300,000 residents within the urbanized area of Bangkok at the turn of this century. The The development of metropolitan Bangkok is clearer record of population and areal extent of one manifestation of population growth and en- the capital city appeared after that. The registra- vironmental disruption in Thailand. When King tions by various government agencies had coun- Rama I founded the city as the capital of Siam in ted the population of administrative areas, prior 1782, it held an inconsiderable number of approx- to the first modern decennial census conducted by imately 50,000 souls. On the bend of the Chao the National Statistical Office in 1960. The popu- Phraya River, the city originally functioned as a lation of the city reached one million in the 1950s defense as well as the home of the royal family with an area about 96 square kilometers (Litch- and the seat of religious authority. After digging field, Whiting, Bowne and Associates, 1960). By a canal on the eastern side, the site of the city that time, the city of Thon Buri contained more became an island surrounded by flat, swampy than 200,000 inhabitants. None of the other landscape. From the curve of the river, the city's provincial cities had reached comparable size or area has expanded slowly across the flat plain importance. If Chiang Mai was considered as the during the reign of King Rama II and Rama III. second-most populous center, it was much smaller Prior to the nineteenth century, the city grew very than Thon Buri and thus made the primacy of slowly. It gathered momentum at the turn of the Bangkok even magnified as the most notorious twentieth century and has soared since then. As case in the world (Sternstein, 1982). governmental functions increased, its areal ex- The growth of modern Bangkok has indicated pansion became also a necessity when a series of that the suburban character is the essence of the successive canals were dug outward from the contemporary capital city. Since 1937, when the original core while on the west bank, Thon Buri, municipality of Bangkok was first established, it a former capital, was also growing slowly and has expanded the municipal boundaries and ad- became an independent city. Eventually, a den- justed its administrative units more than 6 times. sely populated commercial district grew up adja- Consequently, from the urbanized area of 43.1 cent to the zone of administrative center. Bang- square kilometers with total population of kok had become the only gateway to the outside 890,453 in 1937 , the city has expanded its area to world when it first contacted with Chinese mer- 1,568 square kilometers with a population of chants and western traders in the early nineteenth 5,832,843 in 1993 (Table 1). century. During the reign of King Rama V ( 1868- According to Sternstein's estimation, the rate 1910), Bangkok was hastily westerntzed especial- of population growth in Bangkok had been the ly in the area of administrative functions as well same as that of the country before the nineteenth as physical growth and planning. Practically, it century. It began to outpace the country after paved the way for the ensuing modernization. that mainly due to the in-migration (Sternstein, However, before 1900 Bangkok had no official 1982). The accelerated increase of population record of population nor statistics of its ateal was manifested in the quickening physical expan- growth. The population and area of the city was sion of the capital. From the original site of a estimated by eyewitnesses of foreign dignitaries, little more than a fortress, the city's area ex- adventurers, missionaries and some foreign resi- panded to 43.1 square kilometers in 1937 but it

Table 1. Areal Expansion and Population Growth of Bangkok

Year Area(km2) Population Density (person/k-')

1937 43.1 890,453 20,660 1953 66。 7 1,171,654 17,566 1958 96.3 1,622,461 16,848 1960 173 1,703,346 9,845 1970 290 2,495,312 3,961 1980 1,568.73 5,153,402 3,221 1990 1,568。 73 5,546,937 3,536 1993 1,568。 73 5,832,843 3,718

Sources: Goldstein ( 1972) and National Census Reports.

一- 2 -一 Population Change and Growth of Bangkok (Chatchai) took almost 150 years to do that. ulation change and e,vironmental disruption However, due to the natural increase of popula- during the past decades therefore renected the tion as a consequence of rapidly declining mortal- government responses to the increasing popula― ity coupled with more or less sustained high fertil- tion densities and expectations as well as IIligrato¨ ity, the population of the capital increased at ry movement and natural inCreaSes within partic‐ roughly twice the already remarkably rapid rate ular areas. Details of adnlinistrative units and of population growth of the country. In Thai- municipal syste=is of Thailand will be described land, Bangkok was the first city equipped with in the following section. good medical service and health care. For exam- ple, chemotherapy came first to Bangkok in the IIIo AdⅡlinistrative and Municipal System late 1930s. After the Second World War, Thailand adopt- ln「Fhailand an urban place is closely associated ed pronatalism as a national population policy. A with the adnlinistrative systenl of the countryo ln large family with numerous offspring was highly order to understand one systerlll,one must know praised. Consequently, in the early 1950s, the the other system as wello For the purpose of population of the capital city reached one million analyzing the data and direrentiating urban and for the first time in its history followed by the rural areas, the adlninistrative division of the decades of tremendous population increase in the country should be clarined。 1960s and 1970s. Thailand is divided into provinces(c力 α g″αr) According to Goldstein ( 1972), the death rate which make up the prilnary territorial units“ of in Thailand remained fairly constant at about 20 governmente Each province is further broken per 1,000 during most of the first half of the down into districts(α ″ 力οθ),ranging in number twentieth century. The end of the Second World from three to fourteene The district・ is again War witnessed a dramatic change as the death subdivided into half a dozen or more coIIlinuneS rate declined to below 20 per 1,000 by the mid (ra“ bο 4)Within each of which there are groups 1950s and to a low of 1l by the mid 1960s. As a of villagese The individual villages comprise the result of rapid adoption of modern medical tech- basic adnlinistrative units. As of December 1993 nologies and expansion of health facilities there were 75 provinces,709 districts,7,157 com‐ throughout the country, it reflected in a drastic munes and 65,277 villages. reduction in mortality. The fertility did not expe- From the adnlinistrative viewpoint, Thailand rience a similar decline. The high rate of an has a strong centralized government. AdΠ linis‐ average 45 per 1,000 had persisted for the first six trative policies are forlnulated in the capital and decades of the twentieth century. After that it forwarded to other provinces. ]Each provincc has started to decline mainly due to the family plann- its own provincial seat which,in most cases,is the ing practice. district containing the largest town in the prov― Beside the natural increase, the fantastic rate of ince. The next largest town in the province is population growth in Bangkok stemmed from the ordinarily the seat of the nrst district, and so migration process. According to the 1960 census forth. Generally,the provincial seat is larger than report, more than one quarter of all the residents the diStrict centero Accordingly the urban popu‐ in the metropolitan area had been born up coun- lation in'Thailand is adlninistratively distributed try. The metropolitan population had grown by into threc hierarchical groups according to size; an average of 6.2 percent over that last decade the provincial seat,the district seat and the coln‐ (195f1960) and more than half of the increase munal seat respectively。 had been migrants (Romm, 1972). After 1960 The urban centers are organized within the the rate of increase was still very high above the built‐ up areas under the Act of Municipality, national level as indicated by Sternstein (1982). which directly controls urban development in According to the 1990 census report, about 34.8 Thailand。 「rhe intrOduction of rnunicipal govern‐ percent of the metropolitan residents were born ment system began in 1891 with the issue of a up country. It is indicated that since 1960 the Royal lDecree, establishing the Bangkok Health process of rural-urban migration has still persist- Adnlinistration. This new adnlinistrative organi‐ ed all the way. zation concerned only the people in the FnuniCipal In order to maintain the growth of the city in area. The practice of separating the area of an orderly manner, Bangkok has occasionally re- heavily concentrated population from that of adjusted its administrative boundaries. The pop- sparse population was followed by a few prov‐

-3- Regional Views No. 9 1996 inces such as Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratcha- may be established in any area regardless sima. Within an area recognized as urban, a local of the number of inhabitants or density of self government was set up. In 1953, the munic- population that has sufficient revenue to ipal statute of urban area was formulated. Ac- promote its own welfare. Practically, a cording to the Royal Decree of the Municipal Act place of 2,500 or more persons is taken of that year, three levels of municipality were set into consideration as the breaking point. up as follows: The status of a municipality may be changed from 1) City municipality (Nakhon). This place one class to another on these bases. Below a must have a total population of 50,000 or commune municipality is a settlement of semi- more and the average density of the popu- urban character designated as a sanitary district lation must not be less than 3,000 persons which can be raised to a commune status anytime per square kilometer. At the same time when qualified. the place must have adequate resources In sum, the urban area is defined as a settle- and revenues for the compulsory functions ment that bears the governmental designation of prescribed by the law such as water works, municipality. All municipal areas have some electricity, drainage and sewage systems. characteristics generally regarded as urban al- 2) Town municipality (Muang). This must though some of them are geographically extensive be either provincial headquarters regard- with a population more rural than urban (Gold- less of size or an area with 10,000 or more stein, 1972). From the administrative viewpoint, inhabitants with an average density of not the municipality is considered as a type of local less than 3,000 persons per square kilome- self government unit similar to that of the provin- ter. It must have adequate revenues for cial authority. These government units make up compulsory functions. the system of devolution through which the cen- 3) Commune municipality (Tambon). This tralgovernment transfers the political and admin-

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Figure 1. Bangkok Metropolis and its Neighboring Provinces

4 Population Change and Growth of Bangkok (Chatchai)

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Ftture 2。 Districts of Bangkok Metropolis in 1970 istrative power to local people to govern them- In 1989, on the Bangkok side, 25 khet were cre- selves (Pratan Kongridhisuksakorn, n.d.). ated out of the original 15 khet, while on the Thon Bangkok has a unique history of administra- Buri side two new khet were added to the old 9 tion. In December 197l, Bangkok and Thon khet. In 1992 and 1993 two more khet were Buri, which had been an independent and sepa- carved out of the old khet. As of 1995, the BMA rate city, were administratively consolidated into consists of 38 khet, 2l of which are located on the a single city known as Bangkok Metropolis Bangkok side and 11 on the Thon Buri side (Figure 1). In terms of arcal unit, Bangkok (Figure 3). This has resulted in a new urban Metropolis consisted of 24 administrative dis- structure and spatial arrangement of the BMA. tricts, 15 of which were in Bangkok and the rest in Thon Buri (Figure 2). IV. Suburbanization in Bangkok Later in 1975, the Bangkok Metropolitan Ad- ministration (BMA) was established by the Bang- In the early 1980s, Bangkok was in the lime- kok Metropolitan Administrative Management light when it was selected as a study area for an Act B.E. 2518, which made Bangkok entirely integrated ecological study under the theoretical different from other provinces. The provincial guidance and financial support of UNESCO. status of former Bangkok and Thon Buri was The research project is known as The Integrated dissolved. Former became khet, and Ecological Studies of Changes in the Suburban tambon was replaced by khwaeng. Although a Area North of Bangkok Metropofts (Twesukdi Pi- large tract of land in the outlyin g area was semi- yakarnchana et al., 1986). It was undertaken as a rural and rural in character, the BMA expanded collaborative study among the Institute of Envi- its administrative boundaries to the previous pro- ronmental Research, Institute of Population vincial boundaries with adjustment of its khet Studies and many departments of Chulalongkorn boundaries and establishment of many new khet. University. The main purpose of the research

-5- Regional Views No. 9 1996

1。 RAT CHATAVEE

2. D:N DAENG 3. SATHON

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5。 KHLONG TOE: 6. SUAN LUANG 7. PRAVET

8.` BANG SuE N 9。 CHATuCHAK

lo. 00N MUANG ll. LAT PHRA0 12. BUNG KHUM 13. BANG PHLAT 14. CHOM THONG

1 5 10km

Figure 3。 New Districts of Bangkok Metropolis in 1993

Table 2。 Population Distribution of Bang Khen District in 1966

Subdistrict Area (km') Population Density (person,/k-t)

Talat Bang Khen 20.5 19,865 969 Lat Yao 32.8 49,472 1504 Khlong Thanon 12.0 14,573 1214 Anusawari 11.7 6,706 563 Si Gun 23.7 9,923 418 Tung Song Hong 13。 7 5,491 佃 Tha Raeng 17.3 3,800 219 Sai Mai 24.8 4,026 162 O-Ngoen 12.5 1,544 123

Total 169。 0 115,400 682.84

Source: UN ECAFE (1967), National Capital of Bangkok. project was an investigation of the ecological of the 38 districts of the BMA at present, located situation in Bangkok especially around the urban- to the north of the city about 30 kilometers from rural fringe where the rapid growth complicated the city center, was selected as a sample area. environmental problems. The research topic cov- Owing to its proximity to the Don Muang airport ered such aspects as the demographic and socio- and its good accessibility from the city center, the cultural characteristics of the inhabitants, settle- area has been under the influence of the city's ments, and land uses, environmental quality and expansion since it was targeted as a future subur- energy flow in the inner fringe. ban area in the Litchfield plan. Khet Bang Khen, or Bang Khen District, one Bang Khen in the early 1950s was pre-

-6- Population Change and Growth of Bangkok (Chatchai)

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1 5 10km

Figure 4e Subdistricts of Bang】Khen】 District in 1994 dominantly rural, consisting of 9 subdistricts were contiguous to the built-up area of the city namely: Talat Bang Khen, Lat Yao, Tung Song (Table 2). Hong, Khlong Thanon, Si Gun, Anusawari, Sai After 1960, a strip of development from inside Mai, Tha Raeng and O-Ngoen. The district had the municipal area toward Bang Khen occurred an extensive undeveloped area of about 169 along and main canals square kilometers with a population of about amidst the rural environment. Along the lanes 70,000. The urban growth toward Bang Khen branching off the main arterial roads, modern came rapidly along Phahonyothin Road, the shop houses crowded next to the run down major urban highway cutting through the district shacks. Many private home development firms toward the Don Muang Airport. Talat Bang originally influenced the growth of Bang Khen Khen and Anusawari subdistricts were felt to be district. Along the fringe of Bang Khen District, under urban encroachment in the early 1960s and its physical la.nd uses were well exposed. Agricul-

-7- Regional Views No. 9 1996 tural land use gave way to new development. land uses were rapidly absorbed by modernization Incongruous land uses spread as swiftly as urban of all sorts. Another stage of development has fringe advanced toward the seemingly no-man arrived at Bang Khen, although indiscriminate land zone. Large farm lands turned to other growth continues and will reduce the advantages chaotic land uses like garbage dumping ground, to be gained from integrated planned develop- man-made ponds, golf courses, slaughter houses, ment. water purifier plants and housing estates. The The growth of the BMA could be described as leftover rice fields got smaller and smaller and the natural, unplanned and uncontrolled as manifest- cultivation was quite extensive. The land owners ed by its areal expansion and boundary adjust- had speculated in land investment. ment of the districts. When the suburban area was When the BMA was created in 197l, Bang amalgamated by the BMA, it inherited tremen- Khen District was one of the original constituents dous problems of areal development. An exten- though predominantly rural. However, four sion of the municipal boundaries was easy to years later the whole area of the district was put execute but coping with the new problem was under the new administration. It was classified as another matter. According to Lasserve (1980), an urbanized area because it was put under a rapid development occurred from 1965 onward, specialized arca of the BMA. Finally, in Novem- changing land uses far away from the central city. ber 1989, the original Bang Khen District was In the wake of population exodus from rural administratively divided into three smaller khet areas all over the country, suburban settlement namely, Bang Khen, Don Muang and Chatuchak. appeared along the rural-urban fringe. Every Bang Khen District took over only 7 6.61 square month of the year, waves and waves of in- kilometers and consisted of only five subdistricts migrants moved into the suburbs since the popu- (Figure 4). Table 3 shows the population distri- lation movement in Thailand is rather a natural bution and areal extent of subdistricts in Bang process and the government paid no attention to Khen District in December 1993. it. Consequently the new arrivals constituted the The latest development within Bang Khen Dis- suburban population. trict is apparently its compactness by ceding a The migrants plus the indigenous inhabitants large part of its area to two contiguous districts; completely overran the housing provision by the Don Muang to the west and northwest, and Cha- government agencies (Kammeier, 1984). The tuchak to the southwest. With less area and roles of realtors in the process of suburbanization population, Bang Khen seems to adjust better to cannot be ignored because they have spawned the the new development. Whole district is under the grass-root problems to the suburbs. They had municipal jurisdiction, thus administratively urb- appeared on the urban scene before the establish- anized. Its previous suburbanized characteristics ment of the National Housing Authority in 1973. faded out. Its earlier ecological imbalance in The rapid increase of the housing estates ignored terms of physical disadvantage such as floodirg, basic infrastructures and the standard width of lack of infrastructure and far-away location dis- the main roads or lanes. All kinds of public appeared completely. The new urban develop- services such as fire protection, garbage collec- ment is springing up along Phahoyothin and tion, running water or even public safety were Ramintra Roads, while other minor roads have generally not available. Those who could not accommodated housing projects and industrial afford a new house in the housing estate got ventures of various scales. Rural settlements and cheaper housing units in the form of a duplex, an

Table 3. Area and Population of Bang Khen in 1993

Subdistrict Area (kmt) Population Density (person,/k-t)

Anusawari 18。 40 66,045 3589.40 Khlong Thanon 13.41 108,859 8117.74 Sai Mai 14.17 34,215 2414.60 Tha Raeng 17.12 27,581 1611.03 O-Ngoen 13.51 4,911 363.50

Total 76.61 241,611 3153.77

Source: Bang Khen District Office (1994), Data of Khet Bang Khen.

-8- Population Change and Growth of Bangkok (Chatchai)

´//1 "ノ

I *.J ∝ｂ・‐ 剤釧（柚 訂ヨふ ψ一¨ 〕（▲ ″″一

Rarnintra Rd.

5 10km :

Figure 5. Road System of Bang Khen District in 1994 apartment, a row house, or built instant units on estates have replaced the tracks, trails or rice the available public land. Private residential es- fields. All natural vegetation has been removed tates were developed side by side with slum and and replaced by nurseries and potted plants. Nat- dilapidated housing. ural drainage and canals have been completely As a result the changing natural landscape to altered. The overall transformed physical cultural one is quite ubiquitous. Damage to phys- landscape has undoubtedly damaged the en- ical features by heavy machinery has led to the vironmental feature of the suburb an area. Need- destruction of hills and dales, swamps or inacces- less to s&y, the slum and squatter areas in the sible spots. Hard surface roads and housing suburbs have suffered most from the serious effect

9 Regional Views No. 9 1996

of environmental degradation. Reference V. Discussion Bang Khen District Office, 1994. Information on Bangkok Metropolis is still growing and more Bang Khen District. Mimeograph. crowded than ever. Both the inhabitants and its Goldstein, Sidney, 1972. Urbanization in Thai- urban built-up area have been incessantly expand- land, 1947-1967. Institute of Population Stud- ing. All assorted urban problems have been emi- ies, Chulalongkorn University Research nent, particularly those which are associated with Report No.2. rapid population growth and in-migration. The 1972. The Demography of Bangkok. A Case worst growth impact has fallen on the en- -t Study of Differentials between Big City and vironmental conditions. The crowded situation Rural Populations. Institute of Population caused high density pattern of residential areas Studies, Chulalongkorn University Research and traffic congestion. Inevitably, air and noise Report No.7. pollution enveloped the city. The successive con- Donner, Wolf, 1978. Five Faces of Thailand, an version of green rural farm land around the urban Economic Geography. Brisbane: Queensland fringe to urban land uses has further aggravated University Press. the balance of urban environments. Kammeier, H. Detlef, 1984. A Review of Develop- While the physical environmental change can ment and Land Use Problems in Bangkok. be noticeably observed in the field, however, the Human Settlements Division, Asian Institute economic and social composition of the new pop- of Technology, Bangkok. ulation in the district lacks details thus being Lasserve, Durand Allain, 1980. Speculation on incomprehensible. For example, the idea of seg- Urban Land. Land Development and Housing regation among urban inhabitants is unknown in Development in Bangkok. Mimeograph. Thailand. But there is a tendency that migrants Litchfield, Whiting, Bowne and Associates, 1960. from the same village tend to stay near their Greater Bangkok Plan 2533. Bangkok: Kan- relatives or friends. Spatial areas of particular chana Chang Press. migrants from the same province or region have Ministry of Interior, 1991. Bangkok Metropolis, naturally developed in various districts of the 33-34, Annual Report. Bangkok: Secretary of BMA. the Ministries Press. The changing composition of the population Pratan Kongridhisuksakorn, n.d. Local Govern- can be directly observed from various age-groups ment in Thailand. Bangkok: Thanasuan Print- and the economic and social status of the new ers Ltd. comers. Their lifestyle has been reflected in the Romm, Jeff, 1972. Urbanization in Thailand. An selection of housing which in turn reflected their International Urbanization Surt ey Report to economic status and social patterns. Suburban the Ford Foundation. community has shown specific housing pattern, Sternstein, Larry, 1982. Portrait of Bangkok. rent structure, income and occupation distribu- Bangkok : Allied Printer Ltd. tion. Generally, suburban growth has shared Twesukdi Piyakarnchana et al. 1986. Changes in many of the BMA's social, economic, political, Suburban Area North of Bangkok Metropolis. environment, and transport problem. Details of An Integrated Ecological Study. Institute of these characteristics can be analyzed from a case Environmental Research, Chulalongkorn Uni- study. versity, Bangkok.

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