Spatial analysis of the environmental conflict between state, society and industry at the Map Ta Phut-Rayong conurbation in Thailand

How transboundary processes connect commons in Japan and Thailand: A relational analysis of global commodity chains and East Asian economic integration

“…Central to the ESDP has been a petrochemical industrial estate established by the IEAT utilising natural gas discovered in the Gulf of Thailand in the 1973, built together with a deep sea port used to import various primary materials. Road, railway and water supply infrastructure were also built, largely with ODA and soft loans from Japan (Soytong and Perera, 2017). According to Thailand's National Economic andSocial Development Board, between 1995 and2000, as the industrial area expanded, direct investment created 460 000 jobs (Hassarungsee and Kiatiprajuk, 2010).…”

“…According to Thailand's National Economic andSocial Development Board, between 1995 and2000, as the industrial area expanded, direct investment created 460 000 jobs (Hassarungsee and Kiatiprajuk, 2010). However, many of the original population did not have the skills needed for industrial work and could not find decent work (Soytong and Perera, 2017).…”

“…The five industrial estates that constitute the core of the Map Ta Phut (MTP) complex include 45 petrochemical factories, 12 chemical fertiliser factories, 8 coal-fired power plants and 2 oil refineries (Soytong and Perera, 2017). At MTP, key issues have been air and water pollution, illegal hazardous waste dumping, encroachment on to community land and health impacts (Hassarungsee and Kiatiprajuk, 2010;Soytong and Perera, 2017). There have been various impacts on commons in the area that have become either degraded or enclosed.…”

“…Indeed, MTP is best understood as the product of East Asia's economic integration (EAEI). Since its construction, MTP has been at the centre of controversies, protests and court cases over its environmental, social and health impacts, including related to commons enclosures of coastal fisheries and water resources, dispossession of land and air pollution (Soytong and Perera, 2017). Environmental justice literature has comprehensively detailed how transboundary investment and trade in industrialisation commonly results in such impacts (Walker, 2012).…”

Mapping Environmental Conflicts Using Spatial Text Mining

“…The results imply that environmental conflict is influenced by these elements because of differences in the opinions of various stakeholders regarding the use of environmental resources; this is reflected by the definition of environmental conflict [1]. Moreover, the results reveal the type of conflict that became a particular issue in each region, identifies areas of concern regarding major issues [5], and provides insights into the implementation of environmental management policies on a spatial level [17]. In South Korea, western municipalities require an environmental policy to manage fine dust, southern urban areas require an environmental policy to manage safety issues, and non-urban areas require an environmental policy to manage issues of development.…”