A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Environmental Management

Industrialization is a common strategy implemented in many developing countries for employment creation, urbanization and economic growth. The government of Thailand launched the Eastern Sea B oard Development Program (ES B DP) in 1982 for similar purposes . T here is no doubt about the immense success of ESBDP. However, its Map Ta Phut growth center has become an environmental hotspot. Local people in this area are frequently protesting against industri al investors for the land, resources, pollution, and health related problems that they face and accuse the government for not taking adequate actions to protect the environment and civil society. Hence a conflict involving the state, society, and industry stakeholders has brewed over time and come to a s talemate . After some judicial interventions the government has implemented an environmental mitigation plan to resolve the conflict and direct the development in Map Ta Phut growth center towards 2green Growth3. Th is study accepts the concept of green g rowth as its intellectual basis. It firstly identifies critical indicators of green growth based on literature and experts{u2019} opinions. Secondly it uses those indicators to examine the lapses in policies and strategies implemented in the ESB area that lead to the conflict between the state, society and industry . Finally, the study uses same indicators to verify effectiveness of the mitigation plan implemented by the state to resolve the conflict and direct Map T a Phut growth center towards 2 G reen Growth. Sin ce the Map Ta Phut growth center has become a contested space and the conflict therein is a spatial - environmental one, this study focuses on spatial - environmental analysis. T he objectives of this approach are to exploit modern spatial analysis tools such a s Remote Sensing (RS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for comprehending an environmental conflict, and verify the effectiveness of a mitigation plan implemented to resolve it. Through the case study of Rayong - Map Ta Phut conurbation the study als o intends to draw important lessons for Thailand as well as for other developing countries that adapt the growth center model for urbanization and industrialization. The spatial analysis revealed that the industrial development was in a continual trend of interfering with the pre - existing communities. Analysis of geo - referenced environmental quality data revealed that the air quality and water quality were sub - standard at the height of the conflict. Spatial relationships w ere particularly established with the main points of contention of the civil society that include; (i) expansion of industrial area into human settlements, (ii) air pollution by volatile organic compounds, and (iii) dumping of wastewater to surface water bodi es. The study also verified that the environmental mitigation plan implemented by the state is slowly producing positive output results in terms of environmental quality improvements. In doing so, the study demonstrated that RS and GIS tools are better sui ted to verify output results of plan implementation and thereby help contending stakeholders to comprehend the effectiveness of the plan for resolving the conflict. The study highlights geo - referenced information dissemination as a key for conflict resolut ion and monitoring of the implementation of a plan to achieve that goal. The study claims that verification of the critical indicators of green growth that could use in tandem with modern spatial analysis tools as the knowledge contribution of this study.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2014