A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1997

A few decades ago, Thailand was full of natural resources. However, the rapid growth of population and the change of government policy gradually from agriculture-base toward more industrial emphasis have put high demand on natural resources use and generate more industrial wastes. Thailand has been seen losing its natural resources, and at the same time, increasing industrial wastes each day. As a result, the government has been facing complicated problems to for bringing about sustainable development. Some of these problems include, but are not limited to deforestation, wastes from industries and unplanned of urbanization activities, floods, wastewater, and associated pollution as a result of these events. Despite the effort made by many government to bring about the balance in planning and management of natural resources and environment, the problem seems to lie with the lack of appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information on natural resources and environment. Recent development of spatial information technologies, i.e. remote sensing (RS), geographic information systems (GIS) and global position systems (GPS) in various parts of the world, especially in developed countries, have seen Thailand enter into his new development by massive numbers in recent years. Unfortunately, however, due to many unforeseen problems there has not been many successful cases report, due to many problems. The identification of these problems related to adoption and applications of these technologies was the main aim of this research. This research effort resulted in the following information: 1) Status of adoption and application of the technologies in Thailand, in 3 broad categories: I) Government agencies, II) Educational institutes, and III) State enterprises 2) Problem identification in adoption and application of RS/GIS technologies within the three m~in categories mentioned above, and 3) Summary of findings and recommendations for formulation of policy and procedure for adoption and applications of RS/GIS technologies.