Housing Development and Informal Settlement Prevention Plan of Bungkan City, Thailand

Abstract

An important challenge to delivering adequate housing solutions in Thailand is associated with management problems that lack an effective mechanism to connect between concerned organizations. It is necessary to equip local stakeholders with housing management capacity under a participatory process. In this project, a housing development plan that included extensive community participation was delivered to Bungkan province which is the most recently established province in Thailand (2011) and as such, still lacked such a plan. The research project, “Housing Development and Informal Settlement Prevention Plan of Bungkan City” was conducted collaboratively by the National Housing Authority of Thailand and Khon Kaen University. The three major research objectives were to: formulate a city housing development plan for Bungkan city; create a participatory process of stakeholders that empowered their capacity through the planning process; and create a mechanism for housing development which connects key agencies from the national level to the local community. The research applied the Ladder of Participation (Arnstein, 1969) as the theoretical framework, with a mixed scale of the ladders including Consultation, Partnership, and Delegated Power. Data gathering and the planning process used a mixed method approach that included geospatial analysis through a Geographic Information System application, in-depth interviews, a questionnaire survey, stakeholder meetings, study trips, workshops, and exhibitions. At the end of project, the research achieved a housing development plan for Bungkan city with a new vision that included 5 strategies, 12 plans, and 46 projects. The research found that the key factor of project success was stakeholder’s inclusion at the beginning stage to the last stage of operation. In particular, the partnership concept in the form of joint committees shaped trustworthy relationships between stakeholders and allowed them to share a sense of ownership.