Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Vudipong Davivongs | | Title | Trace of agricultural landscape pattern in Rangsit, Thailand | | Affiliation | University of Tokyo | | Authors | Vudipong Davivongs, Makoto Yokohari | | Keywords | Agricultural landscape, Landscape ecology, Landscape pattern | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Rangsit is an area of Pathumthani province, a suburb of Bangkok, which is facing tremendous pressure from urban sprawl. Many housing projects have been developed over the past thirty years to serve as residential areas for people from nearby Bangkok. Rangsit was named after the first project of land development for agriculture in Thailand. King Rama V proposed the idea of developing this flat area northeast of Bangkok into a rice producing town, as evidenced in its name -“Thanyaburi”- which means “Rice-town”. Thus, the main purpose of this land development was to provide a steady supply of rice to the growing metropolis of Bangkok. To make this development possible, the construction of an effective irrigation system was necessary. Water channels in this area were dug in a grid system. This irrigation system had a major influence on the agricultural landscape patterns in this area, creating a pattern of agricultural land use which contrasts somewhat with agricultural patterns found throughout most of Thailand. The practice of systematically dividing land created a series of long rectangular patches of rice fields which served to supply water to as much land as possible. However, it is not only these physical patterns of patches of rice fields and corridors of water channels that give the area its special uniqueness, but also the ecological system and culture generated by this pattern of land use which makes this area quite unique among agricultural lands in Thailand. In the transitional process of recent years, changes in land use from agricultural areas to residential areas have been the source of conflict and adaptation of land uses in term of ecological and cultural issues. Residential areas which are creeping ever closer to agricultural areas might transform valuable rice fields into urbanized areas. Yet, even if land uses are changed, former agricultural landscapes can still be traced from the landscape pattern. It is important to understand the linkage between agricultural landscape pattern and urban pattern in this area, so the trajectory of urbanization can be estimated. |
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