Integrating Spatial Statistics and Gis for Regional Studies in Thailand

This paper utilizes spatial statistical techniques integrated with GIS to analyze regional development problems associated with the rapid expansion of the regional city of Chiang Mai – Lamphun in the Northern Thailand during the 1986–1994 period. A set of combined GIS procedures is used to integrate up-to-date information from remotely sensed, physio-graphical and socio-economic data in order to create a comprehensive spatial database for the study region. Then, with a combination of logical and statistical operations, reliable cross-sectional spatialized study variables describing physical, socio-demographic and economic aspects of the regional development at the sub-district level are derived for subsequent spatial statistical analysis. The spatial patterns of regional development in the Chiang Mai – Lamphun area over time are traced out in various development aspects using spatial autocorrelation and spatial association statistics. The unbalanced regional development pattern and significant urban-rural disparity associated with rapid urban growth in the region are explored. Then, the spatial statistical modeling is adopted to simultaneously model spatialized physical and socio-economic factors affecting the urban-rural disparity and urban-rural interaction in order to provide insights into the region-wide spatial impacts on rural surroundings of the rapid economic growth in Chiang Mai – Lamphun urban centers. This paper demonstrates that GIS can help to solve the “data barriers” problem in developing countries, while its integration with spatial statistics is useful in gaining further insights into regional development problems.