Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon

Local governments on Google Plus

2012-01-26T13:04:00.000+01:00

Even though most of the social networking still happens on Facebook, I personally prefer the much cleaner and more professional looking Google Plus by far. So naturally I also tried if there are any of the local governments - municipalities, TAO or PAO - who are using Google Plus as well, or at least have registered there. Sadly, most have just registered there (and many as a person and not as a page, the way Google intended it), but below is a table of those I have found so far.

Sao Thong Hin municipality (เทศบาลตำบลเสาธงหิน), Nonthaburi - a few flood photos from November last year are the only activity.
Bang Muang municipality (เทศบาลตำบลบางม่วง), Nonthaburi. Only activity so far was the upload of their emblem as the user picture.
Chanthanimit town (เทศบาลเมืองจันทนิมิต), Chanthaburi - no activity at all.
Nong Bua Sala TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลหนองบัวศาลา), Nakhon Ratchasima - several post in October last year, but nothing since then.
Doi Saket municipality (เทศบาลตำบลดอยสะเก็ด), Chiang Mai - only uploaded emblem and a sketch map.
Thung Hua Chang municipality (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งหัวช้าง), Lamphun - only two photos uploaded so far.
Ngao municipality (เทศบาลตําบลหงาวหงาว), Chiang Rai - only the emblem.
Mae Sariang municipality (เทศบาลตำบลแม่สะเรียง), Mae Hong Son - no activity at all.
Bang Bai Mai TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบางใบไม้), Surat Thani - no activity yet, at least they choose correctly to create a page and not a user profile.
Wang Mai municipality (เทศบาลตำบลวังใหม่), Chumphon - the only one really continually active, and correctly set up as a page as well.
Pa Bon municipality (เทศบาลตำบลป่าบอน), Phatthalung - only emblem.
Thung Hong municipality (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งโฮ้ง), Phrae - only emblem.

The list might be incomplete, but there are for sure only very few of the 7000+ thousand local governments registered at all, only so far only one real active.

Though Twitter is not exactly a social networking site, I have collected the few who have found their way there in a user list which can be easily followed as well - but not surprisingly there is very few activity, of all those who created an account on Twitter only few have actually used it for more than a short testing period. Currently active are only the municipalities Mueang Phon in Khon Kaen and Nong Khai. Whenever I discover a new Twitter account I will of course add it to that list, so anyone interested can just subscribe the list.

Additionally, I also add all these links into my XML as well, which can then look like this

      <socialweb>
        <facebook>http://www.facebook.com/bangkoknoi</facebook>
        <twitter>BangkoknoiDist</twitter>
        <blog>http://bangkoknoidist.blogspot.com/</blog>
      </socialweb>

A sad day as a Wikipedia author

2012-01-24T13:03:00.000+01:00

Last night marked a sad first in my time as a Wikipedia author - it was the first time I was seriously insulted by a fellow Wikipedian as being an "arrogant wanker". Not counting those vandals calling me foul words after being disturbed in their fun back when I was more active monitoring the current edits, I nearly made it to the 9th anniversary at Wikipedia without any disagreement with other editors escalating on this level. Keeping away from controversial articles and staying in the small niche of Thailand topics helped this obviously, but still it is a bad experience to be called names while doing my best. It all started when I stumbled upon a newly created article on the subdistrict Wiang of Mueang Phayao district. The article basically read as following

Wiang (Thai: ?) is a small town and tambon (subdistrict) of Mueang Phayao District, in Phayao Province, Thailand.[1] In 2005 it had a total population of 10,701 people. [See here]

Only other things were the huge infobox showing the same information once again, and a link to ThaiTambon.com - but not the page on that specific subdistrict. Not only does this article contain less information than the district article - the Thai spelling wasn't copied, neither the number of villages (0) and most significantly the fact that the subdistrict is completely within the town Phayao. And this points to the even bigger problem - there is nothing like a small town "Wiang" anywhere in Thailand, especially not within the albeit still small town of Phayao. And to complete the impression of a mindless copy-and-paste, the bottom of the article showed the boilerplate of being a "This Mae Hong Son Province location article is a stub." If it were just a single article of this kind, I would as usual go ahead and fix it, but this author has a strong horror vacui and believes every small geographical instance has to have a Wikipedia article, even if it contains nothing but the obvious - the first version on Bangkok Noi Museum is a real gem: "Bangkok Noi Museum is a museum in Bangkok, Thailand." And thus he had not only created one Tambon article, but covered most of the districts of Phayao in this time. To copy-and-paste such a stub is a matter of less then 5 minutes, but even with my big collection of data it takes me at least 30 minutes to convert it into something I could call a good starting point for an article. Granted, by now both the Bangkok Noi Museum article and Wiang subdistrict have been enlarged by him, but they still only contain information collected from secondary sources, and are still on a topic which is not much worth to be covered in the English Wikipedia at all - there are only a few Tambon articles at the Thai Wikipedia, which has lots of edits in other topics. So I went ahead and tried to explain why I think these stubs are not a good idea, why they are at best incomplete and much more often completely wrong, trying to explain the problems with several different administrative units sharing the same name and partially the same area (subdistrict, municipality and TAO, and then the Muban with the Tambon name), but instead of taking them as a well-meant guide to create better article, he apparently understood them as being a lecture, culminating in the above mentioned insults. Now this of course also annoyed me a lot, but instead of loosing my manners as well, I now simply ignore him and his contributions, even it is difficult to know that there is such bad stuff only one click away from the well-kept Amphoe articles. Maybe I should start with giving the Tambon of Surat Thani good articles to prevent them to be covered by such non-articles. It is only reassuring that probably almost nobody will ever see these bad article either, none of the districts made it into the top 500 in the Thai topics access statistics, so they won't hurt Wikipedia's image as a reliable source much either.

1:50000 map index

2012-01-20T13:01:00.000+01:00

L7018 Index around Ko Samui

It was an innocent question by Tom Isaan on whether I know a simple way of how to find the right 1:50000 map sheet when from the geographical coordinates which should be shown. The Royal Thai Survey Department (กรมแผนที่ทหาร) has its 1:50000 topographic maps indexed with a four digit number and a Roman numeral from I to IV, and at first look the index map looks relatively straightforward - every map covers an area of 15 arc minutes in longitude as well as in latitude, and start at either the exact degree line, or 15, 30 or 45 arc minutes offset. And the number and roman numeral follow a logical order as well - the first two digits encode the longitude in half degree steps, the next two the latitude, and the Roman numeral finally the four sheets within the half degree square. If it were just this, it'd be easy, only would have to make sure that the algorithm does not return squares outside the country area and thus not covered by any map in this series.

But starting at around Hua Hin it gets messy. Due to the narrow but tilted Isthmus some of the sheets have a different longitude offset, in order to reduce the number of sheets necessary. And further down one even finds sheets more wide than the 15 arc minutes, and for Ko Samui and Ko Pha Nga the maps cover more than 15" in latitude - see the detail of the index map above. And finally, the map with the Tarutao archipelago has both latitude and longitude at an odd offset.

Since there are only the PDF index files, but no list with the actual coordinates for each sheet, I had to measure in the PDF to get the special sized or located sheets, thus I am not completely sure if I used the correct offsets in all cases. But at least it comes close, the result is seen in the map below.

View Larger Map or download KML

What is left to do? Obviously, I need to compare my coordinates of those sheets with unusual offsets with those actually printed on the maps, and also check whether L7018 and L7017 are completely the same (except that L7018 uses WGS84 instead of Indian75 as the map datum) - from the index map it looks like the Tarutao sheet 4822 II was changed. Other things I could add are the Bangkok 1:20000 maps, and the 1:250000 1501 series. And also interesting would be to see what was done at those parts which seem to be not covered by any of the L7018 maps, for example the area around Tha Song Yang district office - it might be in placed in the Burmese area of 4643 II, but without seeing that map I can only say that it seems there is no 1:50,000 map of that area.

I will publish a new version of my coordinate conversion tool to include the map indices once I could address those open issues.

Three subdistrict municipalities upgraded to towns

2012-01-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, three announcement were published in the Royal Gazette, making the change of municipal status (เปลี่ยนแปลงฐานะเทศบาล) for three municipalities official. In all three cases, a subdistrict municipality (Thesaban Tambon) becomes a town municipality (Thesaban Mueang), and also all three were originally Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAO) upgraded to municipalities not so long ago.

Bueng Yitho (เทศบาลเมืองบึงยี่โถ), Thanyaburi district, Pathum Thani province [Gazette]. Became a TAO in 1995, a subdistrict municipality on August 1 2007 and now effective November 25 a town.
Mae Hia (เทศบาลเมืองแม่เหียะ), Mueang Chiang Mai district, Chiang Mai province [Gazette]. Became a TAO in 1995, a subdistrict municipality on August 21 2007 and now effective December 2 a town.
Sateng Nok (เทศบาลเมืองสะเตงนอก), Mueang Yala district, Yala province [Gazette]. Became a TAO in 1995, a subdistrict municipality on August 23 2007 and now effective December 8 a town.

Interestingly, for none of these three the announcements to upgrade the TAO to subdistrict municipality were published in the Gazette, the only thing published at that time were the definitions of the constituencies for the municipal council elections.

FIPS 10-4 code for Bueng Kan

2012-01-09T08:45:00.001+01:00

The US Standard FIPS 10-4 contains codes for the country subdivisions all over the world, thus also including Thailand. However, in 2008 the standard was withdrawn, so I this was off my radar since then - I only occasionally try find the first two versions of this standard (FIPS 10-1 and FIPS 10-2) to see how a few oddities with the codes could be explained.

Anyway, just today the page on the Thai provinces at statoids was updated, adding one sentence to it.

Update 6 to "Geopolitical Entities and Codes" is dated 2011-11-30. For Thailand, it assigns a FIPS code to Bueng Kan province.

It turns out that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency of the US military - the same agency which was responsible for maintaining the FIPS 10 standard - continues to maintain the codes of this former standard under the name Geopolitical Codes. In fact, without the bureaucracy of the National Institute of Standards, it issues many more updates in a more timely manner. The latest update 6 from November 2011 now adds the code for Bueng Kan, 10 months after it was created.

THAILAND (FNC 369)
Add :
TH81 Bueng Kan

Unlike the previous changes in the FIPS codes, this time the province which was split did not receive a new code - e.g. Udon Thani changed from TH19 to TH76 with the creation of Nong Bua Lamphu. So I would have expected to see Nong Khai receiving the new code TH82 with this change.

The latest newsletter with updates of the ISO 3166-2 list from December 2011 still has no mention of Bueng Kan however, even though they just need to copy the code from TIS 1099. Or to be more exact the working copy by the Ministry of Interior, as there was no update for the Thai standard since 2005.

Update 2010-01-10:
I sent an email to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency if the retaining of the code for Bueng Kan was intentionally or not, and today received the answer that it was in fact intentionally and a change in the policy of handling the splitting of subdivisions.

First Royal Gazette announcement of the year

2012-01-06T00:33:00.000+01:00

Though it was not exactly the first announcement of this year - those were published on January 3rd - yesterday the first announcement was published covering one of those topics I monitor. It was the definition of the constituencies for a municipality.

The municipality Thung Luilai (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งลุยลาย), Khon San district of Chaiyaphum province was just upgraded effective September 30, the corresponding announcement with the upgrade has been published yet however - and judging from the time between the upgrade and the announcement it should not take too long to show.

And to make an advisement for my XML collection of the content of such announcements, here is how this first one now looks withing my coding project. If the boundaries of the two constituencies would be identical with the Muban boundaries, I could even add which Muban belongs to which constituency in that code (a new feature I added for the Buriram PAO) - but at least from the description in the PDF it is not clear which Muban belong to which constituency.

<year value="2012">
  <entry description="Constituencies of Thesaban Thung Luilai, Chaiyaphum"

    title="ประกาศคณะกรรมการการเลือกตั้ง เรื่อง การแบ่งเขตเลือกตั้งสมาชิกสภาเทศบาลในจังหวัดชัยภูมิ [เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งลุยลาย อำเภอคอนสาร]"

    volume="129" page="9-11" issue="1 ก" uri="2555/A/001/9.PDF" publication="2012-01-05"

    sign="2011-12-28" signedby="อภิชาติ สุขัคคานนท์"

    signedbyfunction="ElectionCommissionPresident">
    <constituency type="ThesabanTambon" name="ทุ่งลุยลาย" english="Thung Luilai" tambon="361305" />
  </entry>
</year>

Thursday linkage

2012-01-05T13:01:00.000+01:00

Mark at travelfish takes a quick look at the most common words found in geographical names in Thailand, like the word Chiang found for several northern Thai provinces and districts.

Richard Barrow visited Nakhon Phanom recently and posted a photo of the former residence of the province governor. This historic building now houses a local museum, photos of the interior are found in Richards Facebook gallery. If I'd ever make it to this remote northeastern province, this museum will be on the list of places I have to visit.

Bangkok Library has posted two sets [1,2] of Bangkok district maps taken from documents of the BMA - see for example this map of Taling Chan showing the peculiar shape of Khlong Chakphra subdistrict (แขวงคลองชักพระ), covering just a narrow strip of land along the canal. The maps are however a bit outdated, the latest subdistricts aren't included, e.g. at Don Mueang.

Province governor reshuffle 2011, part II

2012-01-04T13:04:00.000+01:00

In the cabinet meeting on December 27th, the second part of the province governor reshuffle was approved, filling the vacancies left by the first part of the reshuffle.

Kamthon Thawonsathit (นายกำธร ถาวรสถิตย์, governor of Mae Hong Son becomes governor of Amnat Charoen.
Sutthiphong Chuncharoen (นายสุทธิพงษ์ จุลเจริญ), governor of Nakhon Nayok becomes inspector-general in the Ministry.
Siriphong Thantrakun (นายศิริพงษ์ ห่านตระกูล), governor of Prachinburi becomes inspector-general.
Samarot Loifa (นายสามารถ ลอยฟ้า), governor of Tak becomes inspector-general.
Chaiwat Limwanta (นายชัยวัฒน์ ลิมป์วรรณธะ), deputy govenor of Kanchanaburi become governor of Kanchanaburi.
Chana Napsuwan(นายชนะ นพสุวรรณ), deputy governor of Samut Prakan becomes governor of Chaiyaphum.
Thanin Suphasaen (นายธานินทร์ สุภาแสน), deputy governor of Mae Hong Son becomes governor of Chiang Rai.
Nimit Chanwimon (นายนิมิต จันทน์วิมล), deputy governor of Nakhon Pathom becomes governor of Nakhon Pathom.
Anukun Tangkhananukunchai (นายอนุกูล ตังคณานุกูลชัย), deputy governor of Khon Kaen becomes governor of Nakhon Phanom.
Aphinan Suethanuwong (นายอภินันท์ ซื่อธานุวงศ์), deputy governor of Yala to become governor of Narathiwat.
Khanit Iamrahong (นายคณิต เอี่ยมระหงษ์), deputy governor of Uttaradit to become governor of Buriram.
Chirayut Watnarat (นายจิรายุทธ วัจนะรัตน์), deputy governor of Phetchabun to become goveror of Phetchabun.
Kasem Watanaram (นายเกษม วัฒนธรรม), deputy governor of Nan to become governor of Phrae.
Wirawat Chinwarin (นายวีระวัฒน์ ชื่นวาริน), deputy director-general at the Department of Local Administration to become governor of Maha Sarakham.
Prawat Thithakaeo (นายประวัติ ถีถะแก้ว), deputy governor of Yasothon to become governor of Yasothon.
Decharat Simsiri (นายเดชรัฐ สิมศิริ), deputy governor of Narathiwat to become governor of Yala.
Bunchoet Khithen (นายบุญเชิด คิดเห็น), deputy director-general at the Land Department to become governor of Lampang.
Prathip Kintirecha (นายประทีป กีรติเรขา), deputy director-general at the Department of Disaster Prevention to become governor of Sisaket.
Phisan Thongloet (นายพิศาล ทองเลิศ), duputy governor of Songkhla to become governor of Satun
Narumon Panwat (นางนฤมล ปาลวัฒน์), deputy governor of Chiang Mai becomes governor of Mae Hong Son

With the last entry in this list, there's now again one female province governor and 75 male governors...

Buriram PAO constituencies

2012-01-02T13:02:00.000+01:00

End of December, the constituencies for the PAO elections in Buriram were announced in the Royal Gazette - a welcome reminder that a new round of local elections will be held this year. Looking at the website of the Election Commission, I found that this local election is really imminent, as it well be held on January 15 already. For the PAO chairmen, four candidates are contesting including the incumbent Karuna Chitchop (นางกรุณา ชิดชอบ), wife of the de facto Bhum Jai Thai party leader Newin Chidchop [EC website]. Therefore this election will receive quite some media attention, especially as it is also the only PAO election at this time - in 2004 when all PAO held elections on March 14, Buriram started early on December 14 2003 as the term of its council ended shortly before the nation-wide election date. However, if I am not mistaken, then the previous election was on January 20 2008, thus Karuna resigned before her term ended, and therefore now the PAO chairman election will be held one month before the PAO council election. Anyway, this announcement will only be the first in a series of several more, at least Chiang Mai needs new constituencies due to the creation of the new district Galyani Vadhana. And also Nong Khai and Bueng Kan will need a new constituency list - strangely there was none posted yet despite there were by-elections already to fill up both councils after the split of the province. Comparing the constituencies for Buriram in this announcement and the previous one dating from 2003 shows not that many changes.

Mueang Buriram district now has 6 constituencies instead of 5, with the subdistrict Nai Mueang now forming the constituency 1.
Lam Plai Mat district was reduced from four to three constituencies.
In the districts Nong Ki and Prakhon Chai, the constituencies changed their boundaries.

Since both in 2003 and 2011 the constituencies cover only full subdistricts, I was able to write down the constituencies into XML format, and include them into my code project. If possible (and time allows) I'll do the same for the forthcoming further announcements as well.

3 TAO upgraded to municipalities

2011-12-28T13:07:00.000+01:00

Three more TAO were upgraded to subdistrict municipalities and published in the Royal Gazette on December 23rd. All three were signed on September 12, however only two became effective on that day as well.

Bang Phli Noi, Bang Bo district, Samut Prakan province (เทศบาลตำบลบางพลีน้อย), effective September 12. [Gazette]
Bang Samak, Bang Pakong district, Chachoengsao province (เทศบาลตำบลบางสมัคร), effective September 30. [Gazette]
Sao Thong Hin, Bang Yai district, Nonthaburi province (เทศบาลตำบลเสาธงหิน), effective September 12. [Gazette]

Christmas gift for coordinate lovers

2011-12-23T13:03:00.000+01:00

When I last mentioned the MGRS coordinates found in several of the Royal Gazette announcements, there was the question on how to convert them into the more easily accessible latitude and longitude values. I had all the necessary source code within my own application, but in order to use it one needs to be a programmer - or at least have Visual Studio installed and be able to compile it. So not really something which a normal computer user could do.

But as its now the time of year for gifts - and Christmas trees show up in Bangkok as well even though their don't belong into the culture there - I have now split the relevant parts of my source code into a separate application which does nothing else but the coordinate transformation. It is still more of a prototype than a good application, but at least it should be easy to use and should enable everyone who is interesting with a way to see in Google Earth what was meant by the MGRS coordinate.

Since I wanted to add some visual sugar as well, there is a map display which directly shows the location. For a start, I used the Beta version of the official Bing maps control, which is still quite limited but was easy enough for a start. Main limitation is that to use it one needs a key, and I doubt I can supply my key with the application. If you have one, it needs to be added into the file "GeoTool.exe.config", which however is well hidden due to the way WPF applications install in Windows. But even without it, the map will display, but with an ugly banner over it.

To avoid that everyone asks for the same enhancements of this tool, here's my main to do list. If you can think of anything else, feel free to comment, though I won't promise anything...

Easy way to set the maps key, or be able to avoid it altogether
Have an interactive map, so can drag the marker on the map and see the coordinates changing
Have other map providers, Google Maps as the one with best satellite data, OpenStreetMap maybe. Have to find a good control which does the magic.
Some art work, for example an application icon.

So finally, to get that little tool, all you have to do is download the 436 kByte zip file, unpack and install it. There's of course no warranty whatsoever.

And of course a Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates it, and a happy new year.

Kong Khwai TAO upgraded to municipality

2011-12-21T12:18:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, the upgrade of the TAO Kong Khwai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลกองควาย) to a subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลกองควาย) was announced in the Royal Gazette. It is probably effective as of November 30, the date the announcement was signed by the Deputy Minister of Interior Chuchart Hansawat (นายชูชาติ หาญสวัสดิ์). The issue was discussed in one of the last board meeting transcripts I could find, meeting 52/2010. However, in that meeting no date was set for the upgrade

There are however two interesting things around this upgrade. At first, this change was not listed in the document with the municipal changes for the current fiscal year yet when I last downloaded it, as it was only including the changes till October 7 (plus two scheduled ones, one for November 30 and one for December 21). Thus it does not mention Kong Khwai, and I have to hope for an update of the list by DOLA to see if there are more upgrades forthcoming.

The second strange thing is the timing. Almost all the upgrades of TAO and municipalities happen when the term of the council and mayor has ended, to avoid local elections to happen to often. However, in this case the latest election was in February 2009, thus it is now mid-term.

An interesting observation - on the Thai Wikipedia the article on the subdistrict Kong Khwai as well as on the district Mueang Nan was updated by an anonymous editor earlier today. Sadly, on the English Wikipedia I am still alone to keep the pages up to date, and thus many of the municipality status are still not correctly there.

Municipality area changes in Chiang Mai

2011-12-16T13:02:00.000+01:00

Announced today was the change of area of the municipalities Chom Thong (เทศบาลตำบลจอมทอง) and Ban Luang (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านหลวง), both in Chom Thong district of Chiang Mai province. Though it was announced in two separate publication [Chom Thong, Ban Luang], in fact the two belong together as it was a transfer of area from Ban Luang to Chom Thong.

The reason for this transfer of area goes back to the creation of the sanitary district Ban Luang back in 1956 [Gazette], which at that time only covered the more densely populated area around the district office. In 1999 the sanitary district was upgraded to a municipality, in 2000 it was renamed to Chim Thong [Gazette], to have the same name as the district. In 2009 the TAO Ban Luang was upgraded to a municipality as well [Gazette], but since this covered the whole subdistrict area except those parts covered by Chom Thong municipality, this in fact meant that the municipality Ban Luang is split into two parts - the main part west of Chom Thong, and a small appendix east of it till the Ping River, which marks the boundary to Lamphun province. With these two announcements, this oddity is corrected, giving Ban Luang municipality a continuous area, and enlarging Chom Thong municipality to the west. Also a smaller area west of the original Chom Thong at the southern boundary of the subdistrict is added.

Sadly I have not enough time to create a map showing the old and new boundaries, so if you're interested in the details, there are maps are in the above linked announcements. The image above is from the 2009 TAO upgrade announcement, and shows Chom Thong hatched, and the subdistrict boundary by the thicker line.

Subdistrict headmen with a different title

2011-12-10T17:58:00.032+01:00

When I was checking the website of Mae O subdistrict administrative organization (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลแม่อ้อ) in Chiang Rai, I found that unlike most websites of local government units they not only present their current personnel, but also the past chairmen of the TAO were listed on a separate page. Starting with the chairman of the Tambon Council (ประธานสภาตำบล), who was ex officio also the subdistrict headman, two more chairmen elected by the council (ประธานกรรมการบริหารองค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล) and since 2002 the directly elected chairmen (นายกองค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล). Sadly there's no explanation for the more than one year without any office holder from 2004 to 2006. Anyway, such complete lists of office holders are rare to find, and even more rare the past TAO council chairmen or the TAO clerks are lists.

But even more interesting is the history page, which is in fact the history of the subdistrict and not just of the TAO. And here all the previous subdistrict headmen are also listed. The notable part is the title given for the headmen before 1978 (until headmen number 10), which are listed as Pho Khwaen (พ่อแคว่น), literally "father of land/region". I guess it was only the local name for the headman, who still officially had the title "Kamnan", as already back in 1908 the names for the subdivisions and their leader were consolidated. Before that year, in the north the subdistricts were named Khwaen, and the headmen Nai Khwaen (นายแคว้น). As the table was reconstructed and the compiler did not know the years for the headmen before 1974, the title Pho Khwaen might also be simply due to the fact that the compile did not remember when the title Kamnan became official.

HDI Index by province

2011-12-09T13:05:00.001+01:00

While monitoring the "Provinces of Thailand" page on Wikipedia, I noticed that a user has added a "List of Thailand provinces by Human Development Index". I only looked into it in detail because I noticed that all the provinces were linked to the province capital or a disambiguation page, but not the actual article on the province.

Yet first a short explanation on the Human Development Index (HDI) intends to encode how much the society has developed, combining the life expectancy, education and literacy as well as the student enrollment, and the gross domestic product into a single numerical value. The highest value of 0.943 is reached by Norway, the lowest of 0.286 by the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thailand as a country reaches 0.682, a medium development.

As the above listed indicators could also be applied to country subdivisions, it is possible to show the best and least developed parts of country as well. Thus I turned the values in that list into a nice map, using colors from green to red to encode the different values found in the provinces - it is interesting that not just Bangkok and Phuket reach a very high value, but also the province Chiang Mai. And not all of the northeastern provinces have low values, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani all are above country average as well, whereas some of the central provinces like Ayutthaya score quite low.

However, one of the problems of the list can be seen in the map already - there are several provinces without colors, as the list only includes 51 provinces. And while it includes Bueng Kan and Nong Khai before and after the split, it also includes Pattaya which is no province at all. But the biggest problem is that it completely lacks any references, thus I have no idea if the numbers are valid, who and how calculated them.

Subdistrict boundary change in Roi Et

2011-12-07T13:02:00.001+01:00

Another of the announcements published in the Royal Gazette last Friday was yet another subdistrict area definition, this time for two subdistricts in Roi Et [Gazette]. Since I have no time to do the detailed documentation of the change and compare it with the definition from 1997 - like I did it with a similar announcement earlier this year - there is one more interesting item within this announcement.

As usual, the announcement contains the list of Muban names within the subdistricts affected, in this case Dok Mai (ตำบลดอกไม้) and Sa Khu (ตำบลสระคู) of Suwannaphum district. I usual use these lists to add them into my XML directly, and thanks to the new font in the PDFs this works easily by copy-and-paste. However, the Muban list for Sa Khu is unusual, as for the first 5 Muban the names don't start with บ้าน (Ban), like it is in all other announcements of this kind. In fact, the same shows within the Muban list from 1997, and also the Muban list on the website of Sa Khu TAO.

หมู่ที่ ๑ คุ้มกลางเมืองใหม่ (Khum Klang Mueang Mai)
หมู่ที่ ๒ คุ้มหลังศาล (Khum Lang San)
หมู่ที่ ๓ คุ้มวัดเหนือ (Khum Wat Nuea)
หมู่ที่ ๔ คุ้มวัดสว่าง (Khum Wat Lang)
หมู่ที่ ๕ คุ้มใต้ (Khum Tai)
หมู่ที่ ๖ บ้านน้ําคําน้อย (Ban Nam Kham Noi)
... (21 Muban altogether)

These five administrative villages are those located in the town Suwannaphum (เทศบาลตำบลสุวรรณภูมิ), and given the historical origin of this town as an old Mueang, the translation of Khum by Longdo dictionary as "residence of a Lao prince in the north of Thailand" fits well. So the word Khum looks like an alternative word for Ban in this case.

Whereas in past I was unsure whether the word Ban belongs to the name of the Muban or not, this case only adds more confusion - apparently the word Ban is normally part of the name, but not always.

Municipalities and TAOs renamed

2011-12-02T15:01:00.000+01:00

Today, several announcements have been published in the Royal Gazette, changing the names of several municipalities and subdistrict administrative organizations (TAO) - the municipalities are all covered in one single publication, whereas each TAO has a separate one.

The municipality name changes [Gazette] are all effective November 30, with the announcement signed on November 7 by Deputy Interior Minister Chuchart Hansawat (นายชูชาติ หาญสวัสดิ์). The five changes are as follows.

Ra-ngaeng subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตําบลระแงง), Sikhoraphum district, Surin renamed to Sikhoraphum (เทศบาลตําบลศีขรภูมิ) to match with the district name, as it is the municipality around the district office.
Sop Yao subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตําบลสบยาว), Ko Kha district, Lampang province renamed to Ko Kha Mae Yao (เทศบาลตําบลเกาะคาแม่ยาว), since it is located within Ko Kha subdistrict and was the TAO Ko Kha before its upgrade in 2009.
Na Wai Yai subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตําบลนาหว้าใหญ่), Pathum Ratchawongsa district, Amnat Charoen province renamed to Pathum Ratchawongsa (เทศบาลตําบลปทุมราชวงศา), as it is the municipality around the district office.
Ban Len subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตําบลบ้านเลน), Ban Pa-in district, Ayutthaya province renamed to Ban Pa-in (เทศบาลตําบลบางปะอิน), as it is the municipality around the district office.
Nong Kheng subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตําบลหนองเข็ง), Mueang Bueng Kan district, Bueng Kan province renamed to Non Sawang (เทศบาลตําบลโนนสว่าง), following the rename of the subdistrict earlier this year.

Additionally, two subdistrict administrative organizations are renamed.

Mae Tuen (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลแม่ตืน), Li district, Lamphun province, renamed to Chiang Kaeo (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลเวียงแก้ว), maybe as a preparation for the upgrade to a municipality to avoid confusion with the subdistrict municipality Mae Tuen.
Khok Yai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโคกใหญ่), Ban Mo district, Saraburi province, renamed to Khok Yai Horathep (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโคกใหญ่หรเทพ), as the TAO covers the two subdistrict Khok Yai and Horathep.

Bueng Kan PAO office location

2011-11-28T13:03:00.009+01:00

Sign at the Bueng Kan PAO office
Photo by Tom Isaan

Some time ago, I mentioned that I found the address for the office of the provincial administrative organization (PAO) of the new province Bueng Kan, but due to the nature of Thai addresses it is impossible to convert this into coordinates to point it on a map.

Now my reader Tom, who is traveling a lot within the Northeast of Thailand (Isaan), was in Bueng Kan and managed to find the office at plot 198, Mu 8 of Bueng Kan subdistrict.

View Bueng Kan administration in a larger map
In the above map, it is the easternmost marker, located close to the land office of Bueng Kan. As the building is already visible in the satellite imagery from 2003 and looks like the standard style of government offices from above, it would be interesting to know how the building was used before. As you see, I have already added the location to my Bueng Kan administration map, but also to Wikimapia and of course into my XML.

Now in the vicinity of the small town of Bueng Kan, the only office locations I still don't have are the TAO Bueng Kan and probably a bit further away the Wisit subdistrict municipality. But as Tom has already sent me other geotagged photos of administrative offices, I am sure whenever he spots either of these I will get them soon as well. And this is one way how every of my readers can help me - in case you can find the location of a TAO or municipality office just send me, and I will add them to my maps.

Province seal stamps, Series 6

2011-11-25T13:10:00.002+01:00

Nakhon Si Thammarat, from 2nd series

The 6th part of the provincial seal stamp series already went into sale in July, and I nearly missed it completely until I noticed the corresponding announcement in the Royal Gazette earlier this month - quite strange that the announcements on stamps always get published in the Royal Gazette months after the stamps go on sale.

Same as the previous releases (except the first which was a double release), another 10 province seals are covered this time, and by the Thai alphabetical ordering now the province Samut Sakhon, Sa Kaeo, Saraburi, Sing Buri, Sukhothai, Suphan Buri, Surat Thani, Surin, Nong Khai and Nong Bua Lam Phu were due. Thus now 70 provinces have been covered, and only 7 left - Ang Thong, Amnat Charoen, Udon Thani, Uttaradit, Uthai Thani and Ubon Ratchathani, and out of the alphabetical order also Bueng Kan, as that province was created just recently. I wonder what will be placed in the remaining 3 spaces for the block, if I were to choose I would put the emblems of Thonburi and Phra Nakhon province, which ceased to exist with the creation of the special administrative area Bangkok.

I'll have to wait till next summer to pick my copy of this stamp block, and though it is not the most beautiful I'd love to have the first day cover for my favorite province Surat Thani - but that one is probably sold out till then already.

Province halls destroyed in past

2011-11-23T13:11:00.001+01:00

When last year four province halls were destroyed in the aftermath of the forceful ending of the red shirt protests, I thought these acts were unprecedented in Thai history. At that time I only knew that the province hall of Surat Thani was destroyed twice, once during World War II at the Japanese invasion, and once by a bomb planted by communist terrorist in 1982.

Two weeks ago, a short news article by The Nation taught me otherwise. While the main point was about Democrat MP Wittaya Kaewparadai warning the government about the risk of riots if the flood situation isn't brought under control - and the current threats by citizens north of Bangkok to break the flood walls which protect the city and keep only them inundated are not far from riots - the final sentence is the interesting one for the topic of this blog.

After the 1995 floods, people in the South burned down the city hall because they believed the provincial governor was keeping donations to himself, he said, adding that he was concerned about the lack of transparency of the Bt120billion rehabilitation plan.
The Nation, Dissatisfaction with govt performance may lead to riots, opposition warns, November 10, 2010

Sadly, it is not mentioned at which province this riot occurred, or how seriously the province hall was damaged in that riot. I tried to find more with Google, but it seems there's nothing to find about that time in any English website.

If anyone know more details, or know about other cases when a province hall was destroyed in past, I am very curious to hear.

District officer of the year 2011

2011-11-21T13:05:00.014+01:00

The annual award to the best performing district officers has been announced last week. Officially named นายอำเภอแหวนเพชร ประจำปี ๒๕๕๔ (Diamond District Officer of the year 2554), the winner for each of the regions are

North: Nakhon Khongnuan (นายนคร คงนวล), Thung Saliam district, Sukhothai
Central: Wisa Phunsirirat (นายวิสาห์ พูลศิริรัตน์), Hankha district, Chainat
Northeast: Somsak Sukprasoet (นายสมศักดิ์ สุขประเสริฐ), Wanon Niwat district, Sakon Nakhon
South: Dondet Phatnarat (นายดลเดช พัฒนรัฐ), Betong district, Yala

Chumchon office in Phitsanulok

2011-11-18T13:05:00.001+01:00

The photo web site Panoramio, most known due to the fact that the photos from there are automatically displayed within Google Earth, had helped me to find the locations of administrative offices several times already, especially when the building is clearly identifiable from above and the view from the street with the sign help to get the correct coordinates.

Now more by random googleing than actual searching, I stumbled on a photo of the office of a municipal borough (Chumchon, ชุมชน), the administrative unit I know almost nothing about. So now I learned that the office of a borough is named ที่ทำการชุมชน. It turns out that this specific borough, borough number 14 of Phitsanulok city named Chumchon Suea Thim (ชุมชนเสือทิม) is quite present on the web, while the city does not even have a list of their boroughs on the website, this borough has its own website, an active Facebook page, and also some albums on Picasa.

So now this borough is the first one which got a complete entry in my XMLs.

<entity type="Chumchon" geocode="65990014" name="ชุมชนเสือทิม" english="Chumchon Suea Thim">
  <office type="ChumchonOffice">
    <vision>พัฒนาชุมชนให้เจริญและยั่งยืน เพิ่มศักยภาพของคนในชุมชน สร้างชุมชนให้เข้มแข็ง</vision>
    <geo:Point>
      <geo:lat>16.8138</geo:lat>
      <geo:long>100.2810</geo:long>
    </geo:Point>
    <url>http://chumchonsua-tim.com/</url>
    <officials>
      <official title="ChumchonChairman" name="สาวสุนิษา กำไร" inoffice="2011"/>
    </officials>
  </office>

</entity>

Province governor reshuffle list 2011

2011-11-17T13:02:00.003+01:00

In the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, apart from the controversial Royal pardon, the list of the annual province governor reshuffle was approved, moving 32 officials from or to province governor posts. The complete list as found in the cabinet meeting transcript is below. I only cannot find yet at which date the transfers become effective. The romanization of the Thai names was done by me and is probably often not identical with the spelling used by the corresponding officials.

Chonchuen Bunyanusan (นายชนม์ชื่น บุญญานุสาสน์) from a post in the Ministry to become province governor of Ratchaburi.
Wangchat Wongchaichana (นายวันชาติ วงษ์ชัยชนะ), province governor of Ranong to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Phirasak Hinmueangkao (นายพีระศักดิ์ หินเมืองเก่า), Inspector-General in the MOI to become province governor of Ranong.
Surachai Chanasa (นายสุรชัย ขันอาสา), Director-General of the CDD to become province governor of Lamphun.
Praphat Bunyin (นายประภาศ บุญยินดี), province governor of Samut Songkhram to become Director-General of the CDD.
Thanon Wetkonkanon (นายธนน เวชกรกานนท์), province governor of Narathiwat to become province governor of Samut Songkhram.
Choetsak Chusi (นายเชิดศักดิ์ ชูศรี), province governor of Samut Prakan to Inspector-General in the MOI.
Wanida Bunprakhong (นางวรรณิดา บุญประคอง), Inspector-General in the MOI to become province governor of Samut Prakan.
Wichit Chatphosit (นายวิชิต ชาตไพสิฐ), province governor of Chonburi to become province governor of Chanthaburi.
Khomsan Ekchai (นายคมสัน เอกชัย), province governor of Udon Thani to become province governor of Chonburi.
Kaenphet Chuangrang (นายแก่นเพชร ช่วงรังษี), province governor of Amnat Charoen to become province governor of Udon Thani.
Wiyon Thongsakun (นายวิญญู ทองสกุล), province governor of Songkhla to become province governor of Phatthalung.
Kruesada Bunrat (นายกฤษฎา บุญราช), province governor of Yala to become province governor of Songkhla.
Thani Samarotkit (นายธานี สามารถกิจ), province governor of Buriram to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Maitri Inthusut (นายไมตรี อินทุสุต), province governor of Trang to become province governor of Phayao.
Seni Chitotkasem (นายเสนีย์ จิตตเกษม), province governor of Nan to become province governor of Trang.
Phonsak Wangsemo (นายพงษ์ศักดิ์ วังเสมอ), province governor of Phayao to become province governor of Nan.
Winai Buapradit (นายวินัย บัวประดิษฐ์), province governor of Nong Bua Lamphu to become province governor of Phetchaburi.
Raphi Phongbupkit (นายระพี ผ่องบุพกิจ), province governor of Nakhon Ratchasima to become province governor of Nong Bua Lamphu.
Chuan Sirinanphon (นายชวน ศิรินันท์พร), province governor of Phrae to become province governor of Nakhon Ratchasima.
Kitti Sapwisut (นายกิตติ ทรัพย์วิสุทธิ์), province governor of Chachoengsao to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Roengsak Mahawinitchaimontri (นายเริงศักดิ์ มหาวินิจฉัยมนตรี), province governor of Nakhon Phanom to become province governor of Chacheongsao.
Nattaphon Wichianphrit (นายณฐพลษ์ วิเชียรเพริศ), province governor of Kanchanaburi to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Somchai Thathayatin (นายสมชัย หทยะตันติ), province governor of Chiang Rai to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Thira Minsasak (นายธีระ มินทราศักดิ์), province governor of Nakhon Ratchasima to become province governor of Pattani.
Wirong Chiwarangsan (นายวิโรจน์ จิวะรังสรรค์), province governor of Kalasin to become province governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Somsak Suwansutrit (นายสมศักดิ์ สุวรรณสุจริต), province governor of Sisaket to become province governor of Kalasin.
Somphong Arunrongpanya (นายสมพงษ์ อรุณโรจน์ปัญญา), province governor of Bueng Kan to become province governor of Loei.
Phonsak Chianyai (นายพรศักดิ์ เจียรณัย), province governor of Loei to become province governor of Bueng Kan.
Charinot Chakkaphak (นายจรินทร์ จักกะพาก), province governor of Chaiyaphum to become province governor of Sakon Nakhon.
Saroem Chaiyanrong (นายเสริม ไชยณรงค์), province governor of Surin to become Inspector-General in the MOI.
Niran Kanyanikhon (นายนิรันดร์ กัลยาณมิตร), Deputy Director-General in the MOI to become province governor of Surin.

Finally, the term of Somsak Phurisisak (นายสมศักย์ ภูรีศรีศักดิ์), governor of Suphanburi has been extended till September 2012, if I understand right he was originally set to retire this year. Interestingly, he is in office since 2006, really long as most governors get transferred after one or two years already.

The cabinet list also includes the change for the Director-General of the Department of Local Administration (DOLA), now led by Weerayuth Iamampha (นายวีระยุทธ เอี่ยมอำภา).

This list is not the complete reshuffle list yet, as the promotions of deputy province governors to province governors will probably be done in one of the next cabinet meetings.

Municipal boundary changes

2011-11-14T13:07:00.025+01:00

Four municipalities changed their boundaries with a neighboring TAO, with the corresponding announcements published in the Royal Gazette last week.

Nan town (เทศบาลเมืองน่าน) and Pha Sing TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลผาสิงห์), Mueang Nan district, Nan province. Announced in two parts, one dealing with the town and one with the TAO, both signed on September 9.
Rang Krathum subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลรางกระทุ่ม) and Bang Phasi TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบางภาษี), Bang Len district, Nakhon Pathom province. This change was discussed in the board in October 2009 already. [Gazette Municipality, Gazette TAO]
Nam Suai subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลน้ำสวย) and Nam Suai TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลน้ำสวย), Mueang Loei district, Loei province. [Gazette Municipality, Gazette TAO]
Thung Hua Chang subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งหัวช้าง) and Thung Hua Chang TAO (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลทุ่งหัวช้าง), Thung Hua Chang district, Lamphun province. This change was discussed in the board in May 2009 already. [Gazette Municipality, Gazette TAO]

District officer home in Surat Thani

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000+01:00

Even though it is located on the main street through the city of Surat Thani, I only noticed the building in my latest stay there - the official residence of the district officer of Mueang Surat Thani district. I knew that the province governor has an official residence in the city, which from the outside looks quite representative - see the posting on the administrative offices in Surat Thani - but didn't before found a similar place for the lower administrative levels. Well, except for the village headmen, which usually have their normal home as their office as well.

But given the fact that district officers are also shuffled around the country same as province governor, often only staying one year at a given office and ordered to report to new locations on rather short notice, it makes sense that the government provides adequate housing for them. Obviously, the district officer home is far less representative than the province governor villa.