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Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
Pawinee IamtrakulA*, Sararad ChayphongA
Received: January , | Revised: June , | Accepted: June ,
doi: 10.5937/gp25-30436
A Director, Center of Excellence in Urban Mobility Research and Innovation, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat
University, Pathumthani, , Thailand; iamtrakul@gmail.com; s_ararad@hotmail.com
* Corresponding author: Pawinee Iamtrakul; e-mail: iamtrakul@gmail.com
ISSN 0354-8724 (hard copy) | ISSN 1820-7138 (online)
Abstract
The urbanization process is often concentrated mostly in urban areas, resulting into urban development
sprawl. This has effects on the lifestyles and activities of urban people, which in turn significantly affects
the health of the city. The quality of the urban environment plays an important role in public health with
respect to urban issues ranging from quality of utilities and services to quality of life. This study aims to
study the perception of Pathumthani residents toward its environmental quality through spatial cluster
analysis. A total of , sets of data collected from the interview survey among residents or commuters
traveling through Pathumthani province was used for this study. The residents’ response towards environ-
mental factors was examined through the classification of their different opinions among built environ-
ment and health aspects. The statistical analysis which was performed in this study was cluster analysis to
demonstrate its relationship. With the level of satisfaction on environment aspect and health status in in-
dicating number of congenital diseases, the result of this study found that condition of living environment
(through Likert scale) affects the urban health with statistical significance of (P <.). Therefore, provin-
cial health policy should focus more on developing a healthy city in consistence with economic and social
development while putting adequate mechanisms for environmental surveillance monitoring at the com-
munity level. The result of study can confirm the usefulness of this unconventional approach by asking
residents or commuters about their satisfaction on built environment which can represent as an evidence-
based planning approach by linking local people attitudes and translating them into creating liveable and
better urban environmental quality. To have a good understanding of local people preferences, the recom-
mendation to be given to the capacity of communities can be focused for improving people’s quality of
life by providing better accessibility, high quality of infrastructures and services. Finally, a set of features of
satisfied built environment can help to support the continued growth of the city in term of basic need and
sufficiency provision of facility and utility system.
Keywords: built environmental; health; satisfaction; quality of life; urbanization
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents
toward its Environmental Quality,
Suburban Area of Thailand
Introduction
e urbanization process in the developing world
has been occurring in a rapid pace with high growth
concentration mostly in urban areas (World urbani-
zation prospects, 2018). e quality of the urban en-
vironment has become an essential element to be con-
sidered in public health discourse like issues ranging
from solid waste disposal, safe water and sanitation
as well as safety and injury prevention. Health is de-
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 ( June 2021)
fined as a state of complete physical and mental which
represent not just a lack of disease or weakness, but
also includes a social well-being. To reach the high-
est standards of health is an ultimate goal in achiev-
ing and exemplifying one of the fundamental rights
of all human beings irrespective of race, religion, po-
litical beliefs, economy or society (WHO, 1946). For
ailand, the direction of health movement has
changed over time, originally focusing on AIDS pre-
vention and control, development and improvement
of occupational health work, environmental health
work, expansion of quality of public service, consum-
er protection, child health development, agricultur-
al development, and traffic pollution problems solu-
tion (Development Plan No. 1-7: 1961-1996). is led
to a development strategy that focuses on the develop-
ment of the “people” as a whole and effective manage-
ment to restore the economy. It is imperative to note
that health is a well-being that consists of complete
and balanced physical, mental, social and spiritual
well-being a person. e development of public health
is carried out in relation to various economic, social,
cultural, values, behavior and environmental factors.
e health policy is planned to comprehend the prob-
lems more holistically (Development Plan No. 8-9:
1997-2006) and immediately aer the 10 National
Development Plan, balancing and sustainability be-
came the center of emphasis. Balancing the develop-
mental strategy of the country is achieved by linking
all dimensions of integrated and holistic develop-
ment including the “human, social, economic, envi-
ronmental and political dimensions”. Consequently, it
can be seen that the issues to be considered in an ur-
ban health is not just the health factor, but other influ-
encing factors should also be included.
However, in this current age of chronic diseases,
association between population health and the built
environment still remained. It can be seen that phys-
ical spaces can directly expose people to urban pol-
lutants and influence on people lifestyles (Perdue et
al., 2003). e consideration of the built environment
includes all the human-made physical spaces which
corresponds to the spaces for living, recreation and
working. e physical structures like urban compo-
nents were engineered and designed by people which
became the places for our everyday life of working,
living, playing and socialization. Also, urban physi-
cal is affecting to the enhancement of social capital in
either positive or negative perspectives (Iamtrakul et
al., 2018). ese urban elements include our buildings,
furnishings, public open spaces, roads, utilities, and
other infrastructures which affects our health condi-
tion through both direct and indirect pollutions and
externalities (Collaborative on health and the envi-
ronment, 2016). e built environmental factors can
generate both positive and negative impact on the ur-
ban health depending on an appropriateness of the
planning and development. Its positive effect to the
cities can be viewed from composition of green spac-
es, sidewalks and bicycle lanes that promotes physi-
cal exercise and mental health, improved markers of
cardiovascular and metabolic health (Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention, 2011; Office of the Sur-
geon General, 2015). In terms of the negatives, it con-
tains built environment factors associated with more
motor vehicle-pedestrian incidents. ese increasing
exposures consists of harmful contaminants in ur-
ban ambience which can reduce life expectancy and
worsen the ill effects of some respiratory conditions
(Teo et al., 2015; Grant et al., 2009). erefore, the lev-
el of carbon consumption in our environments must
be reduced since carbon has been proven to be im-
pactful on human conditions and behaviors in a va-
riety of ways (Ebmeier, 2012). e built environment
also includes housing component and several housing
factors are associated with mental and physical health
impacts, e.g., air quality, infestation, noise, lighting,
housing tenure and design (Macdonald, and omp-
son, 2003). In the case of ailand, one of the coun-
tries that has experienced significant changes in vari-
ous areas of urban growth showed the main reason for
rapid expansion of the urban areas due to peoples’ mi-
gration to bigger cities. It is projected that in near fu-
ture, more than 73 percent of the ai population will
become urban (Office of knowledge management and
development, 2015). Although the greatest growth
of population has occurred in Bangkok and vicinity
(5 province namely; Nakhon Pathom, Pathumthani,
Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon), the un-
fortunate situation is that it has also created environ-
mental problems such as dispersion of environmental
pollution caused by emissions of pollutants from ve-
hicles, industrial suburbs and houses, as well as pres-
sures in demand for utilities. ese challenges also
include lack adequate of drinking water, waste and
hazardous waste from homes, hospitals and indus-
tries, congested traffic caused by the rapid increase in
number of vehicles etc. (Bureau of technical advisors,
2020).
In terms of social and economic problems, these
are obviously seen in the outskirt are of Bangkok due
to various activities concentrated disproportionately
within this zone. A complex mix of activities around
the industrial spaces, living neighborhoods, and com-
mercial areas has resulted in the diversity of the popu-
lation within the area. Considering the urban sprawl-
ing phenomena, the suburban areas also induce a
large concentration of commercial activities, edu-
cational institutions as well as industrial estates and
the regional market that attracts visitors from neigh-
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents toward its
Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
boring provinces and represented as regional attrac-
tion nodes. A wide range of activities and social di-
versity can reflect the demand on city’s infrastructure
both availability and quality of services which are at
the core of many of the challenges faced by rapidly ur-
banization.
According to the Pathumthani Provincial Health
Office (2020), there are 6 major public health problem
areas in hierarchical order of importance which con-
sist of: 1) non-communicable diseases (NCDs), dis-
ease group include mental health/ drugs/traffic acci-
dents, 2) communicable diseases, spread by insects, 3)
environment related illnesses such as exposure to gen-
eral waste/solid waste/waste water/unhygienic food/
pesticide residues, 4) dependency (i.e., home addic-
tion) bedridden/falls/dementia, 5) mother and child
health and 6) elderly health. erefore, urban devel-
opment should be seen as an essential part of driv-
ing force for an urban growth capable of creating a
wide range of urban utilization activities. Howev-
er, in situation where activity within the city is over-
ly developed, it could lead to problem dimensions that
can be impactful on the health of the citizens of the
city; leading to deteriorating state or the risk with-
in the city. erefore, this study focused on the study
of the relationship of the built environmental and ur-
ban health based on residents’ perspectives in order to
provide guidance in urban health development as re-
gards development issues in the urban environment.
is study is expected to generate a positive influence
and a fundamental human need in order to live with
complete happiness under urban development.
Data and methods
Literature review
When we look at the components of the built environ-
ment, it is expected it involves several material deter-
minants of health including housing, neighborhood
conditions and transport routes because they have an
effect on the social, economic and environmental con-
ditions (Barton et al., 2006). Good health impact is di-
rectly or indirectly dependent on the built environment
in terms of health condition and wellbeing; including
those traditionally associated with infrastructure plan-
ning and environmental health. ese externalities in-
clude air quality (indoor and outdoor), climate, water
quantity and quality, noise, traffic-related injuries, etc.
(Borasi, et al., 2012; Frumkin et al., 2004; Sustainable
development commission, 2008). e quality of space
utilization is obviously depending on living and work-
ing physical condition which includes buildings, streets,
and built environment components. Consequently, the
health of individuals and populations is affected by the
surrounding environment that is planned and man-
aged by urban development. is process is an essen-
tial part that controls and drives urban growth through
which a wide range of urban activities are created. How-
ever, there are series of activities that can cause physical
and environmental degradation in service areas capa-
ble of affecting the society and causing economy dis-
order. It has become obvious that all these impacts on
the urban health ranging from the deteriorating con-
ditions to the risks within the city has caused a shi
in conceptualizations of health and disease prevention.
e paradigm shi is from the treatment of illness in
individuals to disease prevention and health promo-
tion in populations, with more focus on the impact of
the environment on collective well-being (McLeroy et
al., 1988; Stokols, 1996).
e built environment results in the differences be-
tween the objective environment and subjective per-
ception of the environment through residents’ view.
Perceptions of different people may influence the un-
derstanding of these cognitive representations, and
perceptions of the environment which may not cor-
respond to objective reality (Ewing & Handy 2009).
Perceptions of the built environment reflect an indi-
vidual’s interaction with the actual environment, in-
volving an awareness and perception through their
primary receptive senses (Sherrington, 1961). Con-
sequently, respondents’ direct experiences with spe-
cific residential location can be captured and reflect
through their perspective which plays an impor-
tant role in disease dynamics and in determining the
health of individuals, particularly from the built en-
vironment (Pinter-Wollman et al., 2018). e current
understanding of health combines absence of disease
and a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being which emphasize the approach of preven-
tion as important as cure to be explored for long-term
solutions (Tsekleved & Cooper, 2017).
erefore, the definition of health to be consid-
ered in the built environment design should cover a
state of complete physical, mental, and social well-be-
ing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmi-
ty (WHO, 1946). However, there is relationship be-
tween health outcomes and risk factors associated
with the built environment like physical activity, di-
etary intake, blood pressure, obesity, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes mellitus, cardiometabolic syndrome,
and mental health (Nathan et al., 2018; Durand et al.,
2016; Christian et al., 2011; Sundquist et al., 2015). On
a final note, the built environment has been increas-
ingly recognized as being associated with health out-
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 ( June 2021)
comes which has been regarded as part of the problem,
though it differed among diverse groups, ranging in
different socio-economic characteristics. However, all
concerns factor that are based on individual level as-
sociated with built environment must be included as a
part of the solution (Villanueva et al., 2013). Different
residents to perceive the same physical space through
different lens can be evidence supporting the impor-
tance of environmental variables in health and per-
ception in environmental quality which is a key de-
cision-point for planners to understand prior to any
design, planning and policy intervention.
Study area and data collection
Data for this study was collected from a data sample
using the method for calculation of population size
of Taro Yamane’s calculation formula (Taro, 1967). It
was considered with the acceptable size error of 95%
from the population of 1.129 million people (2017).
For a wider coverage and a larger data sample size, a
total of 1,000 data sets were collected from people liv-
ing within the area or traveling through Pathumthani
Province which is the representative of suburban area
of ailand (Figure 1).
e study area consists of 7 districts which are; 1)
Nong Suea District, 2) anyaburi District, 3) Lam
Luk Ka District, 4) Khlong Luang District, 5) Lat Lum
Kaeo District, 6) Sam Khok District, and 7) Mueang
Pathumthani District. e number of questionnaires
which were distributed in the study area were deter-
mined from the population size of each district to
demonstrate the appropriate representation of the
population in each area. All districts were achieved
through the number of distributions of question-
naires to cover the number of samples in spatial are-
as of all grids.
Procedure and analysis
is study focused on the relationship of built envi-
ronment and urban health by perform the evaluation
through cluster analysis as depicted in Figure 2. A to-
tal set of 1,000 data from residents living within the
area or traveling through Pathumthani province was
input into the step of analysis which consisted of 2
group of variables as follows:
1. Built environment factors: comprises of water, air
quality, dust pollution, noise, industrial area, hous-
ing, infrastructure, transportation. ese factors
were assessed by using Likert scale to demonstrate
level of problem about built environment factor.
e level of assessment can be classified by Likert
scale ranging from 1 [the lowest satisfaction of en-
vironment aspect] to 5 [the highest satisfaction of
environment aspect] in all attributes of built envi-
ronment factors.
2. Health status factors: comprises of congenital dis-
ease and it was explained by variable of health sta-
tus in indicating number of chronic diseases. e
data of congenital disease were collected from ques-
tionnaires by asking whether there is an underlying
disease or not. e level of health was classified in
5 level which 1 score represents the lowest level of
Figure 1. Study area: Pathumthani province
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents toward its
Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
health status (respondents with more than 4 diseas-
es) and 5 score demonstrates good health condition
(respondent without any congenital disease).
A cluster analysis was performed to classify differ-
ent built environment factors in the study area and
its relationship with health condition of residents. To
evaluate all aspect of the built environment factors
that affects the health status of samples from residents
in the study area, the level of significance for the anal-
yses was set at p < .05. us, the imported variables to
be input in the clustering analysis consist of the set of
data from built environment factors and health status
factors which was explained in the previous details.
Results
is study was conducted to determine the relation-
ship between the factors affecting the development of
healthy cities. e result of analysis was considered
through a spatial visualization by using geograph-
ic information system (GIS) to classify different ‘the
built environment’ factors in the study area. e re-
lationship of built environment that affects the health
condition by using a cluster analysis. e details of the
study results are as follows:
Built environment
e factors that are considered for environmental quali-
ty assessment by residents’ perspective in built environ-
ments includes water, air quality, dust pollution, noise,
industrial area, housing, infrastructure and transpor-
tation. ese factors were assessed by using Likert scale
range from 1 to 5 score in all built environment factors.
e result of analysis by using average statistics were
visually demonstrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4.
Most problems in the built environment were found
in infrastructures (x=2.63), dust pollution (x=2.67),
housing (x=2.68), air quality (x=2.73), transporta-
tion (x=2.84), noise pollution(x=2.85), water quality
(x=2.97) and industrial area (x=3.06), respectively. In
overall, it was discovered that the direction of opin-
ions and attitudes of the respondents reflect the cur-
rent situation of urban development and health char-
acteristics. By considering air quality and noise level,
it was found that the main sources are from an indus-
trial area which has been influenced by rapid growing
of capital city, Bangkok. e installation of air quali-
ty monitoring station around the study area provides
an information of pollution source which are mainly
from factories and traffic congestions. Moreover, re-
cent development trend of suburban area has induced
urban activities through urbanization, industrializa-
tion, which also increase in dust pollution problems.
Additionally, it was found that majority of citizens
lived in residential areas with air pollution exceeds
the safe level reported by the Pollution Control De-
partment. A non-negligible driver of rapid growth of
suburbanization resulting in huge demand of water
supply due to economic expansion and more cover-
age of transport network. Moreover, housing projects
and industrial employment area has been constantly
evolving which created impact on increasingly seri-
ous water environment problems of approximately 60
percent of the agricultural area of the province.
Noise
Water
Dust pollution
Air quality
Industry
Housing
Infrastructure
Transportation
Built environment factors
Congential disease
Health status factors
Physical cluster
Impact/Response
Figure 2. Framework of study
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
Figure 3. Summary of average score of overall built environment classified by grids
Figure 4. Average score of different built environment factor (continued on next page)
A. Water pollution
C. Infrastructures D. Housing
B. Transportation
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents toward its
Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
In terms of residents’ perspective on physical as-
pects, the variables relating to the living conditions of
the neighbourhoods and the community would be se-
lected to represent the satisfaction of the neighbour-
hood environment. e more liveable condition will
present the tend to be satisfied with the current en-
vironment. However, in terms of the environment,
the reflection of respondents showed a negative di-
rection with lower scores, especially, on issues of dust
and air pollution that is being faced by other areas
aside Pathumthani province. is problem is already
at the macro level and it is facing everyone which ne-
cessitates collective search for solution to ameliorate
the situations. However, in terms of policy, it can be
seen that there is no effective measurement in place
to tackle this current problem. e score value for this
factor could obviously be seen to be the lowest when
compared to other factors.
Health outcomes
Considering, health status that the number of congen-
ital disease data were collected from questionnaires,
asked whether there is an underlying disease or not.
It was found that the most common diseases found
in the study area were hypertension, allergy, diabetes,
heart disease, dyslipidemia, pneumonia, obesity, can-
cer, and neuropathy. erefore, environmental quality
assessment based on the interviewers provide the di-
rection with self-reported indicators both health con-
dition and perceived neighborhood quality. Health
outcomes was considered in term of the diseases. e
analysis was performed by using explanatory variable
of health status representing on the basis of number of
chronic diseases (Figure 5).
The classifications of relationship between built
environment and health effects
e impact of cities on health is both direct and indi-
rect, and most of urban health problems are caused
by interrelated factors. In the dimension of urban de-
velopment, the influencing factors should cover mul-
tidimension of urban aspects. However, it must con-
sider all urban element in term of the physical, social
and economic environment of urban areas which
comprise of the way of living and behaviour of peo-
ple. Analysis of the composition of perception on built
environment factors produced from data collection
based on in depth interview and factor scores provide
a quantification tool to summarize health informa-
tion based on an influencing from a number of var-
iables in a manageable and meaningful form of asso-
ciation of urban components. On classifying different
built environment factors in our case study, the result
of clustering on the relationship of built environment
Figure 4. Average score of different built environment factor (continued from the previous page)
E. Dust pollution
G. Air quality H. Industrial area
F. Noise pollution
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
that affects the residents’ health condition are shown
in Table 1 and Table 2. e cumulative percentage
(cumulative %) presents that the factors obtained af-
ter the analysis among all 3 group of factors were able
to explain the total variability of the variables 65.122
percent. e spatial visualization of different clusters
in the study area can be demonstrated in Figure 6.
Group 1: e main concern of residents in this
group are in relation with environment pollution
which comprises of water quality, noise pollution, air
quality and dust pollution. e level of the health con-
dition of most of the residents demonstrates the good
level which can be the best characterized their satis-
faction on households’ local environment. is is due
to the value of moderate to high level of the environ-
mental quality score which reflected by their attitude.
Furthermore, it was found that most of the residents
demonstrate their moderate satisfaction on neigh-
bourhood environment which might be positive-
ly influenced by the liveability of physical features of
transportation, housing, industrial areas, and infra-
structure systems.
Group 2: e characteristic of this group is char-
acterized as a moderate level of satisfaction on their
environmental quality based on the attitude of the
people who live in the area. In terms of the satisfac-
tion of the urban infrastructure (transportation, util-
ity and facility) and urban environment (water qual-
ity, noise pollution, air quality and dust pollution),
most of household and community focus heavily on
Figure 5. Clustering of Health outcomes
Table 1. Eigenvalues from successive extractions of principal components from built
environment factors
Factors Clusters
1 2 3
Dust pollution 0.806 - 0.104 -0.211
Air Quality 0.760 -0.148 -0.369
Noise 0.717 0.261 0.345
Water Quality 0.667 0.010 -0.168
Housing -0.060 0.813 -0.045
Infrastructures -0.098 0.781 -0.048
Transportation 0.094 -0.447 0.673
Industrial Areas 0.443 0.381 0.551
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents toward its
Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
community-level aspects of infrastructure, particu-
larly on improvement in local accessibility and ac-
cess to local services. Although, inadequate informa-
tion to capture the variation in environmental quality
that is present across settlement type in the study area,
this cluster presents the high satisfaction score on in-
dustrial area which might be due to the residential al-
location of this cluster is located within the develop-
ment of a green environmental protection industry. In
terms of health in consideration to congenital disease
dimension, the health means was at a moderate lev-
el. As for the health condition, it is found that average
score of the satisfaction on their own physical health
of this group are at the high level.
Group 3: is group is classified by the satisfaction
level of transportation and industrial areas factor. e
influence of man-made structures on environmen-
tal preference also leads to the environmental prob-
lem which related to congestion problem with propor-
tion and scale of imbalance space utilization together
with degradation of urban environment quality. Al-
though, the perception on quality of urban environ-
mental, particularly around industrial area presents
the moderate level, the scoring shows clear pattern of
Table 2. Classification of different the built environmental factors and health impacts
Factors Clusters
1 2 3 P-value
Transportation 2.95 Medium 2.73 Medium 2. 74 Medium 0.000*
Water quality 3.28 Medium 2.57 Medium 2.72 Medium 0.000*
Noise pollution 3.33 Medium 2.81 Medium 2.16 Medium 0.000*
Housing 2.76 Medium 2.02 Medium 2.89 Medium 0.000*
Industrial areas 3.28 Medium 3.41 High 2.54 Medium 0.000*
Infrastructures 2.73 Medium 1.94 Medium 2.83 Medium 0.000*
Air Quality 3.16 Medium 1.80 Medium 2.58 Medium 0.000*
Dust pollution 3.27 Medium 1.73 Medium 2.27 Medium 0.000*
Health condition 3.71 High 3.65 High 3.63 High 0.063
*Note: statistics significance at 0.050 with 1,000 data sets. The highlight on different built environment aspects
represents the explanator y factor of the specific cluster.
Remark: Built environment and health aspect are classified into 3 ranges which consist of: High level (3.34-5.00
score), Medium level (1.67-3.33 score) and Low level (0.00-1.66 score).
Figure 6. Clustering of different built environmental factors in the study area
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
environmental impact (water quality, noise and dust
pollution) around their neighbourhoods that result-
ed to low quality living conditions. On another hand,
there may be a diverse range of housing choice that is
affordable around this cluster’s community with well-
linked to public transport, walking and cycling infra-
structure (moderate level of satisfaction). For health
factor, average health score is found to be good, how-
ever the overall perspective of environmental quality
still not led them to high quality of life.
Discussion
It is interesting to derive residents’ opinion of their
satisfaction on built environment nearby neighbour-
hoods (noise pollution, water pollution, dust pollution,
air quality, industrial area, housing, infrastructures
and transportation) together with their health condi-
tion (number of congenital diseases). e satisfaction
assessment based on Likert scale was input for cluster-
ing their spatial classification. e three group of built
environments that affects the residents’ health condi-
tion can be categorized into three major domains as
described in the following detail (Table 2).
Group 1: Perception of Pathumthani residents
toward urban environment
e first group of residents demonstrated their high
level of preferences in all built environment factors
and their health status compared to others. Howev-
er, the water quality (3.28), noise pollution (3.33), air
quality (3.16) and dust pollution (3.27) are the key
concerned for this group and represented as major en-
vironmental stressors in urban areas. e preferenc-
es among local people are always overlooked in the
local plan to reflect the status quo of urban environ-
ment condition. Furthermore, it was found that most
of the environmental problems in Pathumthani prov-
ince are due to the impacts of rapid development with
the sprawling of suburban. is is consistent with the
study of Frank and Engelke (2005) stated that urban
density is the main feature of built environment and
relates to the level of air quality. Additionally, with
the rapidly expanding across several communities
with hundreds of housing projects in Pathumthani
province as well as industries are the major source of
wastewater. Some of the water pollution arising from
those sources has been treated to the effluent quali-
ty standards, while some have not been treated be-
fore draining into the sewer system. In addition, air
quality and noise problems in Pathumthani province
have been discovered to be as a result of the presence
of industrial city and continuous expansion of Bang-
kok; resulting into a large number of establishments.
is also leads to the problem of noise pollution in
Pathumthani province which can be classified into 2
categories according to the source of the pollution; in-
dustrial areas and traffic congestion. e current ur-
ban planning and management is necessary to cope
with the environmental degradation, particularly on
carbon footprint from urban development by prior-
itising climate-friendly measurement.
Group 2: Perception of Pathumthani residents
toward urban facilities and services
e opinion of the second group shows their concerns
related to social aspects of city life, in particular to lev-
el of satisfaction, experiences, and perception of their
everyday environment on living (2.02) and utilizing
urban infrastructures (1.94). e reflection of resi-
dents (as main users) in term of quality of living and
community well-being can provide an valuable in-
formation to address these complex urban challenges,
and particularly for improving plan for ‘area-based’
interventions. It was found that housing quality is
one of the main factors associated with everyday life
at individual level. erefore, improvements in hous-
ing quality is highly recommended since it is associ-
ated with positive general health, mental health, asth-
ma, and mortality outcomes (Frank & Engelke, 2005).
It is a fact that housing factors are related with men-
tal and physical health impacts, e.g., air quality, in-
festation, noise, lighting, housing tenure and design
(Macdonald & ompson, 2003). is assertion is in
consistent with the study results from Gibsona et al.
(2011) and Sandel et al. (2018), which was found strong
evidence on characterizing housing’s relationship to
health. e characteristics of the living environment
that has different conditions according to the socio-
economic context (Iamtrakul & Chayphong, 2021).
us, the enhancement on housing stability, quality,
safety, and affordability will definitely address their
effects on health outcomes (physical and social char-
acteristics of neighborhoods).
Group 3: Perception of Pathumthani residents
toward urban accessibility and attractions
It is important to note that the transportation prob-
lems (2.74) and industrial areas (2.54) influence on
this group of residents’ preferences. e perception of
residents concerning their health and well-being due
to node of intensive industrial activities and its den-
sity relates to the level of traffic. e suburban devel-
opment of Pathumthani showed significant associ-
ations and the urban atmosphere around industrial
The Perception of Pathumthani Residents toward its
Environmental Quality, Suburban Area of Thailand
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
that has tendency to exacerbate exposure to harmful
emission, especially heavy vehicles mixed and traffic
congestion. Concentration of industrial activities, no-
tably those of large-scale petrochemical, power gen-
eration and heavy industrialization creates environ-
mental pressures. Combined with all of the economic
activities within that area has potential adverse effects
on the health of local communities through their oc-
cupational and residential roles (World Health Or-
ganization, 2004). is is due to the possibility of di-
rect exposure to PM2.5 and NOX from industries
and these are associated with decrease lung function
(Bergstra, 2018). e environmental problem and oth-
er situations in the province were related to several
sites of industrial activities with low efficient network
of transportations. us, the integrated of friend-
ly transportation system such as rail-based transport
must be recommended to be consistent with alloca-
tion of urban attractions while increasing the accessi-
bility and connectedness of non-motorization modes.
Conclusion
e aim of this study is to identify the relationship be-
tween built environment and urban health through
perspective of residents. Data collection was sam-
pling from Pathumthani province to understand peo-
ple’s preferences for built environment characteristic.
e number of questionnaires was input into each
grid in order to cover the sample in spatial area. We
then analyzed the association on the basis of satisfac-
tion of built environment factors (transportation, wa-
ter quality, noise pollution, housing, industrial are-
as, infrastructures, air quality, dust pollution) which
is consistent with health condition of residents in the
study area. By applying the cluster analysis, the re-
sults of the classification were made into 3 clusters.
On considering the perception of Pathumthani resi-
dents toward its environmental quality through spa-
tial cluster analysis, it was found that the factors re-
lating to or affecting the health issues emanated from
the condition of the built environment. ere are sev-
eral dimensions of environmental factors that are re-
lated to health issues reflected from preferences of
residents. is study classified three group of per-
ception of Pathumthani residents which comprises
of urban environment, urban facilities and services
and urban accessibility & attractions. e results of
assessment can represent as a promising tool to in-
tegrate local perception by asking their response to-
wards different built environment aspects which is
essential step of participatory planning approach.
e evidence based on level of perception among res-
idents in the target area could demonstrate how peo-
ple perceive the quality of local government plan and
services through their planning and management. It
can be seen that built environment plays a key role
in support of systematic environmental management,
eco-industrial cities development and promotion,
and development of friendly transportation network
and logistics system. us, the quantification of indi-
vidual level contextual differences based on percep-
tion of residents concerning health and well-being
can provide useful information for improving built
environments and measurement to improve commu-
nity health behaviors as well. is is due to signifi-
cant findings of association between health-related
quality of life and urban context. Finally, consider-
ation should be given to the people and communi-
ties for the capacity to access high quality of service
and infrastructure to support the continuous growth
of their city in term of basic infrastructure, sufficient
utility system, and effectively provision.
Acknowledgement
e research was supported by a grant from Faculty of Architecture and Planning, ammasat University under
the project entitled “A Study on Influencing Factors of Healthy Neighborhood Development in Suburban Context
of Pathumthani Province”. is research unit is supported by the Faculty of Architecture and Planning Research
Fund, ammasat university. It is also supported partially by the Center of excellence in urban mobility research
and innovation, ammasat university.
Pawinee Iamtrakul,
Sararad Chayphong
Geographica Pannonica • Volume 25, Issue 2, 136–148 (June 2021)
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