Household-Parcel Linkages in Nang Rong, Thailand

Abstract

An understanding of the dynamic connections between human behavior and the biophysical environment requires that people and land be spatially linked, conceptually and operationally. This paper describes the design and execution of a plan for spatially linking at a fine grain level: households and land parcels in Nang Rong, Thailand. The overall goal was to relate household dynamics to land use. There were several challenges that had to be surmounted: the large number of links to be determined given the sample size; a residential pattern with clustered dwelling units located away from the land farmed); a complex pattern of ownership and use; and the absence of a clear one-to-one relationship between households and parcels (a household using several plots; several households using the same plot). The paper reviews decisions about the design of the data collection, including the decision to start with households and then link to plots, to focus on use rather than ownership, to rely on a village headman informant to collect GPS data on the location of dwelling units, to collect information from households about each plot used and its proximate neighbors, to collect locational information about the plots used by each household from a group interview, and to manually match the last two. The paper describes in detail the options available at each point in the design process, and the reasons for choosing as we did; the map products that were prepared, their cost, and mode of use; the interviewing that took place; problems that arose; and the quality of the links, as far as we are able to evaluate at this point.