Measuring Up: Sustainable Indexes and Urban Development

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, Chiang Mai has experienced rapid growth and development. Now the second largest city in Thailand, the city faces many urban development problems with few signs of positive solutions. Spending the last five weeks with the Chiang Mai Urban Studies Center, I learned about a wide variety of these problems, how they originated, and the negative direction of their future. Seeing economic growth as a main contributor to this problem, this paper investigates the benefits of sustainable indexes to redirect the focus of Chiang Mai' s development. Through discussing the development of high rises and the structure of Thai local politics, this paper illustrates the purpose of a sustainable index and how it could further well being and prosperity in Chiang Mai city.