Urban Forest Assessment in Bangkok, Thailand
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Date
2013-11Author
Intasen, Montri
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Urban forest assessments have been implemented in many cities worldwide to evaluate
the urban forest structure and function. This study is the first step to institutionalize urban forest
assessments in Thailand. Thus, the objective of this study was to conduct a pilot urban forest
ecosystem assessment for Thailand, determine the urban forest value, and pilot study the
appropriateness of adapting i-Tree Eco in Thailand. A stratified random sampling method was
used to collect the field information. All data from 184 sampling plots were analyzed using i-
Tree Eco for the urban forest structure, function, and value. The urban forest assessment in
Bangkok showed a diverse mixture of 48 tree species. The three most common tree species
which contributed 34.1% of total tree population were Polyalthia longifolia Sonn (15.7%),
Mangifera indica L. (13.0%), and Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth (5.4%). The majority of
trees (approximately 70%) were < 23 cm in diameter. Nearly equally numbers of trees were in
the ≤ 7.6 cm (24.4%), 7.7-15.2 cm (23.9%) and 15.3-22.9 cm (21.5%) diameter classes. An
estimated 2,504,000 trees (S.E. = 408,646) exist in the Bangkok study area and these trees
provide an 8.6% canopy cover. These trees store an approximate total of about 310,000 metric
tons of carbon ($7,000,000 USD), which represent the equivalent of decreasing the CO2 in the
atmosphere by about 16,000 metric tons/year ($370,000 USD). The estimated annual ecosystem
service benefits for air pollution removal of PM10, NO2, O3, CO, and SO2 were about $200,000
USD (6.17 million THB). The total pollution removal was estimated at 738 metric tons/year. The
greatest effect of pollutant removal in the Bangkok urban forest study area was with particulate
matter (PM10) and 418 metric tons removed annually that was approximately half of the
calculated value.