Thailand has been affected by COVID-19, like other countries in the Asian region at an early stage, and the first case was reported as early as mid-January 2020. Thailand’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been guided by the “Integrated Plan for Multilateral Cooperation for Safety and Mitigation of COVID-19”. This paper analyses the health resources in the country and focuses on the response through community-level public health system and legislative measures. The paper draws some lessons on future preparedness, especially with respect to the four priorities of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the end, the paper puts some key learning for future preparedness. While Thailand’s response to COVID-19 has been effective in limiting the spread of the disease, it falls short at being able to address the multiple dimensions of the crisis such as the economic and social impacts. The socioeconomic sectors have been hardest hit, with significant impact on tourism sectors. Sociopolitical system also plays an important role in governance and decision-making for pandemic responses. The analysis suggests that one opportunity for enhancing resilience in Thailand is to strive for more multilevel governance that engages with various stakeholders and to support grassroots and community-level networks. The COVID-19 pandemic recovery is a chance to recover better while leaving no one behind. An inclusive long-term recovery plan for the various impacted countries needs to take a holistic approach to address existing gaps and work towards a sustainable society. Furthering the Health Emergency Disaster Risk Management (HEDRM) Framework may support a coordinated response across various linked sectors rather than straining one particular sector.

This paper presents the ‘Kin Dee You Dee’ (Thai for ‘Eat well, live well’) toolkit, which comprises three sets of serious games aimed at facilitating discussions and transformative learning on resilience to urban low-income communities. The first stage of the toolkit creates awareness of key concepts related to resilience, the second stage allows participants to map individual and community assets and identify risks associated with them, and the final stage encourages participants to reflect upon potential threats and to create a strategic plan in response. The study examines the toolkit’s potential in increasing meaningful community engagement and participation, and enhancing disaster risk awareness through the application of the toolkit in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region and Udon Thani province, which are areas that are highly exposed to climate risks. This paper presents the concepts, development and application of the ‘Kin Dee You Dee’ toolkit, concluding that it is a useful tool that can allow policymakers and other involved stakeholders in city development projects to engage with communities and increase risk awareness.

Historically known for its tin mining industry, Phuket Island has undergone significant transformation into a global tourism hub. This study aims at analyzing the evolutionary dynamics of Phuket Island from the years 1987 to 2024. We integrate Landsat satellite images and sophisticated analytical methods to assess the effects of tourism and economic policies on changes in land use and land cover using Google Earth Engine (GEE) for cloud-based data processing and Random Forest (RF) models for classification, and the Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII) and Shannon Entropy metrics for measuring the intensity of urban expansion and diversity, respectively. The results show that there has been a dynamic change in the patterns of land use which was brought about by the economic and environmental forces. Some of the major events that have had a great effect on Phuket’s landscape include the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the COVID-19 pandemic; this highlights how the island is fragile and can be affected easily by events happening around the world. This work reveals a dramatic reduction in forest and mangrove cover, which calls for increased conservation measures to prevent the loss of biodiversity and to preserve the natural balance.

Public participation in the development of urban resilience can help create cities that are not only more sustainable but also more fair and inclusive. However, incorporating public inputs in the planning process is difficult for urban practitioners. This article explores the researchers’ attempt to develop and utilise a board game as a tool for consolidating urban and social resilience and flood management planning in Bangkok, outlining the challenges and shortcomings that had to be overcome with each revision during the designing process, and the outcomes. The experience suggests that board games, whose development should be an evolving process based on research, could be used as an effective deliberative tool for knowledge exchange, transformative learning and gathering inputs for policymaking.

This research examines how Bangkok’s planning policy supports cultural adequacy in Nang Loeng, an historic community in Bangkok that is trying to utilise its cultural heritage to achieve housing security in the face of planned developments, such as the building of a new urban rail (MRT) station. The research, through the analyses of the Bangkok Comprehensive Plan (B.E. 2019) and the master plan for the conservation and development of Krung Rattanakosin (Update B.E. 2020), site visits, cultural mapping, and in-depth interviews, uses the framework of cultural adequacy to examine how the current plans and policies consider the cultural heritage of the area and highlight opportunities for enhancing cultural adequacy in the neighbourhood. This research has found that improvements can be made in terms of supporting and valorizing the intangible cultural heritage of Nang Loeng; this cultural heritage was not captured in the development of current plans. Suggestions include comprehensive planning that relies on increased collaboration with area residents and cultural institutions, and the creation of a database for documenting the neighborhood’s intangible heritage.

Phuket frequently experiences road flooding due to heavy rainfall and inadequate drainage systems. Preceding studies show that urban rainfall and flooding can disrupt traffic flow. This study aims to quantify the impact of rainfall on the traffic performance of Highway 4024 in Vichit Subdistrict, Phuket, Thailand. This research evaluates how weather conditions influence traffic volume, average speed, and traffic operating conditions, as reflected by the level of service (LOS). Traffic data were manually collected at 15-minute intervals on 17th June 2025 for the rainy day and 24th June 2025 for the dry day. Data collection was carried out during the late afternoon hours. The Passenger Car Unit (PCU) was used to standardize mixed traffic flow, and LOS analysis was applied to evaluate road performance. The results revealed that the average traffic speed decreased from 15.39 km/h under dry conditions to 13.91 km/h under rainy conditions, representing a 9.64% decrease. The average traffic volume was slightly higher during the rainy survey, at 1,572.95 PCU/h compared with 1,356.65 PCU/h under dry conditions, although this difference should be interpreted with caution because the observation windows were not identical. LOS analysis indicated that all observed traffic states fell under LOS F in both weather conditions, showing that Highway 4024 was operating under highly congested conditions and traffic efficiency was further reduced during the rainy survey. These findings suggest that rainfall can impair urban traffic performance and should be considered in transport planning and traffic management for climate-sensitive urban areas.