64
4.1 Introduction
Asian developing countries have recently been facing serious urban environmental
problems. This is the case especially with large cities undergoing rapid development.
Thailand is not an exception and consequently, urban environmental management is
a highly important issue. The Thailand Unit is established to foster students’ environmental leadership by examining sustainable urban environmental management. The
unit dealt with three important issues of urban environmental management: (1) solid
waste management (SWM), (2) urban water use and management, and (3) urban
fl ood management in 2009, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
1 Today, disaster-related
issues are also becoming increasingly important for sustainability and environmental leadership projects. In fact, the unit held in 2012 focused on the fl ooding in
Bangkok in 2011, which was introduced in the earlier Sect. 2.3.3 .
This chapter explores future challenges to improve the design and implementation
of the Thailand Unit by examining two cases of the unit conducted in 2009 and 2011
in collaboration with Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Kasetsart University
(KU). The remainder of this chapter is organized to show how the two cases of the
unit were developed, how the programs were implemented year by year, and how
the educational effects were examined, as well as review of environmental leadership
development in students.
4.2 Development of the Thailand Unit
In this section, background of the unit themes and characteristics of the unit design
are described. We compared two different cases of the unit focusing on the core
concepts, program content development and educational methods.
4.2.1 Themes of the Unit
The purpose of the unit was to develop in students, as future environmental leaders,
a diverse, balanced and integrated understanding of environmental issues. The unit
was designed to provide students with holistic and multifaceted information on the
unit theme through a comprehensive series of lectures, fi eldwork to experience
real- world local environmental problems and intensive group discussion which
encourages students to share different views, practice consensus building and
improve their communication skills. By doing so, the unit tried to enable students to
broaden their perspectives and develop on-the-ground competency to identify and
resolve environmental problems.
1 In 2010, implementation of the fi eld exercise unit was cancelled and postponed until 2011 due to
concern over political unrest in Thailand.
T. Hoshiko and T. Akiyama
4.1 Introduction
Asian developing countries have recently been facing serious urban environmental
problems. This is the case especially with large cities undergoing rapid development.
Thailand is not an exception and consequently, urban environmental management is
a highly important issue. The Thailand Unit is established to foster students’ environmental leadership by examining sustainable urban environmental management. The
unit dealt with three important issues of urban environmental management: (1) solid
waste management (SWM), (2) urban water use and management, and (3) urban
fl ood management in 2009, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
1 Today, disaster-related
issues are also becoming increasingly important for sustainability and environmental leadership projects. In fact, the unit held in 2012 focused on the fl ooding in
Bangkok in 2011, which was introduced in the earlier Sect. 2.3.3 .
This chapter explores future challenges to improve the design and implementation
of the Thailand Unit by examining two cases of the unit conducted in 2009 and 2011
in collaboration with Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Kasetsart University
(KU). The remainder of this chapter is organized to show how the two cases of the
unit were developed, how the programs were implemented year by year, and how
the educational effects were examined, as well as review of environmental leadership
development in students.
4.2 Development of the Thailand Unit
In this section, background of the unit themes and characteristics of the unit design
are described. We compared two different cases of the unit focusing on the core
concepts, program content development and educational methods.
4.2.1 Themes of the Unit
The purpose of the unit was to develop in students, as future environmental leaders,
a diverse, balanced and integrated understanding of environmental issues. The unit
was designed to provide students with holistic and multifaceted information on the
unit theme through a comprehensive series of lectures, fi eldwork to experience
real- world local environmental problems and intensive group discussion which
encourages students to share different views, practice consensus building and
improve their communication skills. By doing so, the unit tried to enable students to
broaden their perspectives and develop on-the-ground competency to identify and
resolve environmental problems.
1 In 2010, implementation of the fi eld exercise unit was cancelled and postponed until 2011 due to
concern over political unrest in Thailand.
T. Hoshiko and T. Akiyama