BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Thailand plays a central economic and policy-making role in Southeast Asia. Although climate change adaptation is being mainstreamed in Thailand, a well-organized overview of the impacts of climate change and potential adaptation measures has been unavailable to date. Here we present a comprehensive review of climate-change impact studies that focused on the Thai water sector, based on a literature review of six sub-sectors: riverine hydrology, sediment erosion, coastal erosion, forest hydrology, agricultural hydrology, and urban hydrology. Our review examined the long-term availability of observational data, historical changes, projected changes in key variables, and the availability of economic assessments and their implications for adaptation actions. Although some basic hydrometeorological variables have been well monitored, specific historical changes due to climate change have seldom been detected. Furthermore, although numerous future projections have been proposed, the likely changes due to climate change remain unclear due to a general lack of systematic multi-model and multi-scenario assessments and limited spatiotemporal coverage of the study area. Several gaps in the research were identified, and ten research recommendations are presented. While the information contained herein contributes to state-of-the-art knowledge on the impact of climate change on the water sector in Thailand, it will also benefit other countries on the Indochina Peninsula with a similar climate.

Sea level rise due to climate change affects beaches, which are a source of high recreational value in the economy. The tourism carrying capacity (TCC) assessment is one of the tools to determine the management capacity of a beach. Pattaya beach represents the character of well-known beaches in Thailand, while Chalatat beach represents the character of beaches that are the focus of domestic tourism. To evaluate beach area this study detected the shoreline position using Google Earth images with tidal correction. The Bruun rule was used for shoreline projection. TCC was calculated by using the beach area, correction factors, and management capacity. The results find that the current effective carrying capacity is approximately 200,000 for Pattaya beach and 49,000 for Chalatat beach. Although the Chalatat beach areas are larger than Pattaya, the effective carrying capacity of Pattaya beach is larger than the effective carrying capacity of Chalatat beach for all situations because TCC is affected by beach areas, correction factors, and management capacity. Because beach areas experience the effects of sea-level rise, protection against future beach loss should be considered for coastal management.

No abstract

In the 21st century, global sea level rise associated with climate change will affect beach areas, which provide a number of benefits that include benefits to the recreational sector of the economy. In Thailand, the adoption of structural measures in order to slow down beach erosion and handle the impact of sea level rise is commonly implemented. However, structural measures often bring about negative effects on nearby coastal areas. For this reason, suitable adaptation measures should be determined, in order to protect beach areas and to sustain the tourism carrying capacity of the beach. This study analyzed historical shoreline changes using satellite images, and assessed beach value with the hedonic pricing method. We used a benefit–cost ratio analysis to evaluate the economic valuation assessment of Pattaya beach and Chalatat beach. The results showed that the beach values of Pattaya beach and Chalatat beach were 1,072,250 and 92,092 USD, respectively. The benefit–cost ratio analysis proposed that it is worth implementing beach nourishment for the adaptation measure to address all climate change scenarios. In response to climate change, recommendations could be applied to support beach tourism.