This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Investigations on the distribution, population size, and habitat characteristics of animal populations provide the baselines for sound conservation management. Southeast Asia is considered an important habitat for the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis), but information regarding their population size and habitat characteristics is limited. The present study investigated the distribution and habitat characteristics of humpback dolphins off Donsak, Thailand, and estimated the population size based on photo-identification records. Using the POPAN model, the minimum population size of the humpback dolphins off Donsak was estimated to be 193 (167 to 249; 95% confidence interval), with 36 calves, 58 juveniles, 40 subadults, and 59 adults. The progressively ascending cumulative sighting curve implied that the actual humpback dolphin population size in the investigated area is likely higher than this estimate. Principal components analysis of the environmental characteristics indicated that the adult dolphins tend to occur in deeper and clearer waters relative to the younger age classes. Alterations of the coast environment and coastal anthropogenic activities may be particularly deleterious for younger dolphins. Findings from this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the humpback dolphins in Thailand and provide valuable insight for future conservation management.

No abstract

Dolphin-watching tourism is growing globally. In developing countries, the typically low environmental awareness of operators and poorly enforced or non-existent regulations exacerbate risks to wildlife. Ecological indicators like behavioural responses are useful to assess wildlife tourism, but obtaining such data is slow and expensive. We modified the DriverPressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to rapidly assess the risk of dolphin-watching tourism harming, displacing or causing local extinction to dolphin populations, using human dimension data to complement limited ecological data. We assessed industries at seven dolphin-watching sites in six countries in Asia: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. All sites have reached or almost reached financial saturation except Cambodia and Malaysia. We find high risk to dolphins at the sites in India and Indonesia and intermediate risk at the site in Cambodia. Pending more ecological data, the risk at Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysian sites might be low. Our analysis also indicates site-specific conservation recommendations for Driver, Pressure and Response. We suggest that the DPSIR framework is useful to assess the risk of a wildlife watching industry, even when the impact is uncertain due to insufficient ecological data.

This research presented a system development approach for facility maintenance management system based on GIS and indoor map in the form of web applications that can be used with all devices and no worries about time limitations. The capabilities of GIS, indoor map, and geospatial data visualization help speeding up facility maintenance management process and create benefits to all concerned parties, i.e., users can notify and follow the data of facility errors at the time; or officers in charge can operate quickly because they can access real-time data. Indoor map display makes it easier to access locations or places of damaged facilities. In addition, the data from the model system presented in this research can also be applied to planning and decision-making of executives.