The last week of the Foundations course the students at ISDSI fan out over the city and study four sustainability indicators — walkability, traffic, the use/health of the Ping river, and the food systems of Chiang Mai (looking at organic food, the size of the foodshed, etc.). The students split into four groups, and each group spends Monday planning, Tuesday and Wednesday gathering data, Thursday doing data analysis, and then Friday on a presentation.
Nikki and Jack talking about "som" (tangerines) in both supermarkets and fresh (wet) markets.
It is always fun to see what creative ways students work out to learn about sustainability in the city. This semester the rivers group borrowed a couple of ISDSI’s sit-on-top kayaks and paddled down the Ping river, the food systems group decided to focus on oranges/tangerines as a proxy for broader food system dynamics, the traffic group looked a cars and “public” or at least “mass” transportation, and the walking group tried to figure out how difficult it was to walk in different places in the city.
Molly and Taylor discussing the challenges of walking in the city center.
The papers are here as pdf files:
- Walkability index for Chiang Mai city
- Traffic and mass transportation as a measure of sustainability for Chiang Mai
- Food systems, organics and the foodshed for tangerines (som) in Chiang Mai
- The Ping river and its connection to sustainability and the life of Chiang Mai
Krissy and her group did a great job working out the challenges of walking, and how even the idea of walking around the city is culturally mediated.
On Friday we were joined by Khun Pim Kemasingki, the editor of Chiang Mai CityLife magazine, a well known English language magazine published in Chiang Mai for almost 20 years. Khun Pim was great — having grown up in Chiang Mai she was able to add a lot of historical background, and with her position as editor, she understands the challenges of sustainability for Chiang Mai city. It was great for the students as well to get another perspective on the city, and the role of culture, language and politics in sustainability. (Also check out CityLife’s page on going carbon neutral.)
Ajaan Christina, Ajaan Mark and Khun Pim were the discussants for the presentations.
The students learned a lot about the city that is there home for this semester, got out into places tourists don’t often go, and were able to pull together research involving both social science and ecology. Well done all!
Matt explains the traffic and how it all fits together.
