Tag: Thailand

Joint Projects of the EANET with Participating Countries – Catchment Analysis in Thailand

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

10 June 2021 – Niigata, Japan

Scientists from the EANET Participating Countries and the Network Center (located in Niigata, Japan) have been promoting joint research projects related to the EANET. Consequently, the Network Center, in cooperation with the Thai Royal Forest Department, and the Environmental Research and Training Centre (ERTC), Thailand, conducted a joint research project on catchment analysis in Thailand to understand atmospheric deposition and its effects from 2005 to 2015.

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Understanding Atmospheric Acid Deposition

Air pollution consists of significant amounts of aerosols (particulate matter) and trace gases (NOx, SOx, CO, and others). These air pollutants deposit on the earth’s surface through dry depositions and wet depositions (when dissolved in water droplets in clouds).

Wet and dry depositions of air pollutants cause detrimental impacts on the ecosystems and environment, including the acidification of the water bodies, such as rivers and lakes.

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Analyzing Acid Deposition and its Effects in Northeastern Thailand for Nearly 10 Years

The joint research project aimed to study the atmospheric wet deposition of acidic components and other relevant pollutants including elemental carbon, as well as their influence on water chemistry, chemical properties of soil, nutrient fluxes in soil-plant system, and sulfur dynamics in forest ecosystems.

For the catchment analysis, scientists from the Network Center established a study plot in a dry evergreen forest in Sakaerat Silvicultural Research Station, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, northeastern Thailand. The surveys on-site allowed researchers to accumulate nine full years of data, from October 2005 to December 2014.

Based on these results, several scientific papers were published in international journals focusing mainly on atmospheric deposition, soil and stream water chemistry. Ultimately, these scientific outputs significantly contributed to enhancing the global understanding of atmospheric deposition and its effects on forest ecosystems in the region.

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Read the Report of the joint research project on catchment analysis in Thailand in the EANET Science Bulletin, Vol 5.

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The authors acknowledged Jesada Luangjame, Thiti Visaratana, and Bopit Kietvuttinon, Royal Forest Department for their great contribution to the Sakaerat project including other colleagues who were involved in the project.  The study was supported financially by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (JP20120012) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan, the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (C-052, C-082 and B-0801) from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, and Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN).

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Photo credits: Sakaerat forest by Sase H., all rights reserved.

EANET Research Fellowship Programme – The impacts of exposure to fine particulate matter on premature mortality in Bangkok, Thailand

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

EANET Fellowship 2018 featured image

1 December 2020 – Niigata, Japan

The Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s fellowship program aims at funding researchers from the EANET’s participating countries to carry out research pertaining to acid deposition at the Network Center in Japan. Kessinee Unapumnuk, from Thailand, was awarded the EANET fellowship for 2018. She led her research on the impacts of exposure to fine particulate matter on premature mortality in Bangkok.

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The impacts of fine particulate matters on human health

Fine particulate matters (PM2.5) affect human health and can lead to premature death if exposed for a long time. Chronic exposure to PM2.5 increases the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 4.2 million premature deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers worldwide in 2016 related to the exposure to ambient PM2.5 in both urban and rural areas.

Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, has been experiencing frequent episodes of air pollution characterized by a high concentration of PM2.5 due to combustion emissions from multiple sources and stagnant metrological conditions from January to April every year. Transportation-related sources are the major contributions to the PM2.5 levels and result in poor air quality in the city.

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Understanding premature mortality attributable to PM2.5 in Bangkok’s districts

Unapumnuk has estimated premature mortalities caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LC), ischemic heart disease (IHD), and stroke attributed to long-term exposure to PM2.5 in several districts in Bangkok from 2010 to 2017.

In conclusion, the study suggests that a strict emission control of PM2.5 is needed in Bangkok to avoid significant mortality attributable to PM2.5.

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Under the EANET Research Fellowship program 2018, this study was conducted at the Asia Center for Air Pollution (ACAP), Niigata Japan. The author acknowledged the help received from the Asia Centre for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) for performing the research as well from the Thai Pollution Control Department and the Ministry of Public Health.

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Read the full article by Unapumnuk et al. in the EANET Science Bulletin Volume 5.

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Photo credits: Bangkok by Nick van den Berg, free of the copyright license.