And again more new Muban

Another batch of new administrative villages was published yesterday. To be able to report them all here, I am splitting them into three postings - the Muban in Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon will be reported next week, whereas this time I list those in the other provinces.

• Mu 27 of Mae Salong Nai subdistrict, Mae Fa Luang district, Chaing Rai province, split from Mu 1 (Ban Hin Taek, บ้านหินแตก) and named Ban Hin Dam (บ้านหินคำ). [Gazette]
• Mu 10 of Rim Khong subdistrict, Chiang Khong district, Chaing Rai province, split from Mu 6 (Ban Kio Kan, บ้านกิ่วกาญจน์) and named Ban Kio Doi Luang (บ้านกิ่วดอยหลวง). [Gazette]
• Mu 11 of Si Kham subdistrict, Mae Chan district, Chaing Rai province, split from Mu 9 (Ban Saen Suk, บ้านแสนสุข) and named Ban Rung Charoen (บ้านรุ่งเจริญ). [Gazette]
• Mu 8 of Pho Thong subdistrict, Tha Sala district, Nakhon Si Thammarat province, split from Mu 5 (Ban Si Yaek Wat Not, บ้านสี่แยกวัดโหนด) and named Ban Pho Thong (บ้านโพธิ์ทอง). [Gazette]
• Mu 7 of Pa Klang subdistrict, Pua district, Nan province, split from Mu 3 (Ban Khang Ho, บ้านค้างฮ่อ) and named Ban Pa Klang (บ้านป่ากลาง). [Gazette]
• Mu 14 of Phu Kha subdistrict, Pua district, Nan province, split from Mu 8 (Ban Pa Rai, บ้านป่าไร่) and named Ban Mai Phu Kha (บ้านใหม่ภูคา). [Gazette]
• Mu 7 of Nam Pua subdistrict, Wiang Sa district, Nan province, split from Mu 2 (Ban Nam Pua, บ้านน้ำปั้ว) and named Ban Nam Pua Mai (บ้านน้ำปั้วใหม่). [Gazette]
• Mu 22 of Rom Yen subdistrict, Chiang Kham district, Phayao province, split from Mu 13 (Ban Pracha Phakdi, บ้านประชาภักดี) and named Ban Huai Duea Doi Nang (บ้านห้วยเดื่อดอยนาง). [Gazette]
• Mu 12 of Kok Sathon subdistrict, Dan Sai district, Loei province, split from Mu 6 (Ban Thup Kho, บ้านตูบค้อ) and named Ban Thup Kho (บ้านตูบค้อ). [Gazette]
• Mu 11 of Kok Sathon subdistrict, Dan Sai district, Loei province, split from Mu 4 (Ban Mak Khaeng, บ้านหมากแข้ง) and named Ban Man Khao (บ้านหมันขาว). [Gazette]

Interestingly, the Muban created in Chiang Rai are based on the Ministerial Order มท ๐๓๑๐.๑/๓๑๑๓ from March 2012 (sic!), whereas all others are based on the same as the previous Muban creations this year, มท ๐๓๑๐.๑/ว ๗๔๖๕ from December 15 2015. I don't know whether this is a mistake, or it really took the provincial administration in Chiang Rai four years to finalize the order from the Ministry of Interior.

The date at which the Muban creations became effective differs for the provinces.  Those in Nan became effective with the publication in the Royal Gazette, all others at the same date the announcements were signed by the province governor - Chiang Rai on April 11, Nakhon Si Thammarat on April 18, Phayao on April 5 and Loei on April 1.

Statistical yearbooks

One resource I so far neglected when collecting my data were the Statistical Yearbooks, published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) annually (in past sometimes bi-annually). Quite a lot of the statistics in these books are really specialized, whereas the population numbers I already took from the census reports and the registration data. There is however one table which turns out to be useful - the number of administrative units of each type for each province. For some recent years I could even find this table as a Excel sheet, which made it most easy to translate to my XML structure.

Using the Royal Gazette, I believe I already have all the data on creation of districts and subdistricts from about 1950, however for the administrative villages they only became published in the Gazette since 2004, so only source for these numbers so far were the census reports. However, these lists help to check for any discrepancy, for entities created or abolished without announcement in the Royal Gazette.

There is however one problem - those books are of course available in several Thai libraries but as I am not living in Thailand they are hardly reachable for me. The NSO has an online library, but that still has by far not all issues of the yearbook, but even worse for many of those available the pages with this specific table are missing, often only the table of contents is displayed. For example for 1964, the last available page is number 32, luckily the table with the entity numbers end at page 31.

The most strange issues with the entity numbers was the number of subdistricts, which according to my data should have be 7256, but in the annual lists from the Department of Provincial Administration always listed as 7255, which made me believe that the subdistrict Pak Phanang in Nakhon Si Thammarat might have been dissolved as there more some contradicting values for the number of subdistrict in this province. Looking at the lasted yearbook, it lists 7425 subdistricts, including those in Bangkok this makes 7256 again. Thus it seems the confusion is within DOPA itself, both for the population statistics and the reports to the NSO they use the number of 7256, but in their own annual report for whatever reason one Tambon is omitted.

Province creation rumors again

Its not yet a year ago that a plan to create several new provinces has gone viral in the social networks, so that the Department of Provincial Administration had to post a correction. It seems the same has happened again today, the correction posted on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Interior.

I haven't yet found the post which made DOPA issue yet another correction, but Channel 3 news reported on the correction and listed the alleged new provinces. It is the same list as last year for the Northeast, only adding Na Thawi (จังหวัดนาทวี) to be split from Songkhla. Na Thawi, like all the other, apparently was considered in past but then shelved like all the other province plans.

Three more province with new administrative villages

Yesterday, another three announcements were published in the Royal Gazette to formally create new administrative villages, this time in the provinces Lampang, Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani. Again, these are based on the Ministerial Order มท ๐๓๑๐.๑/ว ๗๔๖๕ from December 15. With 44 Muban announced so far, this is the biggest number of new villages since 2007, when a total of 449 villages were created.

• Lampang - 1 Muban [Gazette] effective March 22
  • Mu 10 of Nam Cho subdistrict, Mae Tha district, split from Mu 3 (Ban To, บ้านต๋อ) and named Ban To Kaeo Phatthana (บ้านต๋อแก้วพัฒนา).
• Udon Thani - 6 Muban [Gazette] effective with publication
  • Mu 14 of Tha Li subdistrict, Kumphawapi district, split from Mu 4 (Ban Tha Li, บ้านท่าลี่) and named Ban Tha Li (บ้านท่าลี่).
  • Mu 15 of Kumphawapi subdistrict, Kumphawapi district, split from Mu 5 (Ban Don Kaeo, บ้านดอนแก้ว) and named Ban Don Kaeo (บ้านดอนแก้ว).
  • Mu 12 of Non Thong subdistrict, Ban Phue district, split from Mu 7 (Ban Don Tan, บ้านดอนตาล) and named Ban Don Tan (บ้านดอนตาล).
  • Mu 13 of Non Thong subdistrict, Ban Phue district, split from Mu 8 (Ban Dong Bang, บ้านดงบัง) and named Ban Dong Bang (บ้านดงบัง).
  • Mu 14 of Non Thong subdistrict, Ban Phue district, split from Mu 9 (Ban Na Hai, บ้านนาไฮ) and named Ban Na Hai (บ้านนาไฮ).
  • Mu 15 of Non Thong subdistrict, Ban Phue district, split from Mu 10 (Ban Na Toei, บ้านนาเตย) and named Ban Na Toei (บ้านนาเตย).
• Ubon Rathathani - 5 Muban [Gazette] effective with publication
  • Mu 17 of Sang Tho subdistrict, Khueang Nai district, split from Mu 7 (Ban Don Chiang Tho, บ้านดอนเชียงโท) and named Ban Don Chiang Tho (บ้านดอนเชียงโท).
  • Mu 12 of Song subdistrict, Nam Yuen district, split from Mu 2 (Ban Duan, บ้านดวน) and named Ban Chai Charoen (บ้านชัยเจริญ).
  • Mu 12 of Ban Maet subdistrict, Buntharik district, split from Mu 1 (Ban Hat Sai Khun, บ้านหาดทรายคูณ) and named Ban Don Chot (บ้านดอนโจด).
  • Mu 13 of Kaeng Dom subdistrict, Sawang Wirawong district, split from Mu 2 (Ban Khok Sombun Nai, บ้านโคกสมบูรณ์ใน) and named Ban Non Tao Lek (บ้านโนนเตาเหล็ก).
  • Mu 13 of Sawang subdistrict, Sawang Wirawong district, split from Mu 4 (Ban Phaeng, บ้านแพง) and named Ban Non Sai Ngam (บ้านโนนทรายงาม).

A bit notable is the fact that all 6 Muban in Udon Thani got the same name as the Muban from which they were split off. Checking with the all the 2029 Muban creations published in the Royal Gazette since 2002, this naming scheme was used 361 times so far (17.7%). The suffix "Kaeo Phatthana" however was used for the first time.

New Muban in Surin

And another two new administrative villages announced last week, again based on the Ministerial Order มท ๐๓๑๐.๑/ว ๗๔๖๕ from December 15, this time signed by the province governor on March 16th and becoming effective with the publication of the announcement on April 28 [Gazette].

• Mu 17 of Nong Yai subdistrict, Prasat district, Surin province, split from Mu 11 (Ban Saen Suk, บ้านแสนสุข) and named Ban Charoen Suk (บ้านเจริญสุข).
• Mu 20 of Khok Sa-at subdistrict, Prasat district, Surin province, split from Mu 1 (Ban Khok Sa-at, บ้านโคกสะอาด) and named Ban Khok Sa-at Phatthana (บ้านโคกสะอาดพัฒนา).

New Muban in Lamphun

Another two new administrative villages were announced yesterday, again based on the Ministerial Order มท ๐๓๑๐.๑/ว ๗๔๖๕ from December 15, this time signed by the province governor on March 2nd and becoming effective with the publication of the announcements.

• Mu 11 of Wang Phang subdistrict, Wiang Nong Long district, Lamphun province, split from Mu 5 (Ban Dong Luang, บ้านดงหลวง) and named Ban Dong Tai Phattana (บ้านดงใต้พัฒนา) [Gazette].
• Mu 17 of Nam Dip subdistrict, Pa Sang district, Lamphun province, split from Mu 7 (Ban Nam Dip Luang, บ้านน้ำดิบหลวง) and named Ban Nam Dip Nuea (บ้านน้ำดิบเหนือ) [Gazette].

I already updated the corresponding Wikipedia articles in English, German and Thai - including changing the two Tambon articles into something with actual content. In the unlikely case anyone is interesting how these two changes are encoded in my XML files, the corresponding GIT changeset is here.

Protected areas

Though not really connected to the administrative subdivisions, I also keep following the changes in the protected areas - National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and so on - when these are published in the Royal Gazette, and also created a XML schema to have the data on these in a machine readable format. In the last two weeks there were three announcements around these protected areas.

• Creation of Non-hunting area Khao Phu Luang (เขตห้ามล่าสัตว์ป่าเขาภูหลวง) in Nakhon Ratchasima [Gazette], covering 232 km² of the forested hills around Lam Phra Loeng reservoir.
• Remove of about 0.5 km² of Bakdai subdistrict out of the area of the Huai Thap Than - Huai Samran wildlife sanctuary (เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าห้วยทับทัน-ห้วยสำราญ).
• Declaration of Khao Khao (เขตที่ดินโบราณสถานเขาขาว) as a historical monument, protecting rock pantings on three hills in Ao Luek district, Krabi.

Especially for the third one, I even had expanded the XSD to be able to be able to encode the fact that this historical monument covers three separate areas with five specifically marked locations.

And while I was at it, I finally also found an Excel sheet with all the protected areas managed by the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, most interestingly showing the internal codes used for these parks. Each of the class of protected areas has a number range, and is named in order of the creation of the park - but even though there is this simple numbering schema, the actual codes have been reworked twice already. The number ranges are

• 1xxx for 127 National Parks (อุทยานแห่งชาติ)
• 2xxx for 58 Wildlife Sanctuaries (เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่า)
• 3xxx for 67 Non-hunting areas (เขตห้ามล่าสัตว์ป่า)
• 4xxx for 110 Forest Parks (วนอุทยาน)
• 9xxx for areas about to be protected - 20 National Parks, 2 Wildlife Sanctuaries and 3 Non-Hunting areas.

Dating from 2013, this sheet however does not include the above mentioned Khao Phu Luang Non-hunting area, though it seems none of the pending protected areas have been officially announced yet. Using that Excel sheet, I have now resumed work on the protected area XMLs, the one on the Forest Parks already has the complete list with creation date, area and the link to WikiData when available, only need to add the locations. However, the list which would be most useful for Wikipedia to support the annual "Wiki loves monuments" event is also the one which creates most work, as there are thousands of sites.