Abstract:
The objective of this study was to study the community potentiality level in the
Healthy City Development Project based on 6 sectors as follows: 1) Infrastructure
availability, 2) Social Status, 3) Economic Status, 4) Environmental Situation, 5) The
implementation of Uttaradit Healthy City Project and, 6) community participation.
The study utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were
collected by using questionnaires interviewing 361 households from an overall 3,581
households in 23 communities that had been calculated from the Taro Yamane
Formula. In addition, qualitative data were collected from 31 key informants: local
leaders, Uttaradit Muang municipality officers and concerned people by in-depth
interview including observation and a survey of the study area. Quantitative analysis
was done by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows;
using Statistics as Frequencies, Percentage, Arithmetic Mean, Standard Deviation,
Minimum and Maximum. Qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive presentation.
The study indicated that the community potentiality in Healthy City
development was at a moderate level as well as the level of all structures. On the other
hand, it was found that most of the key informants’ opinions about community
potentiality was at a high level. It showed that the community, through self-evaluation,
expressed that they are not quite ready for the Healthy City Development Project and
are not satisfied with the infrastructure service while the related project offices held
contrary opinions.
The recommendations arising from this study are: 1) concerned
departments of Uttaradit Healthy City Project should promote and support the people
to participate in developing a plan which meets their needs and Muang municipality
should improve its physical infrastructure services; 2) community people should have
awareness of, perception and pay attention to all departments’ project information to
develop their own sustainable Healthy City