The central task envisaged by the project revolves around the construction and maintenance of a database of field site communities consisting of 100 urban communities and villages in Kanchanaburi province. The communities were randomly selected on a stratified basis, defined by ecological and population features. The five strata are rice field areas, crop areas, high land areas, urban and industrial areas, and other areas which cannot fit in the above four categories.

The aims of database are
           to undertake studies of change in a wide variety of population and social processes,
           to link variation in change in these processes to community and household level variables,
           to examine how access to services affects a variety of outcomes at household and community levels, and
           to examine the effects of population change on environmental processes.  Additionally, the database will serve a central role as input into intervention studies through:
           Providing the source of data to allow matching of intervention and non-intervention communities.
           Providing a source of data for evaluation of the long-term effects of interventions (i.e., the effects that occur after the period of data collection associated with an intervention study has completed).
          The research methodology employed in the intervention studies will depend on the particular study undertaken.  Because of the nature of field research, there will be a strong emphasis on quantitative data collection for impact evaluation.  This includes, but is not restricted to survey research. For process evaluation, there will be heavy use of qualitative methods - including in-depth interview, focus group discussion and observation.  As part of our efforts to collect standardised community and household data, we will also experiment with various forms of community involvement in data collection and the possible integration of data collection into school activities.

          The household and individual database will be linked to a community and Geographic Information System (GIS) database.  The GIS database will be updated each year through an annual survey and incorporation of data from new satellite imagery.  This will provide a valuable resource for both researchers and planners who wish to undertake longitudinal studies of the relationship between population and development processes.

          Data from annual updates to the database will be made available via our web site to other researchers who are interested in using this data to conduct longitudinal studies of communities.  In addition to making this data available to a wider audience, it is hoped that this will stimulate increased interest in the use of the field station to undertake intervention studies in the communities.

          The first database collection was undertaken between 1st July - 15th August 2000.  The baseline survey included 100 sample villages and covered all 13 districts of Kanchanaburi.  There were 10 data collection teams consisting of 10 supervisors and 83 interviewers.  The data was collected from 11,612 households and 27,902 individuals.  Also included are 86 village profiles.