Our study in NST has shown statistically the relationship between shrimp farming and closeness to coastline/estuary and, to a lesser extent, between shrimp farming and mangrove forest. This finding is consistent with previous studies on shrimp farming in Thailand (Flaherty and Karnjanakesorn 1995, Dierberg and Kiattisimkul 1996). Coastal shrimp aquaculture was first developed in central Thailand along the Gulf of Thailand. Intensive shrimp farming in southern Thailand including NST began in the late 1980s. Narrow coastal zones were ideal for shrimp farming primarily because of the saltwater requirement. Recent studies (Flaherty and Vandergeest 1998) have reported the inland migration of shrimp farms as a result of the introduction of low-salinity shrimp culture in the early 1990s. In NST, for example, some shrimp farms were more than 4 km away from the coastline in 1992. Destruction of coastal mangrove forests has been lessened because of government regulations and low-salinity shrimp culture. The threat of shrimp farming has shifted to rice paddies (Flaherty, Vandergeest, and Miller 1999). The Global Map project has so far achieved its objective of creating globally consistent thematic map products for six nations. Researchers who plan to use this global database must be aware of its data quality, data structure, and data currency. For studies of local-level environmental issues such as shrimp farming in southern Thailand, integration of Global Map data with other higher-resolution data sources is possible for certain types of data analysis.
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