Bang Saphan Noi ( th, บางสะพานน้อย, ) is the southernmost district (''
amphoe
An amphoe (sometimes also ''amphur'', th, อำเภอ, )—usually translated as "district"—is the second level administrative subdivision of Thailand. Groups of ''amphoe'' or districts make up the provinces, and are analogous to countie ...
'') of
Prachuap Khiri Khan province, central
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
History
The minor district (''
king amphoe
An amphoe (sometimes also ''amphur'', th, อำเภอ, )—usually translated as "district"—is the second level administrative subdivision of Thailand. Groups of ''amphoe'' or districts make up the provinces, and are analogous to countie ...
'') Bang Saphan Noi was split off from
Bang Saphan district on 10 June 1974. It was upgraded to a full district on 13 July 1981.
Etymology
The name ''Bang Saphan Noi'' originates from the time of the building of the southern railway. The workers had to build two bridges north and south of the railway station which later became the center of the district. As this was the same structure as for the Bang Saphan railway station further north, they thus named the
railway station Bang Saphan Noi ('small bridge village'), and subsequently the railway station of Bang Saphan was named
Bang Saphan Yai ('big bridge village').
Geography
Neighboring districts are
Bang Saphan to the north, to the south the districts
Tha Sae and
Pathio
Pathio ( th, ปะทิว, ) is a district (''amphoe'') in the northern part of
Chumphon province, southern Thailand. The province's main airport, Chumphon Airport is in Pathio. Pathio has alternate English spellings, Pathiu and Pathiew.
Ge ...
of
Chumphon province. To the west is the
Tanintharyi Division
Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...
of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, to the east, the
Gulf of Thailand
The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...
.
Environment
From 2002 to 2020, the district has lost 3,000
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
s of humid
primary forest
An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
, a decrease of 16 percent.
Administration
The district is divided into five subdistricts (''
tambon
''Tambon'' ( th, ตำบล, ) is a local governmental unit in Thailand. Below district (''amphoe'') and province (''changwat''), they form the third administrative subdivision level. there were 7,255 tambons, not including the 180 ''khwaeng'' ...
s''), which are further subdivided into 41 villages (''
muban
Muban ( th, หมู่บ้าน; , ) is the lowest administrative sub-division of Thailand. Usually translated as 'village' and sometimes as 'hamlet', they are a subdivision of a tambon (subdistrict). , there were 74,944 administrative mu ...
s''). Bang Saphan Noi is also the only township (''
thesaban tambon
Thesaban ( th, เทศบาล, , ) are the municipalities of Thailand. There are three levels of municipalities: city, town, and sub-district. Bangkok and Pattaya are special municipal entities not included in the ''thesaban'' system.
The mu ...
'') of the district, which covers parts of the ''tambon'' Bang Saphan. There are a further five tambon administrative organizations (TAO).
References
External links
amphoe.com
Bang Saphan Noi
{{PrachuapKhiriKhan-geo-stub