Glossary · v1.0
Glossary
Below are short definitions for the methodology terms, statistical jargon, and Thai-agency acronyms that appear across the site. Each entry stays under three sentences and links back to where the term does its work. For the full mathematical treatment, see the methodology.
- Applicability
- Applicability marks an indicator that does not structurally apply to a given province. Bangkok at zero forest cover is one example: the geography never permitted forest, so a 0 score on forest cover would mislead. The TLI methodology renders affected indicators as N/A on the affected provinces and computes the category score over the remaining indicators only.
- Band
- A band is the labeled segment of the 0–100 score range. The site uses five bands with fixed colors used everywhere: 0–19 poor (brick), 20–39 weak (terracotta), 40–59 mixed (amber), 60–79 good (sage), 80–100 strong (deep green). A province scoring 78 will appear in sage on every surface; a province scoring 22 will appear in terracotta on every surface. Bands appear on score chips, the homepage map, search results, and the indicator distribution charts.
- Category
- A category is one of the seven groups of indicators that aggregate to a category score. The seven are Environment & Climate, Healthcare, Connectivity & Transport, Cost & Economy, Safety & Governance, Lifestyle & Culture, and Demographics & Scale. Each category contributes equally to the composite via geometric mean.
- Choropleth
- A choropleth is a map type where geographic regions are filled with a color that encodes a data value. The TLI homepage choropleth shades each Thai province by its composite score. Hatched fill marks provinces with no data; striped fill marks provinces whose score floored at zero.
- Composite
- The composite is the single 0–100 livability score for a province, combining all seven category scores via geometric mean. The composite is the primary surface for ranking and search; the categories drive the comparative analysis.
- Coverage tier
- Coverage tier records how complete a province's indicator set is. Tier 1 means every category is fully populated; Tier 2 means at least one category is partially populated. At v1.0 every province is Tier 1, so the field is informational only.
- FAD — Department of Fine Arts
- FAD is the Department of Fine Arts (กรมศิลปากร), the Thai government body that maintains the official register of ancient monuments under the 1961 Act on Ancient Monuments. TLI v1.0 uses FAD-registered monument counts as the scored cultural-heritage indicator.
- Floored
- A province is floored when its composite is held at zero because at least one of its seven category scores is zero. Flooring is a deliberate methodology lock: a single category at zero indicates a livability gap that no other category can substitute for. Floored provinces sit in their own row at the bottom of the homepage rankings.
- Geometric mean
- The geometric mean averages by multiplying values and taking the nth root, where n is the count of values. TLI uses the geometric mean across category scores so that a single weak category cannot be hidden by strong ones; arithmetic averaging would let strengths cancel weaknesses, which is not how livability is experienced.
- Goalpost
- A goalpost is the fixed numerical threshold against which an indicator is normalized. Each indicator carries a low goalpost (mapping to 0) and a high goalpost (mapping to 100). Goalposts are set from methodology precedent (HDI, Higgs et al.), not from the distribution of Thai provinces, so the score is absolute rather than a percentile rank.
- Heterogeneous
- A heterogeneous province is one whose internal variation is large enough that a single province-level score conceals real differences. Bangkok, Krabi, and Phuket are canonical examples: Bangkok's 50 khets vary widely on transit and density; Krabi's beach destinations differ from its inland; Phuket's east coast differs from its west. TLI scores at the province level today; destination-level overlays for heterogeneous provinces are scoped for a future version.
- Higher-is-better / Lower-is-better
- Each indicator carries a scoring direction. Higher-is-better indicators map their high goalpost to 100 (e.g. broadband speed, hospital density). Lower-is-better indicators map their low goalpost to 100 (e.g. PM2.5, road deaths). The "How to read this score" detail block surfaces direction explicitly.
- Indicator
- An indicator is a single measurable variable contributing to a category score. v1.0 wires 30 scored indicators across the 7 categories, plus UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a display-only signal. Each indicator has its own source, normalization rule, and refresh cadence.
- Interpolate
- Interpolation estimates a value that sits between two known reference points. TLI normalization interpolates linearly: an indicator value sitting halfway between the low goalpost (score 0) and the high goalpost (score 100) scores 50. Two indicators (population density and rainfall days) interpolate along a parabolic curve instead of a straight line because both have a mid-range optimum.
- JCI — Joint Commission International
- JCI is the Joint Commission International, an independent United States-based body that accredits hospitals against international quality standards. TLI uses JCI-accredited hospital counts as a Healthcare indicator capturing international-grade facility access.
- Normalization (min-max)
- Normalization converts a raw value to a 0–100 score using min-max scaling against the indicator's goalposts. A value at or below the low goalpost scores 0; a value at or above the high goalpost scores 100; values in between scale linearly. Normalization makes indicators with different units comparable.
- Percentile rank
- A percentile rank reports a province's position relative to all 77 provinces, not its absolute score. TLI scores are absolute (against goalposts), not percentile, so a province scoring 70 is a "good" score regardless of how other provinces score. Percentile rank still appears as context in the "Where this province falls" detail block.
- Provincial granularity
- TLI operates at provincial granularity: 77 provinces is the smallest unit. The architecture supports zone overlays (city or regional clusters) that inherit from a parent province and add local detail. District (amphoe) granularity is out of scope for v1.0; some indicators have national-level coverage that is downscaled to provinces by population weight.
- RPSTO — Royal Project / Sufficiency-Theory Outreach
- RPSTO refers to Royal Project and Sufficiency-Theory Outreach centers operated by Thai government and royal-affiliated agencies. TLI uses RPSTO center density as a Healthcare-and-resilience indicator capturing rural-development access. The indicator is held at half weight pending the v1.2 applicability framework decision.
- Stale
- An indicator is stale when its last upstream refresh exceeded the indicator-specific freshness window. The score is from the most recent successful pull, not stale data fabricated by interpolation. The STALE INDICATOR badge surfaces this on the About page, with a per-source explanation of the delay.
- TAT — Tourism Authority of Thailand
- TAT is the Tourism Authority of Thailand (การท่องเที่ยวแห่งประเทศไทย). TLI uses TAT's registered tourist-attraction counts (temples, parks, museums, historical sites, beaches, viewpoints, waterfalls, cultural sites) as a Lifestyle & Culture indicator.