- Project Leader : Haruyama Shigeko (Graduate School of Bioresources, Mie University)
- Collaborators : Kay Thwe Hlaing (Department of Geography, Yangon University)
- : Kin Kin Wai (Department of Geography, Yangon University)
- : Ando Kazuo (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
Outline of Research
A natural environment change study regarding remarkable natural disasters with water related natural hazards in the lower part of the Ayeyarwady River Basin, in the Holocene period will be carried out to advance research of river morphology. Storm surges, high tides and tsunamis usually create specific sedimentation in the delta formation. In our conceptual framework, we will define the high resolution of deposition processes of the delta area. Through the Bagan Period in the central part of Myanmar, development activities suffered from land use and land cover changes over the watershed of the Ayeyarwady river. In the context of agricultural development and urban development in the river basin, the sedimentation process will be clarified to analysis the geomorphologic process scenarios of large rivers in Monsoon Asia.
Description
There is a significant history of the kingdom of Myanmar and of expanding human activities, however, field study and research results of the natural environmental change of the Ayeyarwady River Basin have been scarce in the past decades. In this study, we will try to do a specific geological and physical geographical study to clarify disturbances over the land of a large river watershed, utilizing the deposition characteristics of high tides, tsunamis and storm surges and also looking at remarkable flooding in the study area. We will also look at the fluvial geomorphology, and conduct a high-resolution analysis for natural environmental changes in the large delta area in Monsoon Asia. Geographers from Myanmar will also join the GIS study for land use and land cover changes of the river basin and will create scenarios that explain the history of land cover change. In this study, the historical events of natural disasters will be clarified in relation to physical and human geographical studies by looking at the sequences of environmental changes significant in Monsoon Asia.
 The Bago river in Myanmar |
 Land use of the Bago river basin |