Articles | Volume 26, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-609-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-609-2022
Research article
 | 
07 Feb 2022
Research article |  | 07 Feb 2022

Drastic decline of flood pulse in the Cambodian floodplains (Mekong River and Tonle Sap system)

Samuel De Xun Chua, Xi Xi Lu, Chantha Oeurng, Ty Sok, and Carl Grundy-Warr

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Cited articles

Araki, Y., Hirabuki, Y., Powkhy, D., Tsukawaki, S., Rachna, C., Tomita, M., and Suzuki, K.: Influence of Large Seasonal Water Level Fluctuations and Human Impact on the Vegetation of Lake Tonle Sap, Cambodia, in Forest Environments in the Mekong River Basin, edited by: Sawada, H., Araki, M., Chappell, N. A., LaFrankie, J. V., and Shimizu, A., Springer, Japan, 281–294, Tokyo, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-46503-4_26, 2007. 
Arias, M. E., Cochrane, T. A., Piman, T., Kummu, M., Caruso, B. S., and Killeen, T. J.: Quantifying changes in flooding and habitats in the Tonle Sap Lake (Cambodia) caused by water infrastructure development and climate change in the Mekong Basin, J. Environ. Manage., 112, 53–66, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.07.003, 2012. 
Arias, M. E., Cochrane, T. A., Norton, D., Killeen, T. J., and Khon, P.: The Flood Pulse as the Underlying Driver of Vegetation in the Largest Wetland and Fishery of the Mekong Basin, Ambio, 42, 864–876, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-013-0424-4, 2013. 
Arias, M. E., Piman, T., Lauri, H., Cochrane, T. A., and Kummu, M.: Dams on Mekong tributaries as significant contributors of hydrological alterations to the Tonle Sap Floodplain in Cambodia, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 5303–5315, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5303-2014, 2014. 
Asian Development Bank: Irrigated Agriculture Improvement Project: Report and Recommendation of the President, available at: https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/cam-51159-002-rrp (last access: 1 July 2021), 2019a. 
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Short summary
We found that the annual flood at the Cambodian floodplains decreased from 1960 to 2019. Consequently, the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, is shrinking. The results are worrying because the local fisheries and planting calendar might be disrupted. This drastic decline of flooding extent is caused mostly by local factors, namely water withdrawal for irrigation and channel incision from sand mining activities.