Southeast Asian rivers

Although adequate information is available from rivers of the temperate regions, they are very scarce for those of tropical rivers. Data reviewed by Milliman and Meade (1983) show that about 70 % of the total sediment discharge to the oceans occur via the Southeast Asian rivers (Fig. lt). Inclusion of sediment data and the organic matter associated with these sediments might change drastically the net POC transport from land to sea. 

The southeast Asian rivers of China, Bangla Desh, India, and Pakistan that drain the high mountain region of the Himalayan, and the rivers of the western Pacific islands (Fig. 1.2), transport just about one half of the global suspension load discharged to the ocean aimually. This must naturally also exert an effect on the sedimentation... 

The argument is persuasive enough in the Burmese case to exclude this entirely from the generalisations made about Southeast Asia by the authors discussed below, most of whom are in practice Indonesia specialists. In environmental terms, the major Southeast Asian dry zone of the mid-Irrawaddy basin, where rains were regular but not year-round, contained substantial areas very suitable for the irrigation of permanent bunded rice-fields. The ease of military movements both on the river and across the basin in the dry season made this a natural area for a substantial state. By contrast, the vast area persistendy covered by what Lieberman calls fluid, small-scale Tai polities , seems almost equally resistant to the bureaucratic state as does the Archipelago, partly for similar environmental reasons. 

As explained in chapter 2, states had relatively litde direct control over the inhabitants of the tropical rain-forests of Southeast Asia when compared with the great river systems of the temperate zone. For many peoples of the Southeast Asian uplands in particular, statelessness was not simply a negative absence or slowness to develop states, but a deliberate rejection of the manner in which trade-based coastal states had been experienced as a threat to their way of life. The highland populations of northern Sumatra, collectively known for several centuries as Bataks, will be our prime example of this category. 

In the Asian region, the waters in China, India, and Southeast Asian countries are most severely polluted by organic matter from sewage and processing industries, such as pulp and paper and food. A detailed study of the Sarabaya River in Indonesia found... 

A series of plateaus, bounded by the sea in both north and south, known as the Thrace-Kocaeli peneplain surface extends in a west northwest-east southeast direction. The Bosphorus divides this plateau series into two parts. Relief on either side of this channel is asymmetrical. The rivers cut deep valleys on plateaus on both the European and Asian sides. A Transitional Marmara climate- mixture of Black Sea-Oceanic and Mediterranean climate - prevails in the vicinity of Istanbul. Mean annual temperature is 13.5°C (56°E). Average January temperature is 5°C (41°E), and July is 23.0°C (73°E). Prevailing wind direction is northeast. Relative humidity changes between 70 and 90%. Total annual precipitation is 700 mm (27.6 in), and distribution in the seasons is not even. 

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