Southeast Asia’s water risk on track for 1,000-year high: China-led study

Name: Chinese scientists try to stop glaciers from melting with innovative thermal blanket
Uploaded: 2023-12-05T06:00:27.000Z
Duration: 5 min 1 s
Description: Chinese scientists try to stop glaciers from melting with innovative thermal blanket

A Chinese-led team of international scientists has recreated the streamflow from the Asian water tower over the last millennium

After correlating water levels with historical events, they predict climate change poses ‘unprecedented risks’ for Southeast Asia

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As climate change affects the Tibetan Plateau, it could have ‘unprecedented risks’ for Southeast Asia, according to a study looking at historical river streamflows. Photo: Xinhua

Holly Chik

Published: 2:00pm, 5 Dec 2023Updated: 5:26pm, 5 Dec 2023

As ancient kingdoms in Southeast Asia rose and fell throughout the last 1,000 years, researchers have found those historical trials and tribulations were closely linked to the water supply coming from the mountains of Tibet.

But now, as climate change speeds up the melting of glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, the impact on the densely populated region of Southeast Asia could be bigger than anything seen in the last millennium, the Chinese-led team warned.

By reconstructing 1,000 years of river streamflow records, the researchers found a strong correlation between water flow and dry season vegetation across the Indochinese Peninsula, which they said revealed “the importance of the Tibetan water tower for the functioning and productivity of ecological and societal systems in Southeast Asia”.

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Chinese scientists try to stop glaciers from melting with innovative thermal blanket

Today, the vast region has a rapidly growing population and economy – things that will both negatively affect water availability.

The international team of researchers, from institutes in Argentina, Britain, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, said nations therefore needed to strengthen their cooperation to improve water preservation strategies and maintain their water resources.

“Streamflow extremes coincide with distinct shifts in local populations that occurred during medieval times, including the occupation and subsequent collapse of Angkor Wat from the 11th to the 16th century,” the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience last month.

“Our projections suggest that future streamflow changes will reach, or even exceed, historical ranges by the end of this century, posing unprecedented risks for Southeast Asia.”