The Retreat of the Forest in Southeast Asia: A Cartographic Assessment

Bernard, Stéphane; Koninck, Rodolphe De

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9493.1996.tb00080.x

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…From 1975 to 1995, vegetation cover in the Thai part of the northern catchment did not change in a way that could contribute to the observed runoff decrease. Major land‐cover changes observed in Northern and Central Thailand rather resulted in deforestation (Bernard and De Koninck, 1996) with expected runoff increases (Brown et al , 2005). Contrasting this, hydrological changes that possibly occurred in Myanmar and Vietnam (covering 4% of the study area) would be insignificant at the catchment scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Lower Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia has been the scene of major human and environmental upheavals over the last five decades, especially in the Indochinese section (Indochina is defined as the area covered by Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) where successive political regimes have been accompanied by armed conflicts and significant migrations. The Vietnam War, whether official in Vietnam, or secret in Laos, is invoked as a central explanation for the extensive deforestation observed from 1960 to 1980 in the Lower Mekong Basin (Bernard and De Koninck, 1996). During this conflict, the United States Air Forces (USAF) practised deliberate massive removal of vegetation as a military tactic to deny cover and land to opposition forces (Seig, 1970; Hatfield Consultants Ltd, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conflict, migration and land‐cover changes in Indochina: a hydrological assessment

et al. 2010

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The Indochinese section of the Mekong Basin has been subjected to major environmental disturbances over the last half century. The Vietnam War is invoked as a central explanation for the extensive deforestation in specific areas while conflictinduced exoduses caused the abandonment of cultivated lands, followed by forest regeneration. Although the socio-economical consequences of these episodes have been analysed, their hydrological impacts remain unknown. This paper investigates hydrological changes in two catchments of the lower Mekong Basin that were either heavily bombed (in southern Laos) or depopulated (in northern Laos). This analysis is based on the widely and independently recognized fact that vegetation, via evapotranspiration, is a central driver of basin water yield. The analysis of the most complete Vietnam War air mission database and of available hydro-meteorological data over the period 1960-2004 reveals a sharp runoff increase in the southern catchment when bombing climaxed in the early 1970s while no hydrological change is observed in the northern catchment over the same period. From 1995 onwards, the northern and southern catchment's runoff productions are significantly lower and higher than in the pre-war conditions, respectively. Although causalities could not be ascertained because of data limitations, these short-and long-term hydrological shifts were found to be consistent, in terms of occurrence, spatial distribution and magnitude, with the expected changes in the vegetation cover, either denser in the north (in response to abandonment of cultivated lands) or sparser in the south (as a result of bomb-induced deforestation and soil degradations).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict, migration and land‐cover changes in Indochina: a hydrological assessment

et al. 2010

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“…Including ‘open forests’ (corresponding to dry forests) the forest cover is 68%, which is an overestimation as almost all highlands, including regions that were settled long before, are considered as forested. The estimate by Bernard & De Koninck (1996) for the end of 1960s derives from several published sources estimating forest cover at global or regional scales. The FAO World Forest Inventory of 1958 (FAO, 1960) is based on data from 1953 for the former North Vietnam.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest transition in Vietnam and its environmental impacts

Meyfroidt¹,

Lambin²

2008

Global Change Biology

185

109

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This study assesses the presence of a forest transition -that is, a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation -in Vietnam during the 1990s, and describes its key attributes relevant for global environmental change issues. Using Fuzzy Kappa and other indicators, we compared forest cover estimates and spatial patterns from global and national land cover maps from the early and late 1990s, and compiled other available statistics for years before and after that period. This showed that a forest transition indeed occurred in Vietnam: the forest cover dropped to 25-31% of the country area in 1991-1993, and then increased to 32-37% in 1999-2001. The reforestation occurred at a higher rate than deforestation in the previous decades, and was due in similar proportions, to natural forest regeneration and to planted forests. The carbon stock in forests followed a similar transition, decreasing to 903 (770-1307) Tg C in 1991-1993, and then increasing to 1374 (1058-1744) Tg C in 2005. However, forest density declined during the same period, with an increasing proportion of young and degraded forests. The effects on habitats measured with landscape pattern indices were contrasted: in several regions, the reforestation decreased forest fragmentation, while in others, clearing of old-growth forests continued and/or forest fragmentation increased. This shows that a transition in forest area is not sufficient to rehabilitate the different ecosystem functions and services of forests. Other forest transitions exist in Tropical Asia and in Latin America. Knowledge about the causes, pattern and environmental impacts of the forest transition in Vietnam is therefore relevant to understand possible emerging regional trends that would have implications for global environmental change.

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“…Based on the forcing of the monsoon, a relationship between the interannual variance of the WNP monsoon and the annual maximum discharge in Kratie is found that explains the variation of the scale parameter. It is however acknowledged that other factors play a role in flood generation, such as land use change (Bernard and Koninck, 1997), land management (Haddeland et al, 2006), dam building (Lauri et al, 2012) and local meteorological conditions (Hsu et al, 2008) that may not be related to the larger monsoon circulation. There is however a point in assessing the impacts of a change in the monsoon regime, since it constitutes the dominant factor for floods in the lower Mekong Basin.…”

Section: The 100-year Flood In Kratie Under CCmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projecting flood hazard under climate change: an alternative approach to model chains

Delgado

Merz

Apel

2014

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Flood hazard projections under climate change are typically derived by applying model chains consisting of the following elements: "emission scenario -global climate model -downscaling, possibly including bias correctionhydrological model -flood frequency analysis". To date, this approach yields very uncertain results, due to the difficulties of global and regional climate models to represent precipitation. The implementation of such model chains requires major efforts, and their complexity is high.We propose for the Mekong River an alternative approach which is based on a shortened model chain: "emission scenario -global climate model -non-stationary flood frequency model". The underlying idea is to use a link between the Western Pacific monsoon and local flood characteristics: the variance of the monsoon drives a non-stationary flood frequency model, yielding a direct estimate of flood probabilities. This approach bypasses the uncertain precipitation, since the monsoon variance is derived from large-scale wind fields which are better represented by climate models. The simplicity of the monsoon-flood link allows deriving large ensembles of flood projections under climate change. We conclude that this is a worthwhile, complementary approach to the typical model chains in catchments where a substantial link between climate and floods is found.

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The Retreat of the Forest in Southeast Asia: A Cartographic Assessment

Cited by 24 publications

References 20 publications

Conflict, migration and land‐cover changes in Indochina: a hydrological assessment

Conflict, migration and land‐cover changes in Indochina: a hydrological assessment

Forest transition in Vietnam and its environmental impacts

Projecting flood hazard under climate change: an alternative approach to model chains

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