Books in the Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research series

This monograph examines contemporary environmental challenges facing Nepal, this landlocked country¿s representativeness in the wider South Asian context is both distinct and generalizable. In large part, this is because of its extremes of physiographical structure- plains, hill ranges, mountainous massifs - and wide range of altitudinal terrains, which represent and replicate South Asian and East Asian continental conditions differing as markedly as humid tropical lowlands, sub-tropical hill ranges and temperate to sub-arctic mountainous environments. Associated forest regimes, in which deforestation and reforestation patterns have evolved in recent times, and differing densities of settlement and cleared agricultural landscapes in each of these altitudinal zones, add to the environmental diversity of Nepal. Associated fauna and exotic species are in various states of endangerment especially Bengal tigers, one horned rhinos, wild elephants, crocodile, musk deer, and peasants, to name a few- so that their forested and mountainous habitats as ¿Wild Life Reserves¿ also deserve our attention, and are featured in this monograph¿s remit.

This study combines economic cost-benefit analysis and behavioral models of resource use to generate a framework for sustainable groundwater-irrigated agriculture, deploying datasets from arid southern Pakistan to illustrate the dangers of overextraction.

North-East India, comprising the seven contiguous states around Assam, is a relatively unknown, yet fascinating region. This book offers a glimpse into the region's past and a comprehensive picture of its physical environment, people, resources and economy.

This book elaborates on the Khazan ecosystems of Goa, India. They are endemic and heritage ecosystems of Goa and ultimately reservoirs of history and heritage. Using the example of the Khazan lands, the book analyzes and comments on traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous technology.

Using India as a case study, this book identifies the spatial aspects of norms through which concepts of the ideal river and the deficient river in need of control are created. Examines different subjective stances arising from the same body of expertise.

This book discusses the impact of climate change on agriculture, the inclusion of the agriculture sectors in climate change negotiations, cost and opportunities for agricultural projects through such international climate change regimes as the Kyoto Protocol.

This book is the first to present a regional analysis of climate change and human health, focusing on geographically and socio-economically distinct countries of South and Southeast Asia.

The studies in this volume provide an ethnography of a plantation frontier in central Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Drawing on the expertise of both natural scientists and social scientists, the key focus is the process of commodification of nature that has turned the local landscape into anthropogenic tropical forests. Analysing the transformation of the space of mixed landscapes and multiethnic communities¿driven by trade in forest products, logging and the cultivation of oil palm¿the contributors explore the changing nature of the environment, multispecies interactions, and the metabolism between capitalism and nature. The project involved the collaboration of researchers specialising in anthropology, geography, Southeast Asian history, global history, area studies, political ecology, environmental economics, plant ecology, animal ecology, forest ecology, hydrology, ichthyology, geomorphology and life-cycle assessment.Collectively, the transdisciplinary research addresses a number of vital questions. How are material cycles and food webs altered as a result of large-scale land-use change? How have new commodity chains emerged while older ones have disappeared? What changes are associated with such shifts? What are the relationships among these three elements¿commodity chains, material cycles and food webs? Attempts to answer these questions led the team to go beyond the dichotomy of society and nature as well as human and non-human. Rather, the research highlights complex relational entanglements of the two worlds, abruptly and forcibly connected by human-induced changes in an emergent and compelling resource frontier in maritime Southeast Asia.Chapters ¿Commodification of Nature on the Plantation Frontier¿ and ¿Into a New Epoch: The Plantationocene¿ are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book shows how social impact assessment (SIA), which emerged barely five decades ago, as a way to anticipate and manage potentially negative social impacts of building dams, power stations, urban infrastructure, highways, industries, mining and other development projects, is now widely in use as a planning tool, especially in developed countries. Although SIA has still not gained much acceptance among development planners in Asia, the situation is gradually changing. In India, SIA initially mandated as a policy guideline in 2007 is now a legal requirement. SIA in China has also recently become obligatory for certain types of development projects. Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are other Asian countries that provide examples from a variety of externally funded projects illustrating the use of social impact analysis in project planning to improve development outcomes. With contributions from an array of leading experts, this book is a valuable resource on SIA, indispensable for policymakers, planners, and practitioners in government, international development agencies, private-sector industry, private banks, consultants, teachers, researchers and students of social sciences and development studies, also NGOs everywhere, not in Asia alone.

This edited volume covers the multiple changes concerning urban governance in the course of the progressive transformation of the Pearl River Delta mega-urban region in China.

This book examines social and natural environmental changes in present-day Laos and presents a new research framework for environmental studies from an interdisciplinary point of view.

Malaria is one of the most widespread and devastating infectious diseases in the world. Because of the magnitude of the associated fata- ties, development experts consider malaria a 'silent tsunami,' comparing its death toll to the Indian Ocean tsunami (IOT) that ravaged several countries of South and Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004.

This edited volume covers the multiple changes concerning urban governance in the course of the progressive transformation of the Pearl River Delta mega-urban region in China.

Malaria is one of the most widespread and devastating infectious diseases in the world. Because of the magnitude of the associated fata- ties, development experts consider malaria a 'silent tsunami,' comparing its death toll to the Indian Ocean tsunami (IOT) that ravaged several countries of South and Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004.

Water Civilization: From Yangtze to Khmer Civilizations comprises three major topics: 1) Discovery of the origin of rice agriculture and the Yangtze River civilization in southern China was mainly based on investigation of the Chengtoushan archaeological site, the earliest urban settlement in East Asia.