Monsoon Rains, Great Rivers and the Development of Farming Civilisations in Asia

Peter D. Clift, Jade d'Alpoim Guedes

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781107030084
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009028530
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Meteorology & Climatology

The Asian monsoon and associated river systems supply the water that sustains a large portion of humanity, and has enabled Asia to become home to some of the oldest and most productive farming systems on Earth. This book uses climate data and environmental models to provide a detailed review of variations in the Asian monsoon since the mid-Holocene, and its impacts on farming systems and human settlement. Future changes to the monsoon due to anthropogenically-driven global warming are also discussed. Faced with greater rainfall and more cyclones in South Asia, as well as drying in North China and regional rising sea levels, understanding how humans have developed resilient strategies in the past to climate variations is critical. Containing important implications for the large populations and booming economies in the Indo-Pacific region, this book is an important resource for researchers and graduate students studying the climate, environmental history, agronomy and archaeology of Asia.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Temporal Variations in the Asian Monsoon
• 3 Monsoon and Societies in Southwest Asia
• 4 Origins of a Uniquely Adaptive Farming System:: Rice Farming Systems in Monsoon Asia
• 5 Dryland Farming in the Northern Monsoon Frontier
• 6 Recent Changes in Monsoon Climate
• 7 Future Monsoon Predictions
• References
• Index