The Asian Monsoon


Book Description

This is a timely, interdisciplinary scientific overview of the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface as it interacts with physical, chemical and biological processes. The high level of detail sets it apart from other studies of monsoon meteorology. The text includes analysis of paleoclimate records, human influences on the monsoon climate and the economic impacts of the monsoon on economies and to human health.




Nature, Culture, and Food in Monsoon Asia


Book Description

The giant Asian monsoon has formed a diverse climate and natural environment. The Asian monsoon climate manifests itself in manifold ways depending not just on the latitude or altitude of an area but also on physical conditions such as topography and vegetation and even the size of its human population. Likewise, the livelihoods of people in the affected area are diverse. This book focuses on nature and agriculture, food, and climate and culture as an excellent framework for understanding the relationship between humans and the environment in complex Monsoon Asia. Through the discussions in this book, what the authors have sought to demonstrate is that the livelihoods in Monsoon Asia demonstrate unique forms in a limited environment, while the Asian monsoon climate has one of the largest movements of any natural phenomenon on a macroscopic scale. These manifest forms are diverse both on a time scale and on a spatial scale and are extremely diversified in limited regions. Such diversity is not only due just to the effects of the natural environment but also results from social and cultural forces. In this area of Monsoon Asia, traditional and religious social norms are becoming entangled with “new” economic and political norms brought in from the outside world by globalization.




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


Book Description

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.




The Asian Summer Monsoon


Book Description

The Asian Summer Monsoon: Characteristics, Variability, Teleconnections and Projection focuses on the connections between the Indian Summer and East Asian Summer Monsoons, also including the South China Sea Summer Monsoon. While these systems have profound differences, their interactions have significant impacts on the climatic regimes in the region and throughout the world. In summer, the ASM engine pumps moisture transported across thousands of miles from the Indian and Pacific Oceans to the monsoon regions, producing heavy rains over south and east Asia and its adjacent marginal seas. This book reviews the different subsystems and their impact, providing guidance to enhance prediction models. - Synthesizes the connections between the East Asian Summer Monsoon, the Indian Summer Monsoon and the Asian Summer Monsoon system - Includes subsections on holistic characteristics, sub-seasonal and interannual variability, teleconnection patterns, and projections of future change - Connects current theory and practice on Asian Monsoon forecasting, providing researchers with new skills and information to use in climate and weather forecasting




Spirits and Ships


Book Description

This volume seeks to foreground a “borderless” history and geography of South, Southeast, and East Asian littoral zones that would be maritime-focused, and thereby explore the ancient connections and dynamics of interaction that favoured the encounters among the cultures found throughout the region stretching from the Indian Ocean littorals to the Western Pacific, from the early historical period to the present. Transcending the artificial boundaries of macro-regions and nation-states, and trying to bridge the arbitrary divide between (inherently cosmopolitan) “high” cultures (e.g. Sanskritic, Sinitic, or Islamicate) and “local” or “indigenous” cultures, this multidisciplinary volume explores the metaphor of Monsoon Asia as a vast geo-environmental area inhabited by speakers of numerous language phyla, which for millennia has formed an integrated system of littorals where crops, goods, ideas, cosmologies, and ritual practices circulated on the sea-routes governed by the seasonal monsoon winds. The collective body of work presented in the volume describes Monsoon Asia as an ideal theatre for circulatory dynamics of cultural transfer, interaction, acceptance, selection, and avoidance, and argues that, despite the rich ethnic, linguistic and sociocultural diversity, a shared pattern of values, norms, and cultural models is discernible throughout the region.




The monsoon lands of Asia


Book Description

"According to the author a geographic region must satisfy the following conditions: however striking the diversity of the physical setting and the languages, religions and general appearance of the people, there must be some aspect of culture (for example, the social outlook or the organization of the economy) which pervades the area in such a way as to justify the recognition and study of that area as one entity and there must be substantial cultural differences between it and adjacent areas. Monsoon Asia, from Pakistan to Japan is more than a land area and an assemblage of countries: it is a distinctive geographical region. Its population--which includes nearly half the people in the world--is mainly rural, its economy mainly agricultural, and its peoples share a heritage of material poverty. But change is apparent everywhere in the area. This book is a compact and lucid introduction to the dynamic as well as the unchanging characteristics of the region. After an introductory section, which defines the limits of Monsoon Asia, there follow chapters on structure and relief, climate, vegetation, and soils. A discussion of the historical geography of the region leads into studies of its agriculture and industry. The concluding two-thirds of the book survey the characteristics of the constituent countries--India, Pakistan, Ceylon, China, Japan, Korea, and South-East Asia proper (Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc.). Special attention is paid throughout to the political and social setting of current political problems. The book contains 17 plates, 48 maps and diagrams, a selected bibliography, and an index."--Provided by publisher.




Monsoon


Book Description

On the world maps common in America, the Western Hemisphere lies front and center, while the Indian Ocean region all but disappears. This convention reveals the geopolitical focus of the now-departed twentieth century, but in the twenty-first century that focus will fundamentally change. In this pivotal examination of the countries known as “Monsoon Asia”—which include India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Burma, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania—bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan shows how crucial this dynamic area has become to American power. It is here that the fight for democracy, energy independence, and religious freedom will be lost or won, and it is here that American foreign policy must concentrate if the United States is to remain relevant in an ever-changing world. From the Horn of Africa to the Indonesian archipelago and beyond, Kaplan exposes the effects of population growth, climate change, and extremist politics on this unstable region, demonstrating why Americans can no longer afford to ignore this important area of the world.




Droughts in Asian Monsoon Region


Book Description

The Asian monsoon region is one of these areas where consecutive years of droughts are causing severe problems for the lives and livelihoods of the communities. This book outlines the characteristics and challenges of the Asian monsoon drought and highlights innovative solutions and approaches undertaken in different parts of the region.




East Asian Monsoon


Book Description

The East Asian summer monsoon has complex space and time structures that are distinct from the South Asian summer monsoon. It covers both subtropics and midlatitudes and its rainfall tends to be concentrated in rain belts that stretch for many thousands of kilometers and affect China, Japan, Korea, and the surrounding areas. The circulation of the East Asian winter monsoon encompasses a large meridional domain with cold air outbreaks emanating from the Siberian high and penetrates deeply into the equatorial Maritime Continent region, where the center of maximum rainfall has long been recognized as a major planetary scale heat source that provides a significant amount of energy which drives the global circulation during boreal winter. The East Asian summer monsoon is also closely linked with the West Pacific summer monsoon. Both are part of the global climate system and are affected by El Nino?Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and surface temperature variations in the western Pacific and surrounding oceans, the tropospheric biennial oscillation, and the South Asian summer monsoon. In addition, typhoons in the western North Pacific are most active during the East Asian summer monsoon. They may be considered as a component of the East Asian summer monsoon as they contribute substantial amounts of rainfall and have major impacts on the region. Because of its impacts on nearly one-third of the worldOCOs population and on the global climate system (including effects on the climate change), the study of the East Asian monsoon has received increased attention both in East Asian countries and in the United States. This book presents reviews of recent research on the subject."




Changes in the Human-monsoon System of East Asia in the Context of Global Change


Book Description

This book is the first in a series of assessments of regional climate change. Irreversible changes to regional biogeochemistry, and terrestrial and marine ecosystem functioning are brought about by increases in population, intensified land use, urbanization, industrialization and economic development. These may have global as well as regional consequences. The objectives of the assessments are, (i) to better understand how human activities in regions are altering regional atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine environments, (ii) to provide a sound scientific basis for sustainable regional development, and (iii) to develop the capability of predicting changes in global-regional linkages in the Earth System and to recognize the future consequences of such changes. This book describes such a study for monsoon East Asia, providing a state-of-the-art summary of what we already know, and serves as a basis for identifying knowledge gaps that require study.