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The Mekong River system

  • Chapter
The Ecology of River Systems

Part of the book series: Monographiae Biologicae ((MOBI,volume 60))

Abstract

One of the great rivers of Asia, the Mekong ranks twelfth in the list of longest rivers of the world. It rises in the Himalayas at c. 5000 m AMSL, close to the Dzanag La Pass in the Tanghla Shan Mountains, on the NE rim of the great Tibetan Plateau (Fig. 1). Along its 4200 km course, it flows through or along the borders of six countries: China, Burma, Lao PDR Thailand, Kampuchea and Viet Nam, before emptying into the South China Sea. In terms of mean annual discharge (c. 475 x 109 m3 a−1) the Mekong ranks sixth in the world. The total drainage basin of 783 000 km2 includes c. 160 000 km2 in China, 12 000 km2 in Burma, and 611 000 km2 in Lao PDR Kampuchea, Thailand and Viet Nam together (the Lower Mekong Basin). Very little information is available for the upper 1800 km, or the basin in Tibet, China and Burma. However, the lower 2380 km, from entry into the Lower Basin at the Burma—Lao PDR—Thailand boundary to the South China Sea, has been well-studied through the UN-sponsored water and related resources development programme, The Mekong Project, launched some 25 years ago. This chapter concentrates on the Lower Mekong River and its basin, shown in Fig. 2.

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Authors
  1. V. R. Pantulu
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Freshwater Research Group, Dept of Zoology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, Cape Town, South Africa

    Bryan R. Davies

  2. River Murray Research Unit, Dept of Zoology, University of Adelaide, 5000, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Keith F. Walker

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© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Pantulu, V.R. (1986). The Mekong River system. In: Davies, B.R., Walker, K.F. (eds) The Ecology of River Systems. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 60. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3290-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3290-1_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8515-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3290-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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