• Title/Summary/Keyword: LAOS

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Hydropower Development and Sustainability in the Mekong River Basin

  • Lee, Seung-Ho
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2012.05a
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    • pp.37-37
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    • 2012
  • The study aims to evaluate the complexity of relationships between the riparian states - China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia - in the Mekong River Basin since the mid-1990s with special reference to the discourse on hydropower development. A special emphasis will be put on the influence of China on hydropower development. Although a variety of issues on the river basin have been discussed among the riparian states, none of them has been effectively implemented owing to the lack of China's commitment to the discussions for sustainable water management. Now, a new turning point is observed in the region with emergence of the issue on hydropower development, not only in the upper basin but also in the lower basin. The discourse on hydropower in Mekong has quickly drawn attention of the public, accelerated by the onset of construction of the Xayabury Dam in Laos since November 2010. The influence of China as the upstream country with its political, economic, and military power has increasingly grown in the region over the last few decades, and such trend recently intensifies together with an expansion of Chinese commercial interests in the region. Since the establishment of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in 1995, the four MRC members have striven to push forward a sustainable use of water resources in the basin. But the legitimacy of the MRC system has been eroded due to the lack of participation by Myanmar and China, and in particular, the Chinese absence has made the four riparian states blind about the change of water regime due to the Chinese dams upstream. Environmental damages due to hydropower development might be possible, including a drop of fish yields, crop production, and damages to the river's ecosystems. Vietnam and Cambodia have already expressed their concerns over the dam construction towards China as well as Laos by pointing out detrimental impacts of the dams to their economies. China's move to collaborate with the other riparian states since 2010 has given a positive signal in terms of sustainable water management in the river. However, this phenomenon never confirms China's proactive contribution to the cooperative activities within the framework of the MRC system. Laos' initiative to build a new dam in the lower basin alarms those who are opposed to dam construction in the fear of its far-reaching damages to the environment. The question goes back to the year-long debate on policy priorities given to economic growth or the environment. The riparian states require wisdom based on a consensus about sustainable water use rather than hydropower development based on individual growth dreams.

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Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in Native Chicken Populations from Myanmar, Thailand and Laos by Using 102 Indels Markers

  • Maw, A.A.;Kawabe, Kotaro;Shimogiri, T.;Rerkamnuaychoke, W.;Kawamoto, Y.;Masuda, S.;Okamoto, S.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.14-19
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    • 2015
  • The genetic diversity of native chicken populations from Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos was examined by using 102 insertion and/or deletion (indels) markers. Most of the indels loci were polymorphic (71% to 96%), and the genetic variability was similar in all populations. The average observed heterozygosities ($H_O$) and expected heterozygosities ($H_E$) ranged from 0.205 to 0.263 and 0.239 to 0.381, respectively. The coefficients of genetic differentiation (Gst) for all cumulated populations was 0.125, and the Thai native chickens showed higher Gst (0.088) than Myanmar (0.041) and Laotian (0.024) populations. The pairwise Fst distances ranged from 0.144 to 0.308 among populations. A neighbor-joining (NJ) tree, using Nei's genetic distance, revealed that Thai and Laotian native chicken populations were genetically close, while Myanmar native chickens were distant from the others. The native chickens from these three countries were thought to be descended from three different origins (K = 3) from STRUCTURE analysis. Genetic admixture was observed in Thai and Laotian native chickens, while admixture was absent in Myanmar native chickens.

New records of ferns in the flora of Laos (1) (라오스 미기록 양치식물 (1))

  • Hwang, In Chun;Moon, Myung-Ok;Bounphanmy, Somchanh;Yoon, Narae;Sun, Byung-Yun
    • Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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    • v.45 no.2
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    • pp.109-113
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    • 2015
  • Fieldwork in Lao PDR during 2007-2008 resulted in the discovery of 15 unrecorded fern species among the flora of Lao PDR. All have been identified in other countries in southeastern Asia, as well as from other tropical areas. The species are as follows: Asplenicaceae (Asplenium delavayi, A. rockier), Athyriaceae (Anisocampium cuspidatum), Dennstaedtiaceae (Microlepia hookeriana, Pteridium revolutum), Dryopteridaceae (Didymochlaena truncatula, Dryopteris cochleata, Polystichum biaristatum, P. lindsaefolium), Gleicheniaceae (Dicranopteris curranii), Hypodematiaceae (Hypodematium crenatum), Lindsaeaceae (Lindsaea heterophylla), Pteridaceae (Pteris decrescens), Polypodiaceae (Pyrrosia nummularifolia) and Thelypteridaceae (Cyclosorus dentatus).

Land Use Evaluation and Suitablility Analysis for Paddy Cropping of Nam Khane Watershed, Laos, Using Remotely Sensed Data and Geographic Information Systems (원격탐사자료와 GIS를 이용한 라오스 남칸유역분지의 토지이용평가 및 미작적지분석)

  • 조명희
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.1-17
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    • 1995
  • Using remotely sensed data(MOS-1) and other spatial data such as aerial photos and topographic maps, 10 kind of thematic layers were prepared with Arc/Info system for watershed management of Nam Khane River, northern part of Laos. The characteristics of landuse distribution of some criteria which like village, sub-basin, elevation and slope were clarified by overlaying each layer. Therefore, statistic data including shifting cultivation area were produced from database layer. Through the manipulation of some data of each layer, suitable area for permanent paddy cropping converted from the fallow and shifting cultivation area was extracted.

Two Economic Crisis and Dollarization for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (양대 경제위기와 달러화 현상: 캄보디아, 라오스, 베트남 사례 연구)

  • Ra, Hee-Ryang
    • The Southeast Asian review
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.125-153
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    • 2011
  • 본 논문에서는 아시아 경제위기(1997-2000)와 글로벌 경제위기(2007-2010)의 양대 경제위기 이후 진행된 동남아시아 지역의 달러화 현상에 대해 후발국이면서 체제전환국 성격이 강한 캄보디아, 라오스, 베트남을 중심으로 분석하였다. 이를 위해 로하스-수아레즈(Rojas-Suarez 1992) 모형을 활용하여 양대 경제위기의 위 3개국의 달러화 현상에 대한 영향을 비교 분석하였다. 동 모델에 의하면 경제위기는 자국화폐에 대한 신뢰를 떨어뜨려 자국 화폐가치에 대한 예상평가절하율(예상환율상승률)이 크면 클수록 자국화폐 대비 달러화에 대한 수요는 증가될 것으로 예상된다. 분석 결과 아시아 경제위기의 경우 모델의 예상대로 자국 화폐의 예상평가절하 시 달러화의 수요를 나타내는 탄력성 계수가 통계적으로 유의하였다. 국가별로는 캄보디아, 라오스, 베트남의 순서로 탄력성이 크게 나타났으며 이는 각 국의 달러화 수준과 비례하는 결과이다. 이에 비해 글로벌 경제위기의 경우에는 캄보디아를 제외하면 탄력성 계수가 유의하지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 또한 캄보디아의 경우에도 탄력성 계수가 아시아 경제위기의 경우에 비해 감소된 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 달러화 현상에 있어서 아시아 경제위기에 비해 글로벌 경제위기의 영향이 상대적으로 작다는 것을 의미한다. 이는 동남아시아에 대한 글로벌 경제위기의 부정적 영향이 상대적으로 작았다는 기존의 연구들의 주장과 일치한다.

Soil Survey and Land Evaluation for Establishing the Demonstration Farm in the Oudomxai Province, Laos (농업투자용 시범농장 조성 후보지 선정을 위한 라오스 우돔싸이주(州)의 토양조사 및 토지특성 평가)

  • Park, Moo-Eon;Park, Ki-Wook;Cho, Il-Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.43 no.6
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    • pp.1024-1034
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    • 2010
  • In order to select the demonstration farm site for agricultural investment by Korean fund, 14 sites were investigated by soil morphological characteristics and were evaluated by rating method in the Oudomxai province of Laos. Land evaluation was carried out by using eight factors, such as site accessibility, soil erosion susceptibility, easiness of farm mechanization, irrigation water obtainability, suitability of soil physical and chemical properties for crop growth, cost for establishment of farm foundation and land obtainability. In addition, one site to have been highly ranked was soil physico-chemically studied for farm planning. The site of heavy clayey soil has hydraulic conductivity of 26.27~40.64 cm $day^{-1}$, organic content of lower than 14 g $kg^{-1}$, available phosphate content of lower than 3 mg $kg^{-1}$, exchangeable cations of lower than 0.38, 11 and 3.1 cmolc $kg^{-1}$ in K, Ca and Mg, respectively. Major important limitations for establishment of demonstration farm were concluded as heavy soil-texture, high soil erodibility, low organic matter and phosphate contents, and insufficient irrigation water in the Oudomxai province of Laos.

The Attitude Change of the Downstream Cambodian Government on the Development of Hydropower Dams in the Mekong River: The Background and Influential Factors (메콩강 수력발전댐 개발에 대한 하류국가캄보디아 정부의 태도 변화: 그 배경과 영향 요인)

  • JEON, Eun Jung;YUN, Sun-Jin
    • The Southeast Asian review
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.219-261
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    • 2018
  • The conflicts among nations surrounding international rivers are intensifying as worldwide water shortage is getting worse. The Mekong River is a representative trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia shared by six countries, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As the economy grows, hydroelectric power has become a major power supply source to meet the increasing power demand of the these countries. However, the construction of dams on the Mekong River is controversial because hydroelectric power in the river upstream has a negative impact not only on the whole river ecosystem but also on residents' life around downstream, in particular. In order to understand the controversy arising from international rivers, it is necessary to take into account different positions of countries sharing it. However, studies on the position of a specific country to Mekong hydropower have been conducted mainly focusing on China and Laos. Therefore, this study tried to study the position of Cambodian government which is located downstream of the Mekong River and is likely to bear costs rather than to gain benefits from hydroelectric power generation. What is the attitude of the Cambodian government to the hydroelectric development of the upper Mekong and what is the reason for that? The study confirmed the Cambodian government's support for dam construction on the Mekong River. It also figured out influential factors on the formation of such a position as follows: 1) economic asymmetry with China, 2) power dependency and geographical asymmetry in Laos, and 3) importance of hydroelectric power in Cambodia.