COMPLETIONREPORT

Comparative Study between Japan and Myanmar: the effect of flooding impacts on the River Morphology
And social emvironment
Kay Thwe Hlaing
Pro-Rector,
Yangon University of Education
We have finished our research project with 400 questioner surveys with ground check and interview with local
people in the flooding area in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar especially within Hinthada and Nyaung Done
Areas. We tried to measure the river channel meandering pattern by floods in the every raining season. We havealso conducted extensive participant observations by attending seminars and events pertaining to the topic offlooding impacts on river morphology and social environments in the Academic Meeting of the Association ofJapanese Geographers on March 28, 2019. A workshop and seminar focus on flood impacts on physical and soieconomic environments with totaling 125 local participants was held at the Nyaungdone on September 8, 2018
and we received wider interest from the community peoples. Then we also presented the paper about our results in
Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science paper reading section on September 28, 2018. In this study we analyzed
river channels shape and how they change over time. In this study we analyzed the flood development oflandforms in the study area is from landform classification map (the terrain features as river changes of theAyeyarwady River delta using a combination of aerial photos (2004), topographic maps (2004) at 1:50,000 scale,
Landsat imagery (+ETM7,path 133 and row 48, 4 February 2017, UTM 47 zone), version 2 of the Global digital
elevation model (ASTER-2 data) from USGS, on ArcGIS and analysis flood condition and its effected area. Thenwe delineated polygons outlining the active stream channel as of 1944, 1989, 1999 and 2015 in digitized data at
1:5000 scale and derived active channel width, sinuosity, and channel area for these four years. For 1944 we used
topographic maps of 1:63,360 scale, for 1989 we used Terra Look images (Path 133 and Row 48, 16January1989), for 1999 we used Terra Look images (Path 133 and Row 48, 30 December 1999), and for 2015 weused Google Earth images. We assessed changes in the channel pattern by visual inspection, and then derived
values for mean channel width, total channel area, and sinuosity by measuring channel width at ~5.58 km intervals
along the study reach and measuring distances along the centerline of the polygon representing the river channel.
This technique yielded approximately 17 width values for each polygon, from which we calculated the areas ofchannel sand mid-channel bars for each polygon. The channel pattern and channel movement, the formation ofchannel-bar within the river course and channel bank erosion by annual flooding are observed within the study
area. Finally we made questioner survey about the communication links and infrastructure such as power plants,
roads and bridges are damaged and disrupted, economic activities come to a standstill, resulting in dislocation andthe dysfunction of normal life for a period much beyond the duration of the flooding, and predicted the response of
the Ayeyarwday River to future climate change and the effects on the occurrence of natural disasters in Myanmar.
Our comparative study examines the discourse and understanding of flooding impacts among river channelchanges and socio-economic conditions between Myanmar and Japanese deltas. There are both positive andnegative environmental effects of flooding in every place. Although the large amounts of water and suspended
river sediment over vast areas of the Myanmar delta areas are distributed by annual floods, Japanese delta do nothave such large amounts of water and suspended river sediment due to good river channel management system.
Therefore, immediate impacts of flooding include loss of human life, damage to property, destruction of crops, lossof livestock, non- functioning of infrastructure facilities and deterioration of health condition owing to waterborne
diseases in Myanmar delta areas. Immediate flash floods, with little or no warning time, cause more deaths thanslow-rising riverine floods in Myanmar delta. In the future, the flooding and natural disaster or hazards problems
between Myanmar and Japan should be observed and implement the disaster management and prevention of
hazard and risk problem and conservation activities in the Myanmar Delta. I think that a long-term disasterprevention results like Japan should be introduced in order to be able to live later. In addition, flooding can destroy
the natural balance of the ecosystem. Therefore chemicals and other hazardous substances in water and eventuallycontaminate the water research should be done in the Myanmar Delta.
Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation(Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)

Kay Thwe Hlaing, Aung Swe, Khin Khin Htay (2019) Effects of Flood Impacts on River Morphology andSocial Environments in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Regional Forum on Building Resilient Asian Deltas - 16-18 Octin Bangkok
Kay Thwe Hlaing (2018) Panel Discussion on the Myanamr River DeltaThe 2018 Lower Mekong ResearchSymposium, December 13-14, 2018 in Ho Chi MinhCity, Vietnam
Aung Swe, Khin Khin Htay , Kay Thwe Hlaing (2017) Study on Morphological Changes of the AyeyarwadyRiver from Pyay to Hinthada, Myanmar Academy of Arts and Sciences Conference, September 27-28, 2018,Yangon, Myanmar
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Aung Swe, Khin Khin Htay , Kay Thwe Hlaing (2018) Study on Morphological Changes of the AyeyarwadyRiver from Pyay to Hinthada, Journal of Myanmar Academy of Arts and Sciences, Myanma
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)