The Dynamics of Water Management of Angkor, Cambodia, 9th to 16th Century

Recent research has uncovered an impressive feature of Angkor: an extensive hydraulic network stretching across a thousand square kilometres. Although Angkor’s hydraulic and hydrology are not nearly as well understood as its religious architecture, it seems as though this system may have played a key role in the city operation and may also have played a role in the demise of this urban complex in the middle of the second millennium CE. Airborne synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR-TOPSAR) data have been used to create a GIS database of the network of canals, reservoirs and embankments used to manage water in Angkorean times. Using the GIS database, TOPSAR elevation model and powerful hydraulics and hydrological models it is possible to investigate how the hydrological network was developed, how it worked and why and when it collapsed. Understanding the water management of the Angkor area will help us to better understand how the urban complex operated and may offer new information about the decline of Angkor