University of East Yangon

Coastal lowlands and river deltas worldwide are increasingly exposed to coastal, pluvial and fluvial flooding as well as relative sea-level rise (RSLR). However, information about both single and multiple flood-type hazards, their potential impact and the characteristics of areas, population and assets at risk is often still limited as high-quality data either does not exist or is not accessible. This often constitutes a main barrier for generating sound assessments, especially for scientific and public communities in the so-called Global South. We provide a standardised, integrative approach for the first-order assessment of these single and multiple flood-type hazards and show how this can be conducted for data-sparse, hardly accessible and inaccessible coastal lowlands such as the Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar by using only open accessible and freely available datasets of satellite imagery, global precipitation estimates, satellite-based river discharge measurements, elevation, land use, and population data. More than 70% of the delta, mainly used for agriculture, and about 40% of its present population are prone to flooding due to either monsoon precipitation and runoff, storm surge, and RSLR, or their combination, jeopardising food security and economic development in the region. The approach allows for the integration and combination of various datasets, combined in a highly flexible workflow that performs at low computational capacities, supporting the evaluation of flood-prone areas on regional and local scale for data-sparse coastal lowlands worldwide. It thereby allows to attribute different types of flood hazards, complements concepts of vulnerability and risk, and supports risk-informed decision making and development of effective multi-flooding adaptation strategies.

Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia, is currently in a state of turmoil after the military took control of all operations.[1][1] With the added COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s situation has totally become a chaos. As a former pariah state under an almost 50-year rule of an oppressive military

This paper presents new finding from the sedimentary sequences, overlooked by previous researchers, which provide insights to the sea level changes during the deposition of the Middle to Late Pliocene Kalibiuk Formation. Data were acquired from fieldwork via detailed measured section of each sedimentary sequence from the bottom to the upper part of the formation followed by molluscan fossil association analyses. Lithologically, the Cisaat River stratigraphic section is dominated by greenish grey claystone with some light grey fine-grained sandstone intercalation. Based on about 50 m stratigraphic section, 10 molluscan fossils associations were successfully determined. The sequence from bottom to top are: Corbula – Natica association, Nassa sp. association, Olividae – Turricula association, Pecten – Telina association, Telina – Placuna association, Corbula – Marginella association, Placuna – Natica association, Turritella association, Turritella – Marginella association and Dentalina – Architectonica association. Changes in vertical succession of the molluscan association indicates a development from shallow marine to terrestrial depositional environment before gradually overlain by terrestrial sediments of the Kaliglagah Formation. At least there are 2 deepening - shallowing sea level cycles during the deposition of Kalibiuk Formation observed from this section.

The present study estimates the causal effect of a process of political change, namely, a recent constitutional referendum, on economic growth in Myanmar. To analyze the impact of this process, this study compares the trajectories of actual and counterfactual GDP per capita after the referendum using the synthetic control method. We calculate the counterfactual GDP per capita using country‐level panel data from 2002 to 2013, with Myanmar as the treated country and a set of developing countries in East and South Asia, the Pacific and sub‐Saharan Africa as the control group. The results of the synthetic analysis suggest that the recent process of political change in Myanmar had a positive and significant effect on GDP per capita but not on per capita foreign direct investment or trade.

This paper aims to shed light on the by-products of ‘justice seeking’ and challenges faced by the justice seekers in the post-justice-seeking regimes. Justice seeking might be desirable when it brings institutional changes that lessen the degree of unfair treatment. However, justice seeking, regardless of how it is sought through, might not always lead to institutions that ensure better distributive justice compared to the status quo due mainly to contestants’ failure of omission. Two justice-seeking episodes are illustrated to examine this hypothesis. Myanmar’s transition to democracy, considered as justice by the pro-democratic parties, was sought for a long time and finally achieved in 2015 through a peaceful parliamentary election. In contrast, the government of Sri Lanka, and the mass population as well, wanted justice against the insurgencies caused by the LTTE which finally achieved through armed confrontations. The case of Sri Lanka tells us that justice-seeking activities occasionally lead to such outcome as weakening of organizational ability to self-control or govern the organization that the justice seekers belong to. Likewise, Myanmar may possibly fall into the same dilemma of causing the slow pace of change associated with the general frustration in the people who want to feel tangible results immediately.

This chapter presents a brief review of the gold deposits and occurrences in Myanmar and, where known, their resources. Many of these deposits are currently being or have recently been exploited, mostly on a small scale by licensed mining concerns. The smaller mining operations tend to be under-capitalized and hence geological data on the deposits being exploited are limited. In this sense the gold deposits in Myanmar remain underexplored and underdeveloped, but retain considerable future potential. Some of the gold deposits have been known for many years, and their earlier histories are mentioned in reviews by Chhibber (1934), Goossens (1978) and Bender (1983). More recent studies, including descriptions of individual deposits, can be found in Khin Zaw et al. (1993, 1999 a , b , 2014), Khin Zaw & Rice (1994), Mitchell et al. (1999, 2004), Ye Myint Swe et al. (2004 a , b ), Cho Cho Aye et al. (2007), Khin Zaw (2008), Cho Cho Aye & Ye Myint Swe (2014) and Tin Aung Myint et al. (2014). The main tectonic divisions of Myanmar and geological units containing gold deposits are shown in Figure 25.1, including an index of the gold deposits and prospects described in this chapter. Details of the primary gold deposits are summarized in Tables 25.1, 25.2, 25.3, 25.4, 25.5, 25.6. Other potentially significant hard-rock gold deposits are shown in Figure 25.2, and the distribution of some alluvial gold deposits is shown in Figure 25.3. Fig. 25.1. Major tectonic belts and location of major gold deposits and prospects in Myanmar (compiled after Mitchell et al. 1999; Khin Zaw et al. 1999 a , b , 2014, 2015; Ye Myint Swe et al. 2004 a , b ). Fig. 25.2. Locations …