Tonle Sap Lake and River and confluence with the Mekong River in Cambodia

For centuries the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia (figure 1), have derived their livelihoods from the fish and water resources of the lake and its expanding and contracting floodplains. Historically, the lake enabled the powerful Khmer civilization near Siem Reap (figure 2) to develop an elaborate hydraulic complex to irrigate rice (Oryza sativa) fields and support one of the largest premodern urban populations in the world (Goscha 2016). Today the rice-fish diet continues to be the staple of rural and urban daily meals throughout Southeast Asia.