Social upheaval in ancient Angkor resulting from fluvial response to land use and climate variability

Angkor, in present-day cambodia, was primate city to the sprawling Khmer empire from the 9th-15th century Ad. recent and ongoing mapping exercises (Evans et al. 2007; pottier 1999) have demonstrated that Angkor covered an area in excess of 1000 km2 (Evans et al. 2007). At its peak in the 11-12th centuries Ad, the city supported a population of several hundred thousand people. the scale of the settlement implies an enormous environmental footprint, with the widespread conversion of primary forest to intensive bunded rice agriculture, and the systematic modification of natural rivers to stifle the seasonal flood pulse and feed massive reservoirs.