Field level damage of deepwater rice by the 2011 Southeast Asian Flood in a flood plain of Tonle Sap Lake,Northwest Cambodia

The 2011 flood damaged about 11 % of planting area in Cambodia, but the damaged proportion reached 30 % in Sangke district, Battambang province, located in the flood plains of Tonle Sap Lake. The aim of this study was to characterize completely damaged deepwater rice production due to the flood along the transect from the town-side shallower fields to the lake-side deeper fields. The flooding water from Tonle Sap Lake rose with 7 cm/day in September and October in the deeper fields where floating rice was grown and 8–10 cm/day in October in the shallower fields where lowland rice was grown. The maximum water was recorded on 16 October with 3.2 and 2.0 m at the deepest and shallowest edge fields. The area was characterized as flatness with only 1.2 m elevation differences in 4.3 km distance along the transect. The flooding water took 13.7 h for approaching 100 m distance. Complete recession of flood water was end of November at the shallow edge and at late December in the deep edge in 2011. The flooding duration deeper than 50 cm was 2.5 month and nearly 3 months in the middle zone and deeper floating rice area, respectively. The complete submergence started first in some fields in the middle zone on 12 September, followed by the shallower lowland rice area, and finally in the deep floating rice area by 1 October. Countermeasures to improve rice production in deepwater rice area in the floodplain of Tonle Sap Lake were proposed.