Encyclopedia of Global Resources part 86 provides a wide variety of perspectives on both traditional and more recent views of Earth's resources. It serves as a bridge connecting the domains of resource exploitation, environmentalism, geology, and biology, and it explains their interrelationships in terms that students and other nonspecialists can understand. The articles in this set are extremely diverse, with articles covering soil, fisheries, forests, aluminum, the Industrial Revolution, the . Department of the Interior, the hydrologic cycle, glass, and placer mineral deposits. . | 778 Monsoons Global Resources In the aftermath of a 2009 monsoon a man leaps across a flooded street as others help in NewDehli India. AP Wide World Photos tain range the Himalayas and the world s largest plateau the Tibetan Plateau the largest and strongest monsoon circulation occurs in South and Southeast Asia which includes India and China the two most populous countries in the world. The Tibetan Plateau serves as a strong heat source which attracts large amounts of water vapor from low-latitude oceans. Some of this moisture is converted to precipitable water and falls over many South Asian countries such as India Sri Lanka Myanmar Burma and Thailand. Other portions of moisture are deflected by the Tibetan Plateau and transported eastward to China Korea and Japan. The famous Meiyu in Chinese Baiu inJapanese or Changma in Korean the seasonal marching rainband is a result of the Asian summer monsoon. The Asian-Australian summer monsoon affects more than 40 percent of the world population. People depend heavily on the monsoon rains not only to grow food crops but also for drinking water. However the monsoon can be unreliable in both duration and intensity. Floods and droughts often cause human casualties and economic loss. Therefore countries in the Asian monsoon region must consider the monsoon cycle as one of their most important strategic resources and plan accordingly. In South and East Asia monsoon precipitation also sends abundant water into rivers lakes and reservoirs. Transportation via water ways is important in these regions. There is also huge potential for hydropower resources. China has built the world largest hydropower dam over the Chang River also known as the Yangtze River which heavily depends upon monsoon rainfall. The government plans to build twenty such dams over the Chang to meet the country s rapidly growing economy. The African Monsoon The African monsoon is closely related to the oscillation and movement of Intertropical Convergence Zone .
