Kwan Phayao (, , ) is a lake in Phayao Province,

northern Thailand Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is a region of Thailand. It is geographically characterized by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys that cut through them. ...

. ''Kwan'', a word from the

northern Thai language Northern Thai (), also called Kam Mueang (, กำเมือง) or Lanna, is the language spoken by the Northern Thai people of Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai languages, Southwestern Tai language. The language has approximately six mill ...

, means 'lake' or 'large swamp'. The shape of the lake is a nearly-half-circle-moon shape. Phayao Lake is the largest freshwater

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the northern region and the fourth largest in the country, with a depth of 1.5 metres, and covers an area of about 1,980 hectares. There are about 50 species of fish in Phayao Lake.

History

Phayao Lake began from the collapse of the

lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time ...

about 70 million years ago. This area was surrounded by low mountains before. There are 18 creeks mixing together here. In 1935, the department of fisheries had set up Phayao inland fisheries station on

Ing River The Ing River (, , ) is a tributary of the Mekong River in the northern part of Thailand. It has its source in Doi Luang, Phi Pan Nam Range, in Mae Chai District, Phayao Province. The Ing flows through the plain area of Thoeng District. The In ...

and made the dam, which cause a large swamp with a depth of 1.5 metres. “Nong Lang” was one of the most prominent ponds. The land at the northern and southern ends of the area during summer is dry, so it is possible to walk through the area. Before 1941, Phayao Lake was a vast area of

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

. It was humid in the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

(around July to November). The

flowed through the area, creating many large ponds called “nong” and smaller ones called “buak”. The floodwaters made

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

s connected with each other creating two lakes, one called “Kwan Noi” which means small lake, located in the

west West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

. The other one called “Kwan Luang,” located in the

east East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

, near the right part of Ing River. In the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

, the local people went there for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

, it was overcrowded and no one was able to control the situation. Another problem is that the water was getting low in every year. The Department of Fisheries decided to build the floodgate in 1939 and finished in 1941. However, it was flooded over the field, house, temple, and archaeological site, creating much damage. The natural swamps changed into large reservoirs. The Department of Fisheries established a fisheries research station at Phayao Lake to breed fish for the lake as part of the campaign to increase the availability of cheap protein diet for public consumption. Aquatic flora from Phayao Lake are used as animal feed. Phayao Lake is rich in natural resources that aid in providing the people of Phayao with a relatively comfortable life. In the past, the area around Phayao Lake was the area where water from the mountains flowed into streams, rivers, and became small swamps during the dry season every year. The lessening of water makes the farmers able to use the area for farming, raise animals, and use as the route from the city to the surrounding villages of Phayao. The area of Phayao Lake was the urban area which had lot of

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

s before. Later, when the Department of Fisheries created a water gate in Phayao to keep water, the temple was submerged in the area. By 2009, the lake had become a shallow, degraded water source. It was clogged with weeds. Sediment had decreased its depth. Fish stocks had dwindled. The Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute (HAII) and other agencies, inspired by

King Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej (5 December 192713 October 2016), titled Rama IX, was King of Thailand from 1946 until his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any Thai monarch, the longest on record of any independent ...

's emphasis on water management, stepped in to rejuvenate the lake. Dikes were built to trap sediment, unwanted weeds were removed and used for animal feed, and the lake was stocked with native fish. As a result, the water storage capacity of the lake increased by 370,000 cubic metres. As a result, water from the lake was able to provide for 16,500 nearby families and of farmland.

Geography

The land around the lake is very fertile. Communities around the river has existed since ancient time. The temperature of the area is ranges from 19.5 °C to 27.5 °C. The average rainfall per year is around 1,064 mm. There are 36 recorded different varieties of aquatic plants in Phayao Lake. The major underwater plants are ''

Ceratophyllum demersum ''Ceratophyllum demersum'', commonly known as hornwort (a common name shared with the unrelated Anthocerotophyta), rigid hornwort, coontail, or coon's tail, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Ceratophyllum''. It is a submerged, free-f ...

'' and ''

Najas graminea ''Najas graminea'', also known as ricefield water-nymph is a species of aquatic plant found in freshwater habitats, especially still or slow-moving waters, like ponds and rice fields. It grows to a maximum length of 30 cm. The flowers are mo ...

'' while other plants mainly include '' Slavonia cucullata'', ''

Nelumbo nucifera ''Nelumbo nucifera'', also known as the pink lotus, sacred lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant taxon, extant species of aquatic plant in the Family (biology), family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a ...

'', ''

Eichhornia crassipes ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.Scrirpus grossus''. The estimated mass of fishing crop per hectare is approximately 159 kilograms. Humidity in the area ranges from 70 to 80 percent. Kwan Phayao1

Fauna and flora

The estimated mass of fish harvest per hectare is approximately 159 kilograms. There are about 50 species of fish:

Iridescent shark The iridescent shark or iridescent shark catfish (''Pangasianodon hypophthalmus'') is a species of shark catfish (family Pangasiidae) native to the rivers of Southeast Asia. Despite its name, it is not a shark. It is found in the Mekong basin as ...

(ปลาสวาย),

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a Family (biology), family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barb (fish), barbs and barbel (fish), barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the ...

common carp The common carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), also known as European carp, Eurasian carp, or simply carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Ark ...

(ปลาไน),

nile tilapia The Nile tilapia (''Oreochromis niloticus'') is a species of tilapia, a cichlid occurring naturally in parts of Africa (such as its namesake Nile River) and the Levant, though numerous introduced populations exist outside its natural range. T ...

(ปลานิล), climbing perch (ปลาหมอ), striped snakehead (ปลาช่อน), great white sheatfish (ปลาค้าวขาว), bagrid catfishes (ปลากด), clarias catfish (ปลาดุก),

asian swamp eel The Asian swamp eel (''Monopterus albus''), also known as rice eel, ricefield eel, rice paddy eel or white rice-field eel, is a commercially important air-breathing species of fish in the family Synbranchidae. It occurs in East and Southeast Asi ...

(ปลาไหลนา), spotted featherback (ปลากราย), snake skin gourami (ปลาสลิด), moonlight gourami (ปลากระดี่นาง),

minnow Minnow is the common name for a number of species of small freshwater fish, belonging to several genus, genera of the family Cyprinidae and in particular the subfamily Leuciscinae. They are also known in Ireland as wikt:pinkeen, pinkeens. While ...

(ปลาซิว) There are

water hyacinths ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

s. The water hyacinth occupies about one-third of the area of Phayao Lake. The grasses are of different types:

Johnson grass Johnson grass or Johnsongrass, ''Sorghum halepense'', is a plant in the grass family, Poaceae, native to Asia and northern Africa. The plant has been introduced to all continents except Antarctica, and most larger islands and archipelagos. It re ...

(หญ้าปล้อง) and

Leucas aspera ''Leucas aspera'' is a plant species within the genus ''Leucas'' and the family Lamiaceae. Although the species has many different common names depending on the region in which it is located, it is most commonly known as Thumbai or Thumba. Found ...

(หญ้าเค้านก) are seen in the dry season, when water decreases. FMIB 46317 Whitebait.jpeg, Whitebait Trichogaster microlepis,.jpg, Moonlight gourami Water hyacinth.jpg, Water hyacinth

References

External links

* {{Authority control Geography of Phayao province Lakes of Thailand