China possesses over 110 international rivers and lakes, among which 41 are major ones and 15 are of great importance. With the highest concentration of international rivers, the northeast, northwest and southwest regions of China enjoy abundant transboundary resources aad pose complicated ecological security issues. Following the 1950s, relevant studies on international rivers fall into three periods: 1) the planned economy period of the 1950s 1980s when border development mad basic research were scant; 2) the reform mad opening up period from 1980 to the end of 20th century. Along with the drive of economic globalizafion mad regional cooperation, development of international rivers was thriving, which filled blanks in the research and nanowed gaps with international standards. Relevant studies also provided national mad local governments with important scientific grounds for making decisions; 3) since the start of the 21st century, China has integrated its international river studies across sectors mad across international borders. Now both government mad scientific institutions pay great attention to transboundary environmental issues.

The western part of China borders on South and Southeast Asia. Of the numerous well known international rivers sharing with the two regions, the Lancang2Mekong River has been most extensively studied in the world for its important strategic position, rich resources, prosperous potential market as well as considerable opportunities for investment and development. The sustainable multipurpose development in this area has increasingly become the focus of international regional cooperation, and great attention has been paid to this area by the international society. Up to now, at least 10 major actions in the international regional cooperation are expected in this area. This paper intends, at the angle of geography and with the overall target of promoting the sustainable development in the basin through international cooperations, to study the international position, the potential and the prospects for development of the Lancang-Mekong River, to analyze the main problems in this international cooperation, to propose targets and prospects for such cooperation, and to indicate the way for geographers to participate in such research.

独龙江与独龙族是一个密切耦合和相对独立并具有独特自然、人文景观的人地复合系统，因其区位偏僻，地域封闭和通行困难，历来鲜有专业人士进行研究，直至本世纪九十年代初仍然有许多学科研究的空白。本文着重介绍我们连续5年对该复合系统的多学科交叉研究的进展及成果。

The Lancang-Mekong, with a total basin area of about 810,000km2 and an annual average volume of flow of 475,000 mcm, is a major international river. In Yunnan river gorges are steep; slopes range from 1.5‰ in the upper part of the Lancang to between 0.8‰ and 1.0‰ in the middle and lower parts. Potential hydropower is unevenly distributed, mainly concentrated on the mainstream of the Lancang in China and the tributaries of the lower Mekong. The supply capacity of electricity among most of the riparian countries can't meet the power needs. Data provided by the State Power Corporation of China shows that the total installed capacity of the cascade dams would be over 15,000MW, yielding over 7,000MW of firm power and annual energy production of about 70,000 GWh.

依据国际河流水资源公平合理利用的基本原则，水资源竞争利用之矛盾解决的基本方法以及水资源的三种基本分配模式，通过对澜沧江—湄公河流域水资源利用的趋势与流域国间的用水矛盾以及现有的流域国间的合作程度、流域的管理机制条件的分析，认为现澜沧江——湄公河流域内，进行全流域水资源全局分配是较为合理和切合实际的分配模式。