Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 48.
Lake Biwa is very important in a social context. It is the largest lake in Japan and presently supplies some 15 million people in four prefectures, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo with drinking water, making it the single most important source of water in Japan.
It is also important from a geographical perspective. It is a natural lake born some five million years ago and is therefore geologically one of the oldest lakes in the world.