2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 Holocene epoch 2.1.2 Sunda Shelf 2.2 Sea level records in the Sunda Shelf 2.3 Sedimentary and stratigraphic records in the Sunda Shelf 2.3.1 Mekong River delta 2.3.2 Red (Song Hong) River delta 2.3.3 Chao Phraya River delta 2.4 Rainfall variability in the Maritime Continent 2.4.1 Movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone 2.4.2 Zonal variations 2.4.3 Other drivers 2.4.4 Comparison of hydroclimate records 2.5 Abrupt climate anomaly during the early Holocene 2.6 Conclusion 2.7 References Chapter 3: Core-CT: a MATLAB application for the quantitative analysis of sediment and coral cores from X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) Abstract 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 Geoscience applications of CT scanning 3.1.2 Challenges of using CT data 3.1.3 Core-CT 3.2 Quantitative data in CT scan images 3.3 Methods 3.3.1 Method 1: Constructing mean CT number profiles from ROI 3.3.2 Method 2: Localised CT number profile 3.3.3 Image and volume segmentation of ROI 3.4 Implementation 3.5 Applications of Core-CT in geoscience investigations 3.5.1 Identification of historical tsunami deposits in sedimentary record: Lake Huelde Chile 3.5.2 Identification of sedimentary units in unsplit sediment cores: Kallang River Basin, Singapore 3.5.3 Identification and quantification of coral growth bands and internal bioerosion: Red Sea, Saudi Arabia 3.6 Conclusion 3.7 Computer code availability 3.8 Declaration of competing interest 3.9 Acknowledgements 3.10 References Chapter 4: A sedimentary record of early-mid Holocene environmental change from southern Singapore Abstract 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Study site 4.3 Methods 4.3.1 Computed Tomography (CT) scan 4.3.2 Core logging 4.3.3 X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning 4.3.4 Loss on Ignition (LOI) 4.3.5 Grain size distribution 4.3.6 Radiocarbon dating and chronology 4.4 Results 4.4.1 CT scanning 4.4.2 Core logging 4.4.3 XRF core scanning 4.4.4 Loss on Ignition (LOI) 4.4.5 Grain size distribution 4.4.6 Chronology of GRBH03 4.4.7 Lithofacies of GRBH03 4.5 Discussion 4.5.1 Sea level and sediment accumulation history 4.5.2 Other possible drivers of sediment accumulation 4.6 Conclusion 4.7 References Chapter 5: Early-mid Holocene environmental change inferred from shallow marine benthic foraminifera from Singapore Abstract 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Foraminifera as an environmental proxy 5.3 Study area 5.3.1 Foraminiferal studies in the Sunda Shelf 5.4 Methods 5.4.1 Chronology 5.4.2 Foraminiferal analysis 5.4.3 Quantitative analyses 5.5 Results 5.5.1 Foraminiferal assemblages 5.6 Discussion 5.6.1 Taphonomy effects 5.6.2 Environmental change inferred from foraminiferal records 5.7 Conclusion 5.8 Acknowledgements 5.9 References Chapter 6: Early-mid Holocene hydroclimate records using stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of shallow marine benthic foraminifera from Singapore