Rapidly declining surface and terrestrial water resources in Central Asia driven by socio-economic and climatic changes

Experience of the Central Asia countries in the sphere of reorming of institutional structures responsible for water resources management has been investigated. The outcomes of the works aimed at studying of the results of the integrated management principles application in order to improve structures and methods of water resources management are presented. These outputs enable to reveal special features of the approaches to the management problems solution in the conditions of available water resources abundance and lack in countries with different economic and natural/climatic conditions. The experience was summed up and the typical trends in the water sector management improvement accumulated in the Central Asia countries, as well as the date from other countries with the similar problems including NICs with centralized administrative systems, regions with the many-century traditions of irrigation farming, as well as the countries of transitional economy were revealed. Studying of many countries’ experience concerning adiption of the water resources integrated management allows us to state that there is no sungle ideal or universal model of transition from spatial/territorial management to basin management, no model which can be applied to any country. Analysis of the water resources management systems and institutions enables to formulate the main conditions for effective application of water resources integrated management principles. The paper notes that in spite of substantial progess in water resources management attained in the Central Asia countries many problems including practical application of water legislation, taking into account interest of all sectors of national economy, better coordination between ministeries and agencies involved in water resources management, participation of all stakeholders in taking decisions concerning water supply projects, distribution of juridical and financial obligations between water users and government, and insufficient coordination and agreement in actions at international, national andregional levels stay unsolved.

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The Water Resources Management in Central Asia – The Political and Economic Contradictions as a Source of Inefficiency

Nowa Polityka Wschodnia ◽

10.15804/npw20181605 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 85-100

Author(s):

Tomasz Waśkiel ◽

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Central Asia ◽

Water Resources Management ◽

The Political ◽

Resources Management

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Adaptation to climate change in the mountain regions of Central Asia: Assessment of the current knowledge

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15303 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zarina Saidaliyeva ◽

Veruska Muccione ◽

Maria Shahgedanova ◽

Sophie Bigler ◽

Carolina Adler

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Resources ◽

Central Asia ◽

Low Income ◽

Aral Sea ◽

European Alps ◽

Ample Evidence ◽

Central Asian ◽

Number Of Publications ◽

Adaptation Options

The mountains of Central Asia, extending over 7000 m a.s.l. and accommodating diverse and complex natural and managed systems, are very vulnerable to climate change. They support valuable environmental functions and provide key ecosystem goods and services to the arid downstream regions which strongly depend on the melting snowpack and glaciers for the provision of water by the transboundary rivers starting in the mountains. Strong climate change adaptation (CCA) action is required to increase resilience of the vulnerable, low-income communities in the region. Our knowledge of the CCA actions in the mountains of Central Asia is limited in comparison with other mountainous regions. The aim of this study is to assess the existing adaptation projects and publications and to identify gaps in adaptation efforts by conducting a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature published in English language. To be selected, the papers had to comply with the following criteria: (i) publication between 2013 and 2019; (ii) explicit focus on CCA in the mountain ranges of Central Asia; (iii) explanation of adaptation options; (vi) a clear methodology of deriving suitable adaptation options. Following the initial screening and subsequent reading of the publications, complying with the specified criteria, 33 peer-reviewed articles were selected for final analysis. This is considerably lower than the number of publications on the European Alps, Hindu-Kush &#8211; Himalayas, and the Andes. The number of publications on Central Asian mountains has declined since 2013.The research is heavily focused on the problem of water resources, especially water availability at present and in the future 70 % of the analysed papers addressing these issues. These are followed by the papers considering adaptation in agriculture and in managing biodiversity. A critical finding is the lack of publications on adaptation to hazards and disasters including glacier outburst floods, mudflow, and landslides which are common and comparatively well-researched hazards in the Central Asian mountains, experiencing rapid deglaciation. About 50 % of the papers address the transboundary nature of the impacts of climate changes on water resources and land management reflecting the transboundary nature of the Central Asian catchments and the tensions which exist across the region but are especially prominent in the Aral Sea basin.We conclude that while there is ample evidence of climate change and its impacts in the mountains of Central Asia and many publications mention the need for adaptation, a very limited number of publications explicitly focus on CCA and how it can be delivered.

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Post-Soviet changes in irrigated crop production in the Amu Darya Basin

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16266 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Müller ◽

Andrey Dara ◽

Christopher Krause ◽

Mayra Daniela Peña-Guerrero ◽

Tillman Schmitz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Central Asia ◽

Crop Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Aral Sea ◽

Crop Cultivation ◽

Amu Darya ◽

Crop Type ◽

Water Scarce ◽

Hydrological Droughts

Water withdrawals for irrigated crop production constitute the largest global consumer of blue water resources. Monitoring the dynamics of irrigated crop cultivation allows to track changes in water consumption of irrigated cropping, which is particularly paramount in water-scarce arid and semi-arid areas. We analyzed changes in irrigated crop cultivation along with occurrence of hydrological droughts for the Amu Darya river basin of Central Asia (534,700 km2), once the largest tributary river to the Aral Sea before large-scale irrigation projects have grossly reduced the amount of water that reaches the river delta. We used annual and seasonal spectral-temporal metrics derived from Landsat time series to quantify the three predominant cropping practices in the region (first season, second season, double cropping) for every year between 1988 and 2020. We further derived unbiased area estimates for the cropping classes at the province level based on a stratified random sample (n=2,779). Our results reveal a small yet steady decrease in irrigated second season cultivation across the basin. Regionally, we observed a gradual move away from cotton monocropping in response to the policy changes that were instigated since the mid-1990s. We compared the observed cropping dynamics to the occurrence of hydrological droughts, i.e., periods with inadequate water resources for irrigation. We find that areas with higher drought risks rely more on irrigation of the second season crops. Overall, our analysis provides the first fine-scale, annual crop type maps for the irrigated areas in the Amu Darya basin. The results shed light on how institutional changes and hydroclimatic factors that affect land-use decision-making, and thus the dynamics of crop type composition, in the vast irrigated areas of Central Asia.

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