Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers and Aral Sea

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pring George (Rock) ◽  
Angel Braden
Keyword(s):  
Aral Sea ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
Syr Darya

Application of the Commercial approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
S. Nazrul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
River System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
The World ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽  
Syr Darya

Chapter 4 provides a few case studies of rivers to illustrate the consequences of the Commercial approach. These rivers are: the Colorado River of the United States; the Murray-Darling river system of Australia; the Amu Darya and Syr Darya of the former Soviet Union; the Nile River of Africa; and the Indus River of South Asia. It shows that in each case, the application of the Commercial approach has led to river fragmentation and excessive withdrawal of water, leading to exhaustion of rivers, which in turn led to salinity intrusion and erosion, subsidence, and desiccation of the deltas. The ecology of the river basins has been damaged, including loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. In case of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, this damage includes the destruction of the Aral Sea, once considered the second-largest inland waterbody of the world. In each case, the Commercial approach has led to conflicts among co-riparian countries.

scholarly journals A novel causal structure-based framework for comparing basin-wide water-energy-food-ecology nexuses applied to the data-limited Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiyang Shi ◽  
Geping Luo ◽  
Hongwei Zheng ◽  
Chunbo Chen ◽  
Jie Bai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Upstream Reservoir ◽  
Syr Darya

Abstract. The previous comparative studies on watersheds were mostly based on the comparison of dispersive characteristics, which lacked systemicity and causality. We proposed a causal structure-based framework for basin comparison based on the Bayesian network (BN), and focus on the basin-scale water-energy-food-ecology (WEFE) nexuses. We applied it to the Syr Darya river basin (SDB) and the Amu Darya river basin (ADB) that caused the Aral Sea disaster. The causality of the nexuses was effectively compared and universality of this framework was discussed. In terms of changes of the nexuses, the sensitive factor for the water supplied to the Aral Sea changed from the agricultural development during the Soviet Union period to the disputes in the WEFE nexuses after the disintegration. The water-energy contradiction of SDB is more severe than that of ADB partly due to the higher upstream reservoir interception capacity. It further made management of the winter surplus water downstream of SDB more controversial. Due to this, the water-food-ecology conflict between downstream countries may escalate and turn into a long-term chronic problem. Reducing water inflow to depressions and improving the planting structure prove beneficial to the Aral Sea ecology and this effect of SDB is more significant. The construction of reservoirs on the Panj river of the upstream ADB should be cautious to avoid an intense water-energy conflict as SDB. It is also necessary to promote the water-saving drip irrigation and to strengthen the cooperation.

scholarly journals Approaches to Optimize Uzbekistan's Investment in Irrigation Technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-147
Keyword(s):  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Optimal Investment ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
Original Size ◽  
Irrigation Technologies ◽  
Syr Darya

For many decades, Uzbekistan has been one of the largest cotton producers in the world. The irrigation water needed for these high production levels has been delivered by the massive diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which naturally flowed into the Aral Sea. This diversion for agriculture was the main cause of the rapid decline of the Aral Sea, which is at only 10% of its original size today. The traditional method of irrigation, which relies on simple open canal systems, is highly inefficient for managing the region’s critical and limited water resource. It has been qualitatively estimated, for example, that irrigation water lost to evaporation and system inefficiencies is quite large. With the future availability of water at risk for agriculture in Central Asia, primarily due to the loss of glacial volume from global warming, along with declines in seasonal snowpack, it is clear that new approaches to water management are needed. Any serious efforts to restore the Aral Sea and its ecological services would also reduce supplies of irrigation water for Uzbekistan. While regional conflict over water is unlikely, it must be considered since Uzbekistan is a downstream country among several that rely on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for most of their water supplies. To insure against these risks to cotton production and the underlying economy, better irrigation technologies are needed across Uzbekistan. However, these technologies can be quite expensive, especially given that water is still nearly free. In this case study we explore the use of real options analysis (ROA) to look for optimal investment strategies in efficient irrigation technologies in light of variable climate and policy uncertainties.

scholarly journals A novel causal structure-based framework for comparing a basin-wide water–energy–food–ecology nexus applied to the data-limited Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 901-925
Author(s):  
Haiyang Shi ◽  
Geping Luo ◽  
Hongwei Zheng ◽  
Chunbo Chen ◽  
Olaf Hellwich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Upstream Reservoir ◽  
Syr Darya

Abstract. The previous comparative studies on watersheds were mostly based on the comparison of dispersive characteristics, which lacked systemicity and causality. We proposed a causal structure-based framework for basin comparison based on the Bayesian network (BN) and focus on the basin-scale water–energy–food–ecology (WEFE) nexus. We applied it to the Syr Darya River basin (SDB) and the Amu Darya River basin (ADB), of which poor water management caused the Aral Sea disaster. The causality of the nexus was effectively compared and universality of this framework was discussed. In terms of changes in the nexus, the sensitive factor for the water supplied to the Aral Sea changed from the agricultural development during the Soviet Union period to the disputes in the WEFE nexus after the disintegration. The water–energy contradiction of the SDB is more severe than that of the ADB, partly due to the higher upstream reservoir interception capacity. It further made management of the winter surplus water downstream of the SDB more controversial. Due to this, the water–food–ecology conflict between downstream countries may escalate and turn into a long-term chronic problem. Reducing water inflow to depressions and improving the planting structure prove beneficial to the Aral Sea ecology, and this effect of the SDB is more significant. The construction of reservoirs on the Panj River of the upstream ADB should be cautious to avoid an intense water–energy conflict such as the SDB's. It is also necessary to promote the water-saving drip irrigation and to strengthen the cooperation.

scholarly journals Comparison of Crop Evapotranspiration and Water Productivity of Typical Delta Irrigation Areas in Aral Sea Basin

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Zhibin Liu ◽  
Tie Liu ◽  
Yue Huang ◽  
Yangchao Duan ◽  
Xiaohui Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Spatial Resolution ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Cultivated Land ◽  
Crop Evapotranspiration ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Syr Darya

The intensity of agricultural activities and the characteristics of water consumption affect the hydrological processes of inland river basins in Central Asia. The crop water requirements and water productivity are different between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins due to the different water resource development and utilization policies of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which have resulted in more severe agricultural water consumption of the Amu Darya delta than the Syr Darya delta, and the differences in the surface runoff are injected into the Aral Sea. To reveal the difference in water resource dissipation, water productivity, and its influencing factors between the two basins, this study selected the irrigation areas of Amu Darya delta (IAAD) and Syr Darya delta (IASD) as typical examples; the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) was retrieved by using the modified surface energy balance algorithm for land model (SEBAL) based on high spatial resolution Landsat images from 2000 to 2020. Land use and cover change (LUCC) and streamflow data were obtained to analyze the reasons for the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of regional ETa. The water productivity of typical crops in two irrigation areas was compared and combined with statistical data. The results indicate that: (1) the ETa simulated by the SEBAL model matched the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) calculated by the Penman–Monteith method and ground-measured data well, with all the correlation coefficients higher than 0.7. (2) In IAAD, the average ETa was 1150 mm, and the ETa had shown a decreasing trend; for the IASD, the average ETa was 800 mm. The ETa showed an increasing trend with low stability due to a large amount of developable cultivated land. The change of cultivated land dominated the spatio-temporal characteristics of ETa in the two irrigation areas (3). Combined with high spatial resolution ETa inversion results, the water productivity of cotton and rice in IAAD was significantly lower than in IASD, and wheat was not significantly different, but all were far lower than the international average. This study can provide useful information for agricultural water management in the Aral Sea region.

State and prospects of development of cotton growing in Uzbekistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
Renat Nazarov
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Aral Sea Basin ◽  
Grain Crops ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Syr Darya

The potential of water resources throughout Central Asia consists of water resources of two rivers-the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the Aral sea basin, and is 117…123 km3 per year. Approximately half of these water resources, according to intergovernmental agreements with other Central Asian States, are used by the most populous Republic of Uzbekistan in the region, where the area of irrigated arable land today is 3296 thousand hectares. Of these, up to 1137 thousand hectares are allocated annually for grain crops, and about 1033 thousand hectares of irrigated arable land are allocated for cotton.

scholarly journals OMPREHENSIVE ECOLOGICAL-HYGIENIC EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTS OF THE TERRITORY UNDER HARMFUL CLIMATIC AND ANTHROPOGENIC EXPOSURE

2018 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-296
Author(s):  
Gulnara R. Khanturina ◽  
Z. I. Namazbaeva ◽  
G. S. Zhumabekova ◽  
G. Zh. Seitkasymova ◽  
I. A. Fedorova
Keyword(s):  
Suspended Solids ◽  
Comprehensive Assessment ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Chemical Pollution ◽  
Assessment Score ◽  
Critical Situation ◽  
Environmental Objects ◽  
Inorganic Chemical ◽  
Syr Darya

Adverse climatic and anthropogenic factors can affect the health of people living near the dried-up Aral Sea. There was modified the comprehensive assessment of inorganic chemical pollution of the environment of the village in the Zhosaly Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan. The comprehensive assessment score included 5 categories: satisfactory, intense, critical, crisis, catastrophic. According to own research over 2014-2015 based on the mentioned assessment score, the comprehensive assessment score amounted to 41 points and showed a critical situation. In the air, there was observed the phenol content of 1.02 MAC, suspended solids - 0.5 MAC. The main part of the fine suspended solids sized of 1.5-2.5 mm, round shape, was formed in the process of condensation and evaporation of the sea and the Syr Darya River. In the dust, there was found the excess in silicon content of 2.8 MAC, iron - 1.3 MAC, zinc 1.1 MAC. As soil pollutants, there were detected sulfates - of 173.5 MAC, chlorides - 9.0 MAC, mercury - 0.56 MAC, nickel - 0.49 MAC. In drinking water, there was revealed cadmium excess of 1.3 MAC, nickel - 1.2 MAC, chlorides - 1.25 MPC, sulfates - 1.0 MAC. In the water of the Syr Darya River, there was revealed an excess in nickel - of 2.2 MAC, sulfates - 1.8 MAC, dissolved oxygen - 2.0 MAC. In the sediments of the Syr Darya river, the sulfate content accounted for 3.36 MAC and chlorides - 1.53 MAC. In the snow cover there was revealed an excess of manganese - 5.14MPC, chromium - 2.04 MAC, zinc - 1.2 MAC. In a critical situation a significant portion (30-50%) of the population may be in a state of exertion and adaptation surge, and the most susceptible part seems to be in a state of adaptation failure, characterized by an increase in incidence rate.

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

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

<p>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 km<sup>2</sup>), 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.</p>

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