scholarly journals Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Baker Brite
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Total Disappearance

The Khorezm oasis sits at the epicenter of an environmental disaster. Since the late 19th century, the continual expansion of irrigation in this region has altered the natural hydrology of the Amu Darya delta, leading to widespread desertification and the near total disappearance of the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea. The situation is widely acknowledged as an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale, and yet it is not the first irrigation crisis in Khorezmian history. Numerous events of irrigation collapse are recorded in the archaeological record of this oasis, with many in the scientific community now very interested in this past record for its potential to inform on the modern crisis. Unfortunately, there has also been a tendency to overlook the different historical conditions that led to irrigation in this oasis over the last three millennia. In this article, I take an alternative approach that draws on political ecology's insights about the cultural embeddedness of environmental behavior. I compare two periods of irrigation in Khorezm, one ancient and the other modern, to show how the particular social contexts of each period shaped irrigation schemes in different ways. Significantly different design and implementation features are apparent in the ancient versus modern systems, with vastly different implications for environmental sustainability and human well-being.Keywords: water, irrigation, Aral Sea, archaeology, collapse, Soviet Union, nomadic pastoralism

scholarly journals Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Baker Brite
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Total Disappearance

The Khorezm oasis sits at the epicenter of an environmental disaster. Since the late 19th century, the continual expansion of irrigation in this region has altered the natural hydrology of the Amu Darya delta, leading to widespread desertification and the near total disappearance of the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea. The situation is widely acknowledged as an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale, and yet it is not the first irrigation crisis in Khorezmian history. Numerous events of irrigation collapse are recorded in the archaeological record of this oasis, with many in the scientific community now very interested in this past record for its potential to inform on the modern crisis. Unfortunately, there has also been a tendency to overlook the different historical conditions that led to irrigation in this oasis over the last three millennia. In this article, I take an alternative approach that draws on political ecology's insights about the cultural embeddedness of environmental behavior. I compare two periods of irrigation in Khorezm, one ancient and the other modern, to show how the particular social contexts of each period shaped irrigation schemes in different ways. Significantly different design and implementation features are apparent in the ancient versus modern systems, with vastly different implications for environmental sustainability and human well-being. Keywords: water, irrigation, Aral Sea, archaeology, collapse, Soviet Union, nomadic pastoralism

In pursuit of diverse energy futures: The political economy of electricity in Senegal

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110348
Author(s):  
Mara van den Bold
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
The Political ◽  
Oil Markets ◽  
Rural Access

In recent years, Senegal has proactively pursued the expansion of renewable energy generation, particularly from solar and wind. In addition to starting exploration of offshore liquefied natural gas, the expansion in renewable energy is posited as a way to help the country move toward low(er) carbon development, reduce dependence on volatile oil markets, and improve reliable (and especially rural) access to electricity. To achieve these objectives, the electricity sector has continuously undergone structural reforms to improve its financial viability and to achieve objectives around universal access to electricity, particularly by increasing private sector participation in electricity generation. Through the lens of “electricity capital,” this paper examines the implications of reforms in the electricity sector for processes of accumulation, in a context of efforts to improve environmentally sustainable development. It asks how capital in the electricity sector is constituted and operates in the Senegalese context, who has power in shaping how it operates, and how this has influenced the potential for achieving a fair and equitable transition to a low(er) carbon energy system. This paper draws on recent work in political ecology on energy transitions and emerging literature on the political economy of electricity, as well as on analysis of policy and technical documents and semi-structured interviews carried out with those involved in the energy sector between 2018 and 2020. Findings suggest that even though the Senegalese government has set clear objectives for the electricity sector that are based on principles of equity, environmental sustainability, and justice, the current power relations and financing arrangements taken on by the state and other actors active in the sector has, paradoxically, led to an approach that risks undermining these very principles.

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.

On Investigating Energy Stability for Cellular Automata Based PageRank Validation Model in Green Cloud

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnab Mitra
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Energy Stability ◽  
Web Resources ◽  
Computing Model ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Low Energy Consumption ◽  
The Stability

PageRank plays a vital role towards the preparation of the index for web resources. The index is processed by crawling down the relevant websites. Hence, the validation of computed PageRank is crucially significant towards the reliability enhancement of processed indexed list. On the other hand, energy efficiency and the stability of a system are crucially towards the environmental sustainability. In this regard, an energy stability-based PageRank validation model in Cellular Automata is presented in this research which facilitates a very low energy consumption by its physical components. Detailed investigations in view of energy stability explore the role of energy stability towards the validation of PageRank. Hence, an alternative approach towards the validation of PageRank using energy stability is presented in this research. Analytical results obtained with proposed approach for several Clouds further explore its potential capability as a green computing model in the Cloud.

Students’ attitude toward sustainability and humanitarian engineering education using project-based and international field learning pedagogies

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Truc Thanh Ngo ◽  
Bradley Chase
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Humanitarian Engineering

Purpose Environmental sustainability and social contexts are becoming increasingly important concepts. The infusion of sustainability and humanitarian engineering (HE) into the academic core curriculum is often challenging. This study aims to provide an understanding of students’ perceptions and attitudes toward the incorporation of active learning of sustainability and humanitarian concepts into engineering education. Design/methodology/approach A project-based sustainability course was developed and offered to engineering undergraduates. A HE international field experience was also provided to students as an extracurricular activity. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted to assess students’ perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability and HE project learning experience. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine the statistical significance of the results and demographic influences on students’ experiences. Findings Both project-based and international field learning experiences positively influenced the students’ perceptions of sustainable practices, social change and appreciation of the engineering profession. Multidisciplinary learning also helped students become more motivated, engage in sustainability-promoted activities and community work and improve their social interactions. Students gained practical engineering skills that they did not typically receive in traditional classroom settings and recognized the global and social responsibilities that are core to sustainable development education. Originality/value The study demonstrates a mixed undergraduate educational model in which students acquired sustainability concepts through a project-based engineering course and practiced social responsibility through international HE projects. The findings help engineering educators understand students’ perceptions toward sustainability and HE, providing insight into effective curriculum design and strategic inclusion of social responsibility in traditional engineering education.

Assessment of human-induced environmental disaster in the Aral Sea using Landsat satellite images

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed Ishaq Deliry ◽  
Zehra Yiğit Avdan ◽  
Nghi Tan Do ◽  
Uğur Avdan
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Images ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Landsat Satellite

The Decolonization of the Environment in Kazakhstan: The Novel Final Respects by Abdi-Jamil Nurpeisov

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Sharipova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fishing Village ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Sea Power ◽  
Entire World

AbstractThis article examines the novel Final Respects by Abdi-Jamil Nurpeisov from a postcolonial ecocritical perspective. Nurpeisov was one of the first Kazakh writers to discuss the decolonization of the environment and the “process of self-apprehension” by writing about the tragedy of the Aral Sea, power relations between the center and periphery, and the interconnectivity of humans and the environment in the Soviet Union. Through the prism of a small fishing village, he shows the tragedy of a nation that has an impact on the entire world. The novel is thus a critique of anthropocentric policies imposed by Moscow on Kazakhstan and other Soviet republics. Throughout the text, Nurpeisov reiterates the connection between the local and the global on one hand, and human culture and the environment on the other.

scholarly journals ‘Childness’: An Alternative Approach to the Archaeology of Childhood through Cemetery Studies

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Muller ◽  
Burke ◽  
Leiuen ◽  
Degner ◽  
Farrell
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Rural South ◽  
Social Ideology ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Class And Status

Notions of childhood in colonial Australia were informed by a variety of social contexts that varied across time and space and were given material expression in the memorialization of children’s burials. Using data drawn from two studies of nineteenth-century cemeteries in rural South Australia, in this paper, we suggest an alternative way to understand children archaeologically that avoids the trap of essentialism: the notion of ‘childness’. Childness is defined as the multiple conceptions of being, and being labeled, a child. The concept of being a child may be instantiated in different ways according to particular social, cultural, chronological, and religious contexts; childness is the measure of this variation. In Western historical settings, the most likely causes for such variation are the social processes of class and status via the closely associated ideologies of gentility and respectability and their attendant expectations around labor, as well as the shifts they represent in the social ideology of the family. Exploring childness, rather than children, provides an alternative way to approach the histories of contemporary Western understandings of childhood, including when particular types of childhood began and ended, and according to what criteria in different contexts, as well as how boundaries between child and adult were continually being established and re-negotiated.

scholarly journals Predator Politics

SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401667921
Author(s):  
Mary Louisa Cappelli
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Ecological Diversity ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Edward Abbey ◽  
Barbara Kingsolver ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Top Predators

Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer urges readers to see coyotes as crucial members of the natural community whose predation is essential for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological stability. Their cultural production provides a human story of ecocritical engagement for understanding the cascading effects of removing top predators from their ecosystems. By envisioning biocentric possibilities within place-based and scientific contexts, Edward Abbey and Barbara Kingsolver share a common theme of political ecology: political processes shape ecological conditions. A close reading of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer provides a literary entryway to connect research, arguments, and discourse across disciplines tasking readers to engage in political discussions of environmental sustainability and to consider viable solutions to preserve the ecological diversity of our predator populations and ecosystems.

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