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Water resources and their management in central Asia in the early twenty first century: status, challenges and future prospects

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Abstract

Large parts of Central Asia are characterized by a semiarid to arid climate. Therefore, areas close to shallow groundwater, rivers and lakes are characterized by unique water-dependent ecosystems and human societies which have developed over millennia in close interaction with the naturally limited water resources. In the early 21st century, global climate change, population growth, river damming, large-scale water abstractions and rising levels of pollution exert multiple pressures on the region’s water resources, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems at historically high levels. Water scarcity threatens the livelihood of populations locally and in transboundary settings by a growing competition over a limited resource. This context is of particular importance since all major rivers of the region cross at least one international border. The complexity and character of water-related challenges in the region mean that management approaches need to be integrative, taking into account the natural resource basis, environmental limits and the socio-cultural and geopolitical dimension. This paper frames the thematic issue of Environmental Earth Sciences and provides a comprehensive overview about the current state of knowledge about water resources and their management in Central Asia. There is a focus on case studies looking at the Selenga–Baikal–Angara Basin, the Lake Aral Basin including the Syr Darya and Amu Darya river systems, the Tarim and the Illi River Basins. Aiming to be an up-to-date interdisciplinary scientific reference on the region’s water-related challenges, this thematic issue gives theoretical and practical insights into solutions and best practice examples of water management.

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Acknowledgments

The idea of this thematic issue came up in the context of the bilateral German-Russian research project “Sustainable Water Management in the Selenga–Baikal Basin: Development of an Integrated Monitoring Concept for a Transboundary Catchment with Multiple Stressors” (grant no. 01DJ13013 of the International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research). Moreover, this special issue would not have been possible without the authors’ experiences and personal contacts resulting from the field work done under projects funded by Russian Geographical Society grant “Expedition Selenga-Baikal”, the German-Mongolian research project “Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia: Model Region Mongolia”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the FONA (Research for Sustainable Development) initiative (grant no. 033L003), and theoretical investigations on hydrological hazards supported by Russian Scientific Foundation project no.14-17-00155 “River runoff parameterization for prediction of hydrological hazards and their environmental consequences”. The authors thank Mrs. Barbara Kolditz of the journal’s editorial office for the very constructive cooperation during the entire production process of the thematic issue. Moreover, we would like to acknowledge Ms. Sauvlegul Avlyush for her support during the preparational phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Germany

    Daniel Karthe & Dietrich Borchardt

  2. Department of Geography, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany

    Daniel Karthe

  3. Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Sergey Chalov

  4. Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technical University, Dresden, Germany

    Dietrich Borchardt

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  1. Daniel Karthe
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  2. Sergey Chalov
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Correspondence to Daniel Karthe.

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Karthe, D., Chalov, S. & Borchardt, D. Water resources and their management in central Asia in the early twenty first century: status, challenges and future prospects. Environ Earth Sci 73, 487–499 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3789-1

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