Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan's Aral Sea Region explores how the sea's retreat and partial return has impacted the lives of people living in the area.

The Aral Sea Basin, which is located in the central Asian part of the former Soviet Union, is undergoing dramatically rapid and intense environmental change. Pervasive human misuse and overuse of its water, land, and other critical natural resources have led to severe degradation of key ecological systems. This book analyses the environmental, human and economic problems that have arisen and presents recommendations for future research needs. Primary focus is on the drying of the Aral Sea, but related issues of diminished river flow, land and water pollution, and degradation, ecosystem deterioration, and adverse effects on humans are also examined.

This volume addresses the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster; disappearance of what was the world's fourth largest inland body of water. It argues this was the result of deliberate policy decisions. This volume is essential reading for everyone concerned with averting environmental disaster and in creating livable, sustainable communities.

With remarkable vision, Prof. Otto Hutzinger initiated The Handbook of Envir- mental Chemistry in 1980 and became the founding Editor-in-Chief. At that time, environmental chemistry was an emerging ?eld, aiming at a complete description of the Earth’s environment, encompassing the physical, chemical, biological, and geological transformations of chemical substances occurring on a local as well as a global scale. Environmental chemistry was intended to provide an account of the impact of man’s activities on the natural environment by describing observed changes. While a considerable amount of knowledge has been accumulated over the last three decades, as re?ected in the more than 70 volumes of The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, there are still many scienti?c and policy challenges ahead due to the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the ?eld. The series will therefore continue to provide compilations of current knowledge. Contri- tions are written by leading experts with practical experience in their ?elds. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry grows with the increases in our scienti?c understanding, and provides a valuable source not only for scientists but also for environmental managers and decision-makers. Today, the series covers a broad range of environmental topics from a chemical perspective, including methodol- ical advances in environmental analytical chemistry.

The book is structured into six core parts. The first part sets the scene and explains how the use of Aral basin water resources, primarily used for irrigation, have destroyed the Aral Sea. The team explains how spheres and events interact and the related problems. Part 2 examines the social consequences of the ecological catastrophe and the affect of the Aral Sea desiccation on cultural and economic conditions of near Aral region. Part 3 explores the scientific causes of the destruction using detailed analyses and data plus some of their own research spanning aquatic biology, terrestrial biology, hydrology, water management and biodiversity. They also share some of the latest archaeological discoveries and paleobotanical analysis to delineate past levels and characteristics of the Aral Sea. There is particular focus on modern remote sensing and GIS techniques and how they can monitor the Aral Sea and the environment. Part 4 discusses regional and international initiatives to mitigate human and ecological problems of the Aral Sea and the wider political and economic consequences. With thorough insight of the total environment cost, the final chapters of the book will provide lessons for the future. There are insightful case studies throughout. Multidisciplinary by nature, all titles in our new reference book series will explore significant changes within the Earth’s ecosystems and to some extent, and will tackle ways to think about our changing environment.

There are incentive indications that the growth of human population, the increasing use and abuse of natural resources combined with climate changes (probably due to anthropic pollution, to some extent) exert a considerable stress on closed (or semi-enclosed) seas and lakes. In many regions of the world, marine and lacustrine hydrosystems are (or have been) the object of severe or fatal alterations, from changes in regional hydrological regimes and/or modifications of the quantity or the quality of water resources associated with (natural or man-made) land reclamation, deterioration of geochemical balances (increased salinity, oxygen's depletion .. . ), mutations of ecosystems (eutrophication, dramatic decrease in biological diversity ... ) to geological disturbances and to the socio-economic perturbations which have been - or may be in the near future - the consequences of them. Seas and lakes are dying all over the world and some may be regarded as already dead and there is an urgent need to try to understand how this is happening and identify the causes of the observed mutations, weighing the relative effects of climatic evolution and anthropic interferences. This book is the outcome of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, held in Liege in May 2003. The Workshop was organized at th the University of Liege as a follow on meeting to the 35 International Liege Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics, dedicated in 2003 to Dying and Dead Seas. The book contains the synthesis of the lectures given by 16 main speakers during the ARW.

A long environmental history of the Aral Sea region, focusing on colonization and development in Russian and Soviet Central Asia.

A study of the relationship between environmental cooperation and state building in post-Soviet Central Asia.

Environmental conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by science, politics, history, public policy, culture, economics, public attitudes, and competing priorities, as well as past human decisions. In the case of Central Asia, such Soviet-era decisions include irrigation systems and physical infrastructure that are now crumbling, mine tailings that leach pollutants into soil and groundwater, and abandoned factories that are physically decrepit and contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmental Crises in Central Asia highlights major environmental challenges confronting the region’s former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They include threats to the Caspian and Aral seas, the impact of climate change on glaciers, desertification, deforestation, destruction of habitat and biodiversity, radioactive and hazardous wastes, water quality and supply, energy exploration and development, pesticides and food security, and environmental health. The ramifications of these challenges cross national borders and may affect economic, political, and cultural relationships on a vast geographic scale. At the same time, the region’s five governments have demonstrated little resolve to address these complex challenges. This book is a valuable multi-disciplinary resource for academics, scholars, and policymakers in environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, public health, and economics.

The irrigated area in the Aral Sea basin totals about 7. 5 million hectare. Part of the water supplied to this area is consumed by the irrigated crop; the remainder of the supplied water drains to the groundwater basin, to downstream depressions, or back to the rivers. During its use, however, this drained part of the water accumulates salts and chemicals. The disposal of this polluted water causes a variety of (environmental) problems. If the percentage consumed water of the total water supply to an irrigated area (the so-called overall consumed ratio) can be increased, less water needs to be drained. This alleviates part of the related (environmental) problems. Further, if the overall consumed ratio for the above 7. 5 million hectare is improved, less water needs to be diverted from the rivers. Hence, more water can flow towards the Aral Sea. As mentioned above, part of the non-consumed irrigation water drains to the groundwater basin. Commonly, the natural discharge capacity of this basin is insufficient to handle this imported water. As a result, the groundwater table rises towards the land surface causing waterlogging. In (semi-)arid zones this waterlogging triggers a soil salinity problem resulting to a significant reduction in crop yields. The artificial increase of the discharge capacity, and lowering of the groundwater table, solves the soil salinity problem.