IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i11p3084-d236023.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human and Natural Impacts on the Water Resources in the Syr Darya River Basin, Central Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Shan Zou

    (State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011 China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 10049, China
    Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Centre for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, China
    Department of Geography, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium)

  • Abuduwaili Jilili

    (State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011 China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 10049, China
    Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Centre for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, China)

  • Weili Duan

    (State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011 China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 10049, China)

  • Philippe De Maeyer

    (Department of Geography, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
    Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory of Geo-Information, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium
    Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory of Geo-Information, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Urumqi 830011, China)

  • Tim Van de Voorde

    (Department of Geography, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
    Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory of Geo-Information, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium
    Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory of Geo-Information, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Urumqi 830011, China)

Abstract

Water resources are increasingly under stress in Central Asia because downstream countries are highly dependent on upstream countries. Water is essential for irrigation and is becoming scarcer due to climate change and human activities. Based on 20 hydrological stations, this study firstly analyzed the annual and seasonal spatial–temporal changes of the river discharges, precipitation, and temperature in the Syr Darya River Basin and then the possible relationships between these factors were detected. Finally, the potential reasons for the river discharge variations have been discussed. The results show that the river discharges in the upper stream of the basin had significantly risen from 1930 to 2006, mainly due to the increase in temperature (approximately 0.3 °C per decade), which accelerated the melting of glaciers, while it decreased in the middle and lower regions due to the rising irrigation. In the middle of the basin, the expansion of the construction land (128.83 km 2 /year) and agricultural land (66.68 km 2 /year) from 1992 to 2015 has significantly augmented the water consumption. The operations of reservoirs and irrigation canals significantly intercepted the river discharge from the upper streams, causing a sharp decline in the river discharges in the middle and lower reaches of the Syr Darya River in 1973. The outcomes obtained from this study allowed us to understand the changes in the river discharges and provided essential information for effective water resource management in the Syr Darya River Basin.

Suggested Citation

  • Shan Zou & Abuduwaili Jilili & Weili Duan & Philippe De Maeyer & Tim Van de Voorde, 2019. "Human and Natural Impacts on the Water Resources in the Syr Darya River Basin, Central Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3084-:d:236023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3084/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3084/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abdullaev, Iskandar & Kazbekov, Jusipbek & Manthritilake, Hearth & Jumaboev, Kahramon, 2009. "Participatory water management at the main canal: A case from South Ferghana canal in Uzbekistan," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 317-329, February.
    2. Wegerich, Kai & Van Rooijen, Daniel & Soliev, Ilkhom & Mukhamedova, Nozilakhon, 2015. "Water Security in the Syr Darya Basin," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(9), pages 4657-4684.
    3. D. Bocchiola & M. G. Pelosi & A. Soncini, 2017. "Effects of hydrological changes on cooperation in transnational catchments: the case of the Syr Darya," Water International, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 852-873, October.
    4. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 2003. "Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 1-22.
    5. Cai, Ximing & McKinney, Daene C. & Rosegrant, Mark W., 2003. "Sustainability analysis for irrigation water management in the Aral Sea region," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 1043-1066, June.
    6. Tobias Siegfried & Thomas Bernauer & Renaud Guiennet & Scott Sellars & Andrew Robertson & Justin Mankin & Peter Bauer-Gottwein & Andrey Yakovlev, 2012. "Will climate change exacerbate water stress in Central Asia?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 881-899, June.
    7. Annina Sorg & Tobias Bolch & Markus Stoffel & Olga Solomina & Martin Beniston, 2012. "Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia)," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 725-731, October.
    8. Thomas Bernauer & Tobias Siegfried, 2012. "Climate change and international water conflict in Central Asia," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 49(1), pages 227-239, January.
    9. Chatalova, Lioudmila & Djanibekov, Nodir & Gagalyuk, Taras & Valentinov, Vladislav, 2017. "The paradox of water management projects in Central Asia: An institutionalist perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14.
    10. Weili Duan & Bin He & Daniel Nover & Jingli Fan & Guishan Yang & Wen Chen & Huifang Meng & Chuanming Liu, 2016. "Floods and associated socioeconomic damages in China over the last century," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 82(1), pages 401-413, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sanim Bissenbayeva & Jilili Abuduwaili & Dana Shokparova & Asel Saparova, 2019. "Variation in Runoff of the Arys River and Keles River Watersheds (Kazakhstan), as Influenced by Climate Variation and Human Activity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Wen Liu & Long Ma & Yaoming Li & Jilili Abuduwaili & Salamat Abdyzhapar uulu, 2020. "Heavy Metals and Related Human Health Risk Assessment for River Waters in the Issyk−Kul Basin, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Kedar Mehta & Mathias Ehrenwirth & Christoph Trinkl & Wilfried Zörner & Rick Greenough, 2021. "The Energy Situation in Central Asia: A Comprehensive Energy Review Focusing on Rural Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-27, May.
    4. Ruan, Hongwei & Yu, Jingjie & Wang, Ping & Hao, Lingang & Wang, Zhenlong, 2023. "Relieving water stress by optimizing crop structure is a practicable approach in arid transboundary rivers of Central Asia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    5. Zhihao Xu & Zhiqiang Lv & Jianbo Li & Anshuo Shi, 2022. "A Novel Approach for Predicting Water Demand with Complex Patterns Based on Ensemble Learning," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(11), pages 4293-4312, September.
    6. Nurlybek Zinabdin & Farida Akiyanova & Kamshat Yegemberdiyeva & Roza Temirbayeva & Ordenbek Mazbayev, 2022. "The Functional Zoning of the Syr Darya River’s Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    7. Altanshagai Batmunkh & Agus Dwi Nugroho & Maria Fekete-Farkas & Zoltan Lakner, 2022. "Global Challenges and Responses: Agriculture, Economic Globalization, and Environmental Sustainability in Central Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, February.
    8. Yinghou Huang & Binbin Huang & Tianling Qin & Hanjiang Nie & Jianwei Wang & Xing Li & Zhenqian Shen, 2019. "Assessment of Hydrological Changes and Their Influence on the Aquatic Ecology over the last 58 Years in Ganjiang Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-19, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruan, Hongwei & Yu, Jingjie & Wang, Ping & Hao, Lingang & Wang, Zhenlong, 2023. "Relieving water stress by optimizing crop structure is a practicable approach in arid transboundary rivers of Central Asia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    2. Christopher White & Trevor Tanton & David Rycroft, 2014. "The Impact of Climate Change on the Water Resources of the Amu Darya Basin in Central Asia," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(15), pages 5267-5281, December.
    3. Li, Zhi & Fang, Gonghuan & Chen, Yaning & Duan, Weili & Mukanov, Yerbolat, 2020. "Agricultural water demands in Central Asia under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    4. Lee, Seung Oh & Jung, Younghun, 2018. "Efficiency of water use and its implications for a water-food nexus in the Aral Sea Basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 80-90.
    5. Huili He & Rafiq Hamdi & Geping Luo & Peng Cai & Xiuliang Yuan & Miao Zhang & Piet Termonia & Philippe Maeyer & Alishir Kurban, 2022. "The summer cooling effect under the projected restoration of Aral Sea in Central Asia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Wang, Xuanxuan & Chen, Yaning & Li, Zhi & Fang, Gonghuan & Wang, Yi, 2020. "Development and utilization of water resources and assessment of water security in Central Asia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Chaofan Li & Qifei Han & Geping Luo & Chengyi Zhao & Shoubo Li & Yuangang Wang & Dongsheng Yu, 2018. "Effects of Cropland Conversion and Climate Change on Agrosystem Carbon Balance of China’s Dryland: A Typical Watershed Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Wanlu Liu & Lulu Liu & Jiangbo Gao, 2020. "Adapting to climate change: gaps and strategies for Central Asia," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 1439-1459, December.
    9. Iulii Didovets & Valentina Krysanova & Aliya Nurbatsina & Bijan Fallah & Viktoriya Krylova & Assel Saparova & Jafar Niyazov & Olga Kalashnikova & Fred Fokko Hattermann, 2024. "Attribution of current trends in streamflow to climate change for 12 Central Asian catchments," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Bilal Mehmood & Syed Hassan Raza & Mahwish Rana & Huma Sohaib & Muhammad Azhar Khan, 2014. "Triangular Relationship between Energy Consumption, Price Index and National Income in Asian Countries: A Pooled Mean Group Approach in Presence of Structural Breaks," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 4(4), pages 610-620.
    11. Matteo Mogliani, 2010. "Residual-based tests for cointegration and multiple deterministic structural breaks: A Monte Carlo study," Working Papers halshs-00564897, HAL.
    12. Aye, Goodness & Gupta, Rangan & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Kim, Won Joong, 2015. "Forecasting the price of gold using dynamic model averaging," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 257-266.
    13. Mariam Camarero & Juan Sapena & Cecilio Tamarit, 2020. "Modelling Time-Varying Parameters in Panel Data State-Space Frameworks: An Application to the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 56(1), pages 87-114, June.
    14. Bernard, Jean-Thomas & Idoudi, Nadhem & Khalaf, Lynda & Yelou, Clement, 2007. "Finite sample multivariate structural change tests with application to energy demand models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1219-1244, December.
    15. Nuruddeen Usman & Kodili Nwanneka & Nduka, 2023. "Announcement Effect of COVID-19 on Cryptocurrencies," Asian Economics Letters, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, vol. 3(3), pages 1-4.
    16. Kevin S. Nell & Maria M. De Mello, 2019. "The interdependence between the saving rate and technology across regimes: evidence from South Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 269-300, January.
    17. Ngene, Geoffrey & Tah, Kenneth A. & Darrat, Ali F., 2017. "Long memory or structural breaks: Some evidence for African stock markets," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 61-73.
    18. Parma Chakravartti & Sudipto Mundle, 2017. "An Automatic Leading Indicator Based Growth Forecast For 2016-17 and The Outlook Beyond," Working Papers id:11773, eSocialSciences.
    19. Mina Kim & Deokwoo Nam & Jian Wang & Jason J. Wu, 2013. "International trade price stickiness and exchange rate pass-through in micro data: a case study on U.S.–China trade," Globalization Institute Working Papers 135, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    20. Nikeel Kumar & Ronald Ravinesh Kumar & Radika Kumar & Peter Josef Stauvermann, 2020. "Is the tourism–growth relationship asymmetric in the Cook Islands? Evidence from NARDL cointegration and causality tests," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(4), pages 658-681, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3084-:d:236023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.