Tigers to return to extinct Caspian tiger range
& what it means for global wildlife conservationHello! My name is Saxon. Thanks for joining us here on Beyond Catastrophe’s first “story”. I’m a documentary filmmaker currently producing a series about the future of the Aral Sea region, called Mission: Find Aral. Here, I would like to share a remarkable wildlife conservation story that I became aware of in my time living…
Socio-economic features of improvements for nosogeographical situation Republic of Karakalpakistan
This resource is the extended abstract for Dr. Izimbet Turdimambetov’s doctoral dissertation which summarizes his extensive work on the medical and health situation of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The graph to the left, from his dissertation, shows the distribution of health challenges in Karakalpakstan as of 2014.
Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan’s Aral Sea Region: Sea Changes
Abstract: The Aral Sea is well known for its devastating regression over the second half of the twentieth century, and for its recent partial restoration. Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan’s Aral Sea Region is the first book to explore what these monumental changes have meant to those living on the sea’s shores. Following the…
Journal article: ‘Water Is Life’-Farmer R in Khorezm, Uzbekistan: A Lifeworld Analysis
Abstract: Khorezm Province is located in the Amu Darya lowlands ofUzbekistan, where unsustainable use of irrigation water has led to the Aral Sea crisis. This study deals with the question of how farmers in Khorezm perceive water and its management and how this facilitates or prevents water conservation, or “water saving,” in irrigated agriculture. To…
Conference paper: Incorporating Environmental Flows into Water Management in the Amudarya River Delta
“The goal of the presented work is to assess the vulnerability of the ecosystems of the Amudarya river delta and determine the flow regimes needed to maintain the provision of valuable ecosystem services. We identify several water management options to satisfy ecosystem water requirements within the water limits of the delta region and give an…
Journal article: The Benefits of Marginality: The Great Famine around the Aral Sea, 1930-1934
Abstract: Based on research in Kazakhstani and Russian archives, this article is a regional study of the 1931–1933 Soviet famine. It compares Soviet policies in the southern and northern “halves” of the Aral Sea region. While the Kazaks in the northern part of the region suffered from the famine, the Karakalpaks in the south did…
Book: Monitoring the Dried Seabed of the Aral Sea
This book contains the results of monitoring expeditions in fall 2019 and spring 2020, and compares these data to monitoring data that has been collected in the Aral Sea region since 1994. Areas covered include soil, hydrogeology and vegetation of the dried seabed.
Journal article: The Fluctuating Aral Sea: A Multidisciplinary-Based History of the Last Two Thousand Years
Abstract: The Aral Sea (an intracontinental saline lake in western Central Asia) is of great interest because of its rapid shrinkage during the last 50 years, which caused catastrophic environmental and socio-economic consequences for the region and its population. Geoscientists established the existence of similar multiple fast and deep lake level fluctuations in the past;…
Book: Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin
Abstract: The drying up of the Aral Sea – a major environmental catastrophe of the late twentieth century – is deeply rooted in the dreams of the irrigation age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when engineers, scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs around the world united in the belief that universal scientific…
Journal article: Canals, Cotton, and the Limits of de-Colonization in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1924–1941
Abstract: Why were cotton monoculture and megalomaniac irrigation projects the outcome of the Soviet modernization policies in Uzbekistan? How were economic development and nationality policy related? Which results did policy implementation produce on the ground and within the Uzbek ruling elite? The article argues that these questions can be seen in a new light when…