This Technical Focus Paper is the second in a series of papers that provide a critical review of progress made in planning and putting integrated water resource management (IWRM) into practice. The papers synthesise the challenges, the successes, the setbacks, and the direction for further integration. They provide valuable insights from which others can learn […]

This thesis aims at understanding the causes of transboundary water conflicts. One of the main arguments is that water-related conflicts are not caused by natural features but rather by the subjective vision human beings have of a specific water-related threat. In the hydropolitics literature, this aspect has not been taken into account. In most cases, […]

Once a region shrouded in mystery and best known for its trans-Asian commerce via the Silk Road, Central Asia today is an open, dynamic region connecting Eastern Europe with West Asia. It is a region rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, with a surprising variety of animals and plants. Consisting of Kazakhstan, the […]

The strength of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is considered to be the main driver of climate changes over the European and western Asian continents throughout the last millennium. For example, the predominantly warm Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the following cold period of the Little Ice Age (LIA) over Europe have been associated with […]

The impact of climate change is likely to have considerable implications for water resource planning, as well as adding to the risks to water infrastructure systems and effecting return on investments. Attention is increasingly being paid to adaptation strategies at the regional and basin level; however, the current paucity of information regarding the potential risk […]

Scientists are confident of a link between greenhouse gas emissions, the increasing concentration of those gases in the atmosphere, and climate change. However, the final impacts from climate change are difficult to estimate, since we have no direct experience with new climates. Past climate change has been small and slow, making the impacts hard to […]

This book outlines the current status of water resources management in Central Asia countries, and provides a review of the history, policies and transboundary cooperation regarding water resources in the region. Particular attention is given to the water-energy-food-environmental nexus, and to the application of the UNECE Environmental Conventions in Central Asia. Readers will also learn […]

The book provides a cross-sectoral, multi-scale assessment of development-directed investigations in the main rivers of wider Central Asia and Afghanistan. The book highlights the development of river systems, water reservoirs, ecosystems and risks as well as the impact of climate change on water resources in Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. It provides information on the […]

Climate change, non-sustainable land management and the insufficient participation of the local population leads to land degradation problems in parts of the Altai Region, which includes China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Russian Federation.

Central Asia is a developing region with great potential, but there are valid concerns that current resource management practices are not sustainable, particularly with regard to the management of water resources. Recent changes in social structures, accompanied by regional climate change, have caused substantial environmental changes leading to security concerns in the region. As a […]

No glacial lake census exists for the Third Pole region, which includes the Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, comprehensive information is lacking about the distribution of and changes in glacial lakes caused by current global warming conditions. In this study, the first glacial lake inventories for the Third Pole were conducted for ~1990, […]

Due to recent global climate change, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have become a serious problem in many high mountain areas. Accurately and rapidly mapping glacial lakes is the basis of other glacial lake studies that are associated with water resources management, flood hazard assessment, and climate change. Most glacial lake detection studies have mainly […]