Abstract
The Ili River originates in the mountains of Xinjiang, China, and flows across an increasingly arid landscape before terminating in Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash, which has no outlet to the ocean. The river has been extensively impounded and diverted over the past half century to produce hydroelectric power and food on irrigated land. Water withdrawals are increasing to the extent that they are beginning to threaten the ecosystem, just as it is becoming stressed by altered inflows as glaciers retreat and disappear. If the Ili River ecosystem is to be preserved, it is crucial that we thoroughly understand the spatial and temporal nuances of the interrelationships between water, energy, and food—and the vulnerability of these components to climate change. The ecosystem has all of the characteristics of a classically-defined “wicked problem”, and so it warrants treatment as a complex and dynamic challenge subject to changing assumptions, unexpected consequences, and strong social and economic overtones. Research should thus focus not just on new knowledge about the water, energy, or food component, but on advancing our understanding of the ecosystem as a whole. This will require the participation of interdisciplinary teams of researchers with both tacit and specialized knowledge.
Highlights
Endorheic river basins are among the Earth’s most threatened features
The near complete destruction of the Aral Sea, a terminal lake straddling the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, serves as a well-studied example [6] of the environmental damage that can be triggered by ill-advised water diversion from Central Asia’s endorheic ecosystems
We focus on the ecosystem defined by the Ili River and its terminal water body, Lake Balkhash
Summary
Endorheic river basins are among the Earth’s most threatened features. Water in these closed hydrological systems has no pathway of egress to the sea, and so it flows into so-called terminal lakes that, as their name implies, lack outlets. Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan [1] It is here, where the climate is arid, evaporation a significant factor, and the vast majority of all waterways fail to reach the sea, that large volumes of water are being redistributed to meet human needs. The near complete destruction of the Aral Sea, a terminal lake straddling the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, serves as a well-studied example [6] of the environmental damage that can be triggered by ill-advised water diversion from Central Asia’s endorheic ecosystems (in this case, a process begun under the Soviet Union as a tactic to increase yields of cotton for export). With these insights in hand, it should be possible to engage research expertise to generate the most-needed information on the underlying environmental resources
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