Geographical and socio-economic dimensions of the Aral Sea crisis and their impact on the potential for community action

Saiko, Tatyana S.

doi:10.1006/jare.1998.0406

Cited by 17 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Similar findings have been recorded in other countries such as Finland, attributable to dust containing tremolite or other asbestiform minerals perhaps entrained into the atmosphere through cultivation (Gilson, 1977). During the last three decades, poorly planned irrigation in Central Asia has brought about the desiccation of the Aral Sea and the desertification of the former sea bed and adjacent territories (Saiko, 1998). Soviet cosmonauts first spotted major storms of dust and salt in 1975, and by the 1980s the storms carried between 90 and 140 million tons of salt and sand per year from more than 28 000 square kilometres of exposed seabed.…”

Section: Wagnermentioning

confidence: 99%

Soils: their implications to human health

Abrahams

2002

Science of The Total Environment

494

202

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This paper reviews how the health of humans is affected by the world's soils, an association that to date has been under appreciated and under reported. Soils significantly influence a variety of functions (e.g. as a plant growth medium; its importance on the cycling of water; as a foundation for buildings) that sustains the human population. Through ingestion (either deliberate or involuntary), inhalation and dermal absorption, the mineral, chemical and biological components of soils can either be directly beneficial or detrimental to human health. Specific examples include: geohelminth infection and the supply of mineral nutrients and potentially harmful elements (PHEs) via soil ingestion; cancers caused by the inhalation of fibrous minerals or Rn gas derived from the radioactive decay of U and Th in soil minerals; and tetanus, hookworm disease and podoconiosis caused by skin contact and dermal absorption of appropriate soil constituents. Human health can also be influenced in more indirect ways as soils interact with the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Examples include: the volatilisation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from soils and their subsequent global redistribution that has health implications to the Aboriginal people of the Arctic; the frequent detrimental chemical and biological quality of drinking and recreational waters that are influenced by processes of soil erosion, surface runoff, interflow and leaching; and the transfer of mineral nutrients and PHEs from soils into the plants and animals that constitute the human food chain. The scale and magnitude of soil/health interactions are variable, but at times a considerable number of people can be affected as demonstrated by the extent of hookworm infection or the number of people at risk because they live in an I-deficient environment. Nevertheless, it can often be difficult to establish definite links between soils and human health. This, together with the emergence of new risks, knowledge, or discoveries, means that there is considerable scope for research in the future. Such investigations should involve a multidisciplinary approach that both acquires knowledge and ensures its dissemination to people in an understandable way. This requires an infrastructure and finance that governments need to be responsive to.

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Section: Wagnermentioning

confidence: 99%

Soils: their implications to human health

Abrahams

2002

Science of The Total Environment

494

202

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“…According to the literature, the desertification processes in the entire Aral Sea basin have been observed in the XXth century. Moreover, the individual desertification processes had been recorded in the initial part of the twentieth century because of the interchange of wet and arid climatic periods [28][29][30]. The processes of large-scale desertification emerged in the 1960s when the expanding irrigation water amounts were found to be the reason for lowering groundwater levels and drying of the sea bed, soils, and landscapes so that vegetation was negatively affected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spatial and Temporal Land Cover Patterns of the Qazaly Irrigation Zone in 2003–2018: The Case of Syrdarya River’s Lower Reaches, Kazakhstan

et al. 2019

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In this study, the spatial and temporal patterns of the land cover were monitored within the Qazaly irrigation zone located in the deltaic zone of the Syrdarya river in the surroundings of the former Aral Sea. A 16-day MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Aqua NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data product with a spatial resolution of 250 meters was used for this purpose, covering the period between 2003 and 2018. Field survey results obtained in 2018 were used to build a sample dataset. The random forests supervised classification machine learning algorithm was used to map land cover, which produced good results with an overall accuracy of about 0.8. Statistics on land cover change were calculated and analyzed. The correctness of obtained classes was checked with Landsat 8 (OLI, The Operational Land Imager) images. Detailed land cover maps, including rice cropland, were derived. During the observation period, the rice croplands increased, while the generally irrigated area decreased.

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