Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi)
"Development of Water Resource Database Including Human Activity in
the Aral Sea Basin"
Project Leader: KOZAN, Osamu
- Field Research List
- Seminars/Symposia
- Publications
- Outline
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Two major rivers -the Syr Darya and the Amu Daryaoriginally flowed into
the Aral Sea. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union started large scale irrigation
projects in the vast dry steppes extending through the mid and downstream
basins of these two rivers. Irrigated land grew from about 4.5 million
hectares in 1960 to about 7 million in 1980. The huge increase in water
diverted to irrigated areas dramatically decreased water flowing into the
Aral Sea, disturbing the balance between water inflow and evaporation from
the lake and rapidly raising the saline concentration from 10 per cent
to 35 per cent. After the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 and the independence
of republics around the basins, bitter conflicts arose over water use from
the two natural rivers between countries upstream and downstream. To clarify
these problems, a Water Resource database including human activity will
be developed in this research project.
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