Work has begun in Almaty on the development of a master plan to preserve Lake Balkhash, one of Central Asia’s largest bodies of water. Experts from Kazakhstan and France will collaborate on the project, according to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of the Republic of Kazakhstan A two-day seminar has been launched in Almaty during which a roadmap for the action plan was presented The document includes an analysis of the water resources in the Ile-Balkhash basin the creation of a digital platform to monitor water levels and the automation of hydraulic engineering facilities Additional measures aim to ensure the more efficient use of the basin’s water resources and involve joint projects with China to protect the Ili River The French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) are key partners in the project French experts are currently collecting the necessary data and planning site visits to inspect wells The project is overseen by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Kazakhstan with support from Kazakhmys Corporation LLP The seminar is attended by representatives from Kazakhstani ministries and the Consulate General of France in Almaty issues related to Lake Balkhash were addressed on a case-by-case basis we are starting to develop a master plan,” said Bolat Bekniyaz First Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation He emphasized that the plan would consider all aspects of the basin’s sustainability from ecology and water management to energy The Balkhash preservation initiative builds on earlier agreements between Kazakhstan and France. Last October, it was announced that a memorandum of cooperation and a trilateral agreement covering groundwater exploration in the Ili-Balkhash basin the French Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) and the International Water Agency (OiEau) are leading partners in this endeavor During a meeting with Kazakhstan’s Minister of Water Resources French Ambassador Sylvain Guillemot highlighted the growing interest of French companies in constructing and modernizing water facilities as well as in projects related to leak detection and resource management optimization Kazakhstan plans to build its first nuclear power plant According to unofficial data, since early 2025, approximately 3.8 billion cubic meters of water have been diverted from the Kapshagay Reservoir to Lake Balkhash, a move that has positively impacted the region’s ecological conditions and the Ili River delta Experts have long warned that without a coordinated approach to water resource management Lake Balkhash risks following the catastrophic path of the Aral Sea Declining water levels are already impacting biodiversity and the socio-economic well-being of local communities The development of a master plan is viewed as a crucial step in preventing further degradation and preserving the ecological balance of the region Community activists are pushing back through art On a cold and rainy fall morning, Omirkeldi Mukhtaruly Abeuov looks through the steamy window of his art studio towards Lake Balkhash, the 15th largest lake in the world has now given way to look-alike Soviet-era buildings overlooking the vast and dry Kazakh steppe Omirkeldi’s artistic work focused on the collective history of Lake Balkhash the grim outlook of the lake has forced him to change his craft to focus on environmental issues the lake covered all the area right after the road [in front of his house] there will not be any living,‘’ the 74-year-old says.  adding new risks to an already fragile ecosystem If things remain unchanged, research suggests the lake could disappear in as little as 20 years. The nuclear plant could speed up its disappearance ‘’We don’t need this nuclear energy,’’  says Omirkeldi ‘’There is an interconnection between nature and human beings If they build this nuclear station there will be no living creature in the future Humans should feel from the bottom of their hearts; they should feel empathy [towards their home].’’ the level of the river has gone down by 2 meters,’’ explains Kumataev Erkynbek Erikovich director of the Center of Fisheries in Balkhash City Before we got 15,000 cubic kilometers of water from the Ille River coming from China now we only get 10,800 cubic kilometers a year.’’  Given the lake has an average depth of six meters relatively small changes in the level of water could severely affect the percentage of salt in the water it’s so salty that animals cannot drink the water wind could bring salt to the mountains and affect glacier melt the quantity of fish has gone down by 20% due to illegal fishing and overuse of water,’’ says Kumataev from his office in the city’s outskirts after a long day working in the field repopulating carp fish stocks in the lake where the livelihood of most of its inhabitants relies on the mines and fishing locals have already begun feeling the effects of the changing ecosystem a 47-year-old owner of a fish stall at the city’s main bazaar says that it’s increasingly difficult to work in the fishing industry ‘’Elder people say that before there was so much fish that we could catch it with our own hands it is much more difficult to catch fish,’’ she says while she tries to attract the attention of potential clients strolling around the bazaar ‘’We have concerns about the future of our children and grandchildren We are concerned that if the nuclear plant is built Despite Balkhash’s grim outlook and little public opposition to the construction of the plant, for over four years, Aigerim Qapar, a 37-year-old researcher and co-founder of the Artcom platform has organized different grassroots initiatives to raise public awareness about the lake to pressure the government to change course they engage local populations throughout Kazakhstan ‘’One of the topics we are discussing is this upcoming nuclear plant the impacts of this nuclear plant will kill the lake.’’ We have concerns about the future of our children and grandchildren critical issues — such as the environmental impact of the proposed nuclear power plant on Balkhash’s fragile ecosystem — have received little to no coverage in local media This raises serious questions about whether Kazakhs were fully informed of the potential consequences when casting their votes Aigerim believes people were not adequately aware of the effects of the plant on the lake before they cast their vote ‘’The problems of Lake Balkhash were hushed up before the referendum The government said the lake is not in danger although there is not a single study of how the nuclear power plant will affect the environment.’’ a 39-year-old queer poet from the southern side of Balkhash believes platforms such as Artcom are important to show there is opposition against the government’s plans ‘’I think [Artcom] is important to show that people care about this place Balkhash is the place of power from my childhood so I [started writing] about my childhood in Balkhash I was very happy to go there every summer and communicate with the water and the sand The disappearance of Balkhash is not a nice feeling.’’ He sees Artcom as an opportunity to examine the history and future of the lake from different lenses ‘’[Artcom] shows we can see this place and this process from a different perspective besides political or scientific You can have different layers of understanding of what this place is [Aigerim] wants all of this to come together,’’ concludes Anuar Omar Hamed Beato is a visual journalist from Spain based in the Middle East focusing on human rights He has worked for Center for International Policy Inkstick is changing the face of foreign policy If our content is something that you’ve come to rely on please make a tax-deductible donation today Even $5 or $10 a month makes a huge difference we can tell the stories that need to be told Inkstick Media is a registered 501(c)(3). 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We are grateful to the foundations and people who make our work possible: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Colombe Peace Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, MacArthur Foundation, N Square, Ploughshares Fund, Jubitz Family Foundation, Prospect Hill Foundation, and supporters like you You can read the Terms & Conditions of this site here By continuing to use this site you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions This website uses cookies to enhance your experience This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Over the past year, the water level in Lake Balkhash has risen by 0.12 meters, and the volume of water has increased by 2 billion cubic meters, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation Lake Balkhash is the world’s fifteenth-largest lake reports indicated that Balkhash’s water level had risen by 0.23 meters since the start of the year largely due to increased rainfall and snowmelt floods during spring 3.8 billion cubic meters of water have been released from the Kapchagay reservoir in Almaty region into Lake Balkhash The lake’s water volume largely depends on the transboundary Ili River which originates in China and supplies about 70% of Balkhash’s inflow The river’s flow is regulated by the Kapchagay reservoir Lake Balkhash is expected to receive a total of 12 billion cubic meters of water from the reservoir According to Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov the ministry will meet with French experts next week to begin preparations for a master plan to conserve Lake Balkhash through 2040 The Times of Central Asia previously reported that in December 2024 Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation signed a cooperation agreement with the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Geological Survey (BRGM Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières) to preserve Lake Balkhash the French side will allocate a grant of 1.35 million euros to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to support the development of sustainable water management practices for the lake The project includes a comprehensive study of the Lake Balkhash basin and the creation of a long-term preservation plan extending through 2040 Lake Balkhash; image: Copernicus Programme attended by Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and French President Emmanuel Macron Located 175 miles northwest of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, Lake Balkhash is the world’s fifteenth-largest lake the French side will allocate a grant of 1.35 million €uros to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to develop sustainable water management for the lake The project includes a comprehensive study of the Lake Balkhash basin to create a long-term preservation plan through 2040 Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation “The trilateral agreement with AFD and BRGM is aimed at studying and sustainably managing water in the Lake Balkhash basin The document provides for measuring and analyzing the state of water modeling climate and anthropogenic influences and forecasting the water balance until 2040 One of the goals of the project is to optimize the operating mode of the Kapchagay Reservoir to stabilize the level of Lake Balkhash measures will be taken to clean the rivers [feeding Balkhash] prevent soil degradation and water pollution and create a regulatory framework for the protection of the lake.” At the summit, Kazakhstan’s Special Representative for International Environmental Cooperation, Zulfiya Suleimenova, announced that Kazakhmys Corporation one of the country’s leading private companies will contribute $5 million to preserve the ecosystem of Lake Balkhash and adjacent wetlands In November, The Times of Central Asia reported that 13.5 billion cubic meters of water had been sent to Lake Balkhash via the Ili River from the Kapchagay Reservoir in 2024 raising the lake’s average water level to 341.6 meters above sea level provides about 70% of Lake Balkhash’s water a key focus for Kazakhstan in these talks is to maintain optimal water levels in Lake Balkhash The Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced on August 19 that Kazakhstan and China are drafting an agreement on dividing trans-boundary river waters between the two countries The main objective of the agreement is to ensure that the water in Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash remains at an optimal level Located 280km northwest of the country’s largest city Lake Balkhash is the fifteenth largest lake in the world It is fed by several trans-boundary rivers flowing from China which provides about 80% of the lake’s water Moldir Abdualieva, a spokesperson of the Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, said that the ministry has been paying great attention to providing Lake Balkhash with the necessary volume of water. “Since the beginning of this year, more than 12 billion cubic meters of water have been sent to the lake,” she said. In May, it was reported that the water level in Balkhash had risen by 23cm since the beginning of the year due to increased rainfall and floods caused by snow melt this past spring. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. This past weekend, two Amur tigers were brought to the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in southern Kazakhstan from the Landgoed Hoenderdaell Zoo in the Netherlands. The tigers, one male and one female, will live in a specially-built enclosure in the reserve for breeding and the release of their offspring into the wild. Their offspring are expected to become the first wild tigers to reappear on Kazakhstan’s territory in more than 70 years. In 2025, another three or four tigers are planned to arrive in Kazakhstan from Russia. In 2010, Kazakhstan’s government announced plans to reintroduce Amur tigers to the country. Seven years later, a tiger reintroduction program was developed, and the southern shore of Lake Balkhash in the delta of the Ili River was chosen as the most suitable place to restore the population in Kazakhstan. The program is being implemented by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in Kazakhstan, with the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to the ministry, the Ile-Balkhash Reserve can accommodate a population of up to 100 tigers. The tigers that were once indigenous to Kazakhstan were known as Turan tigers. The Turan tiger was an extinct population once found in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and northern Iran. Biologists suggest that Turan tigers and Amur tigers, native to Russia’s Far East, are not distinct subspecies but belong to the same group of big cats. The Ile-Balkhash Reserve was created to restore the ecosystem of the southern Balkhash region, and work is underway to restore the tiger’s natural food base. Ile-Balkhash is a critical natural area of the Ile River Delta with the adjacent shore of Lake Balkhash. It is the only preserved river delta in Central Asia, while the others (the deltas of the Syr Darya, Amu Darya, and Chu Rivers) have degraded due to desertification. In what is now Kazakhstan, the extermination of tigers, including through military shootings, began in 1891. The destruction of their habitat and primary food sources — such as Tugai red deer, goitered gazelles, saigas, kulans, roe deer, and wild boars — ultimately led to their extinction by 1948. This is not the first project to reintroduce endangered species to Kazakhstan. In June 2024, eight Przewalski’s horses were reintroduced to the Altyn Dala Nature Reserve in the Kostanay region of Kazakhstan. The horses were transported from Prague Zoo. The Kazakh Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources have said that 40 wild horses will be returned to Kazakhstan. Volume 12 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1371759 This article is part of the Research TopicClimate change, Land Surface, and Critical Zone Processes in Endorheic BasinsView all 9 articles Lake Balkhash is Asia’s third-largest lake and an endorheic basin The lake and its contributing tributaries provide essential water and ecosystem services to the surrounding population With approximately 2.5 million people living in the areas such as Almaty oblast monitoring and maintaining the lake’s health and water quality is essential for the sustainable management of water resources The hydrology of Lake Balkhash has been significantly impacted in recent decades by a warming climate the latter of which are driven by population growth and expansion Turbidity—the measurement of water clarity—serves as a major indicator of water health we analyze spatial and temporal variability in turbidity across Lake Balkhash by mapping the normalized difference turbidity index (NDTI) based on Landsat data for 1991–2022 We consider major exploratory variables such as precipitation and landuse landcover (LULC) within the catchment We find an overall decrease in turbidity over interannual and seasonal timescales We observe significant negative correlations between NDTI and water level at both scales but no clear relationship between turbidity and precipitation or wind variables grassland and bareland near Lake Balkhash showed a positive correlation with NDTI but have spatially decreased over time shrubland and wetland exhibit a negative correlation with NDTI; however Our results highlight the significant impact of rising temperatures and overall health of Lake Balkhash’s water the study emphasizes that the warming climate and alterations in the lake’s hydrology have a considerable impact on water quality This suggests that monitoring water health alone may not suffice to mitigate the impacts of climate change and human activities a more comprehensive approach is needed to sustainably manage and conserve dryland water resources dryland water security is increasingly of global concern reservoirs and aquifers in particular require careful and comprehensive strategies for the conservation of water quality since they represent more sizeable resources with greater potential environmental and socio-economic impact By adopting this approach to a catchment in the arid global south we aim to establish a cost-effective baseline on which future studies can expand incorporating additional parameters as needed The aim of this study is therefore to investigate spatio-temporal variations in Lake Balkhash WQ for the period 1991–2022 using the metric of turbidity derived from remote-sensing time-series datasets We also interrogate the effects of climate and people on lake water turbidity and speculate on their respective impacts on lake ecology and ecosystem services We aim to demonstrate the potential of remote sensing-based indices to efficiently and cost effectively analyse WQ and its causal factors in areas where in situ data collection is challenging our study will help to develop appropriate water resource management strategies in the context of anthropogenic climate change The eastern lake sub-basin is saline and substantially deeper Aksu and Lepsy river contribute to zone IV and Ayagoz River debouches in zone V The red diamond mark (♦) shows the meteorological stations available for the data of wind speed/directions around Lake Balkhash in particular the high summer temperatures and irregular precipitation patterns is a significant driver of water balance in the lake The primary and secondary datasets relevant to this study include remote sensing datasets the wind variables for direction (Wd) and speed (Ws) water level (WL) and landuse landcover (LULC) Our study makes use of remote sensing-based datasets to investigate the water quality (WQ) of Lake Balkhash through time. This approach, however, is limited due to insufficient and inconsistent satellite data observations, particularly during the winter which result in frequent data gaps due to snow and cloud cover (Supplementary Table S1) This causes an imbalance in effective observation of satellite imagery both spatially and temporally We processed the satellite images using Google Earth Engine (GEE) to derive the turbidity index maps We downloaded data for the period from 1991 to 2022 with a spatial resolution of 0.5° by 0.5° to match both the timeframe and scale of our datasets wind speed (Ws) and turbidity index (NDTI) variation data sets used for the time series trend analysis The high degree coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.92) gives us confidence in the reliability of our satellite altimetry-based approach we extend the use of WL data up to 2022 to analyse water level fluctuations over the last 3 decades (i.e. In doing so we additionally capture any potential changes associated with the acceleration of Belt and Road projects in western China It's worth noting that zone wise WL data in not available for the present study These LULC datasets currently restrict seasonal and zonal analysis for our study area we performed a time-series trend analysis using linear regression and Pearson correlation analysis on both NDTI and the climatic and anthropogenically influenced variables to investigate the socio-climatic effects on water surface dynamics and quality The idea of obtaining −2000 random sample points for P T and NDTI in this study is to select a representative subset of data points from a larger dataset This method ensures equal opportunity for each data point to be chosen thus minimizing bias and accurately reflecting the entire data population Flow chart shows the schematic stepwise methodology adopted for the assessment of the turbidity variation across spatio-temporal scale In this study we estimated water turbidity from the available remote sensing data using the published NDTI method (Lacaux et al., 2007), an approach specifically designed for ponds and inland catchments. Generally, the NDTI values ranges between −1 and +1 whereas lower value indicates clear water and higher value represent higher turbidity (Klein et al., 2014) Larger NDTI values signify higher turbidity and vice versa The index combines the red and green spectra of satellite datasets and is described by the following equation: where ρGreen and ρRed is the reflectance of the green and red band, respectively. The NDTI plays a vital role in identifying and quantifying suspended sediment characteristics in large water bodies, and can be used to analyse the turbidity variation at various spatio-temporal scales (Garg et al., 2017; Bid and Siddique, 2019) Given the size of Lake Balkhash and its spatially variable inflows and associated turbidity properties, we calculated the NDTI for multiple point locations within the five sub-basins (zones) defined by bathymetry and association with inflowing rivers (Figure 1) (Myrzakhmetov et al., 2022) We used these data to generate zonal average values for individual seasons and for the synthesised annual (9M; spring-summer-fall months) time periods This approach mitigates the impact of missing data over space and time We analysed the trend and correlation of different datasets using statistics in order to identify and explain turbidity variations over time and space We used Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and significance (p-value) to illustrate the trend of NDTI We also evaluated the r and p-value to decouple the relative influences of the climatic variables to turbidity patterns over time we first present the trend analysis of precipitation (P) over the 1991–2022 period at both annual and seasonal scales we observe a trend of significant correlation for temperature but the long-term averaged precipitation and wind data do not appear to yield any correlation through time The details of these observations are further elaborated in the subsequent sub-sections (A) Temporal trend of the precipitation (P) variables at interannual and seasonal scale; (B) and (C) Box plots of the zone-wise distribution of precipitation at annual and seasonal scales Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and significance (p-value) of different climatic variables used in the surface water turbidity assessment at interannual and seasonal scales at least over the 1991–2022 period annual as well as seasonal precipitation patterns have not changed significantly at Lake Balkhash temperature (T) and turbidity index (NDTI) variation over the Lake Balkhash Interannual temperatures (T) increase significantly over the period 1991–2022. Over 3 decades, the overall synthesised annual near surface temperature increase is −0.04°C/9M (Figure 4A), a value which is statistically moderate (r = 0.476; p = 0.007; Table 2). Minimum, maximum and mean T for 9-month data aggregates were 11.48°C, 15.10°C, and 13.62°C, respectively (Table 1) (A) Temporal trend of the temperature (T) at mean interannual and seasonal scale; (B) and (C) Box plots of the zone-wise distribution of temperature at annual and seasonal scales This rise in spring near-surface temperatures is likely to have affected water mixing causing sediments within the water to settle at a slower rate Increased temperatures also impact lake biological activity These combined effects potentially contribute to increasing lake water turbidity turbidity may be higher in the western part of lake Balkhash particularly in the spring and summer months The wind speed (Ws) and direction (Wd) statistics as recorded at the four weather stations of the Lake Balkhash are summarised in Figure 5 Rose diagram of the average wind speed (Ws) and direction (Wd) of the 4 nearest meteorological stations (A) Balkhash (C) Aul and (D) Algazy Ostrov based on the daily wind data measured over the study period (1991–2022) Plots (i–iv) show time series trend analysis of the mean interannual wind speed of the available datasets Zone-wise statistics of the wind speed (Ws) variations at four wind stations near Balkhash suggesting a localised wind effect in the eastern sub-basin during summer Based on the wind statistics we performed time series trend analysis using linear regression of the available datasets. We observe no significant correlation between wind strength and time over the observation period, at annual or seasonal timescales, for any of the weather stations (Figure 5; Supplementary Figure S4; Table 2) This suggests that lake Balkhash is influenced by variable wind patterns dominated by low wind speeds perhaps influenced by local topographical features we observe a trend of significant correlation for water level (WL) with increasing over the 1991–2022 period at both annual and seasonal scales the different LULC variables around the Lake Balkhash shows significant correlation with time over the study period The data in detail are presented in the following sub-sections Mean interannual and seasonal scale temporal trend of the water level (WL) data obtained from LEGOS Hydroweb altimetry data repository for Lake Balkhash between 1993 and 2022 (with no year gap) The available WL zone I, II, and III, the Ile River contributes the majority of water during the spring months and is directly influenced by ice melting and river flow regulation (Sala et al., 2016). In contrast, Karatal and other rivers (Figure 1) dominate inflow in Zones IV and V; some of these rivers currently provide no discharge to the lake Plots (A–H) showing the temporal trend of LULC variables for Ile-Balkhash basin over the study period of 1992–2020 Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and significance (p-value) of different LULC variables used in the surface water turbidity assessment at annual scales between the years 1992–2020 The period 1991–1996 experienced the highest turbidity values Other short-lived peaks occurred in 2001 (−0.091) and 2010–2011 (−0.090 and −0.091 respectively) and smaller turbidity peaks in 2017 and 2019 Map shows the zone-wise distribution of the mean annual turbidity of Lake Balkhash derived from the randomly selected 2000 NDTI points from 1991 to 2022 with base elevation map (A) Temporal trend of the turbidity index (NDTI) variable at mean interannual and seasonal scale; (B) and (C) Box plots of the zone-wise distribution of NDTI at annual and seasonal scales The trend of decreasing turbidity is strongest for the fall and summer seasons Less turbid water is likely to be the product of a range of factors including reduced runoff into the lake or improved water quality management practices These correlations suggest that higher turbidity is associated with lower temperatures and lower water levels and vice versa Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and significance (p-value) of turbidity index (NDTI) vs water level (WL) and LULC variables used in the surface water turbidity assessment at interannual and seasonal scales and snow and ice as distributed in the basin exhibit strong and negative correlation with NDTI with their relatively low and indirect contribution to turbidity dynamics This result suggests that WL fluctuations may have a more pronounced impact on turbidity These findings emphasize the influence of T and WL on turbidity dynamics at Lake Balkhash the scope of our study prevented the investigation of specific events such as floods and the quantification of NDTI resulting from such events which further decreases the sediment contributions and subsequent turbidity highlighting the importance of continuous environmental monitoring and in-depth studies for effective management of turbidity is crucial for preserving the health of Lake Balkhash’s ecosystem This study obtains valuable insights into the likely drivers of water quality variability and trends in Lake Balkhash it is important to note that our study relies entirely on infrequent Earth observation datasets and as such is limited by data gaps and may not adequately capture seasonal and short-term turbidity events The accuracy of our interpretations can only be obtained by increasing the spatial and temporal resolution of the available datasets it is important to recognize the significance of local factors specific to Lake Balkhash including shoreline and lake basin characteristics and inflows and sediment input from individual tributaries These local influences can have a significant impact on turbidity levels within the lake future efforts should be directed toward collecting and integrating ground-based data for an observed period to improve the accuracy and reliability of turbidity forecasting using remote sensing observations at Lake Balkhash In this study we make use of remote sensing techniques to monitor water quality and sedimentation in a large there is limited capacity for monitoring lakes such as Balkhash; these circumstances can be overcome using freely available remote sensing based NDTI techniques The stepwise statistical analysis undertaken here is a very useful approach for understanding how processes in natural systems are affected by human activities Under the combined influence of the climatic and anthropogenic variables the turbidity patterns show significant spatial and temporal variations at Lake Balkhash Interannual and seasonal turbidity variations indicate the critical influence of temperature and water level over the last 3 decades It is also noted that change in the LULC patterns in the Ile-Balkhash basin over the time has significantly impacted the turbidity dynamics of Lake Balkhash Spatial variation is primarily driven by the inflow from the major rivers In addition to the major controlling factors there are other localised factors which can have influence turbidity variations which have not been considered in the present study the present study illustrates the potential of a remote sensing approach to identify turbid zones in the absence of or with limited in-situ and observed data The results highlight the significant impact of rising temperatures and anthropogenically influenced water levels and LULC variables on turbidity in Lake Balkhash the study emphasizes that the warming climate and alterations in the lake’s hydrology as well as land use dynamics have a considerable impact on water quality This suggests that monitoring water health alone may not suffice to mitigate the impacts of climate change and human activities on water quality unless we reduce emissions and stop interfering with the lake’s hydrology and landscape configuration These actions are necessary to sustainably manage and conserve dryland water resources Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study This data can be found here: All data sources are mentioned in the manuscript under section “Data and Methods.” Datasets are available on request: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research This research was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science as a part of Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments We also acknowledge support by the Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Tübingen We sincerely thank the two reviewers and Kanat Samarkhanov (Editor) for the thoughtful and thorough reviews which have significantly improved the clarity of the manuscript The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1371759/full#supplementary-material Suggested solutions for the problems of salinity increase and cumulated pollution in lake Qarun CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Annual river runoff of the ile-balkash basin and prospects of its assessment due to climatic changes and water economy activities CrossRef 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Kanchan Mishra, a2FuY2hhbi5taXNocmFAdW5pLXR1ZWJpbmdlbi5kZQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Following up on their success in reviving the threatened saiga antelope population authorities in Kazakhstan are attempting to reintroduce tigers to an area near Lake Balkhash.  Caspian tigers, also known as Turan tigers, roamed the Kazakh steppe until disappearing about 70 years ago. To launch the revival program, Kazakh authorities announced September 23 that two Amur tigers up to four more Amur tigers are expected to be procured from Russia Ecology Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev said Amur tigers are preferred for the program because they while other tiger species thrive in warmer climates Citing standards developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources “Amur” and “Turan” are not considered separate subspecies of tigers so the animals being reintroduced to Kazakhstan can be classified as the Turan (Caspian) breed.  “For Kazakhstan, this is not only an ecologically important project, but also a symbol of joint efforts to restore the natural heritage,” said Nyssanbayev.    The Kazakh government first expressed a desire to reintroduce tigers in 2010. Eight years later, with support from the United Nations Development Program, the “Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve” Republican State Institution was created to serve as the tigers’ future habitat The reserve features thousands of hectares of forested territory near Lake Balkhash and “preserves the unique biodiversity of steppe ecosystems including rare and endangered species such as saiga antelope marbled polecat … [and] pallas sand grouse,” according to the UNDP.  the tigers are undergoing an acclimatization process in a small enclosure near the protected area before moving into a more spacious area Their descendants will live in the wild in the national park which is projected to accommodate up to 100 tigers Turan tigers tend to be larger than other tiger types small ears and a more yellowish than orange coat with black stripes.  Turan tigers’ preferred habitat was among the reed thickets and forests along the banks of the Ili and Syr Darya rivers in southern and southeastern Kazakhstan. During the late Tsarist and early Soviet periods, tigers increasingly caused trouble for local residents, killing cattle and occasionally attacking humans, prompting concerted efforts to exterminate them. According to official data the last Turan tiger was killed in 1948.    Officials stress that the new tiger population won’t pose a threat to humans or livestock.  “Improving the tiger’s natural food supply and the remoteness of the reserve will help avoid a conflict between the tiger and humans,” Nyssanbayev told reporters The main food source for the tigers will be wild boars and saigas of which there are now more than enough in the country.  An Ecology Ministry statement cited Gert Polet a wildlife expert at World Wildlife Fund Netherlands as saying the restoration program “gives hope” that similar revival efforts for endangered or disappeared species could succeed elsewhere.  The Turan tiger experiment hopes to emulate the success of the saiga population restoration.  At the outset of the 21st century saigas were listed as critically endangered Two decades of well-coordinated conservation efforts among international organizations Kazakhstan government agencies and local stakeholders have helped restore the population to roughly 2 million today from just 39,000 in 2005 Saigas are presently considered to be a “near threatened” species Almaz Kumenov is an Almaty-based journalist Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all Kazakhstan's Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve has welcomed its first wild animals in more than 70 years after undergoing a remarkable transformation which occupies 4,151 square kilometres (1,603 square miles) across the country’s Almaty and Balkhash region a decade ago was once an empty and damaged area but now has transformed into an ecosystem The region that has not seen a wild animal for over 70 years welcomed two captive tigers in September 2024 have been released into a semi-natural three-hectare enclosure within the reserve with the ambition that their cubs will become the first wild tigers in Kazakhstan in decades “These tigers were selected because they’re very similar to what would have been found in the Caspian region (before their extinction).” “Tigers have been translocated within country boundaries and zoo tigers cross international borders all the time but that’s for them to remain in captivity This is the first time that tigers have crossed international borders to reintroduce them into the wild.” Amur tigers are mostly found in Russia’s Far East and are adaptive to extreme weather They can survive scorching summers as well as freezing cold October 9, 2017JPEG Editor’s note: today’s caption is the answer to the October puzzler The Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash have a lot in common Both lakes are located in an arid part of Central Asia; both are somewhat saline; and neither has an outlet But after the desiccation of the Aral Sea—once the fourth-largest lake in the world—Balkhash now covers a comparatively larger area Spanning 17,000 square kilometers in Kazakhstan Lake Balkhash is the largest lake in Central Asia and fifteenth-largest in the world The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of Lake Balkhash on October 9 The image shows the southwestern part of the lake Water in the western part of the lake is almost fresh—suitable for drinking and industrial uses—whereas the eastern side of the basin is brackish to salty The western side is also murkier; visibility/light penetrates to about 1 meter compared to more than 5 meters on the eastern side is likely due to sediments suspended in the water so waves can stir up sediments from the bottom,” said Niels Thevs of the University of Greifswald (Germany) and the Central Asia office of the World Agroforestry Center Anywhere between 70 to 80 percent of the lake’s water comes from the Ili River which enters the lake along the eastern shoreline The surrounding delta (green) is now one of the largest wetlands in Central Asia “I imagine that the wetlands of the Ili Delta look like the wetlands around Aral Sea 50 years ago,” Thevs said Thevs describes large parts of the Ili Delta that are only accessible by boat, where you can cruise for hours amid 3-meter-high reeds. These reeds (Pharagmites australis) are considered invasive in the United States where the plant is an important part of the ecosystem Thevs also describes parts of the delta where the water is so crystal clear that you can see fish and water plants up to 7 to 8 meters below If you were to cruise in a boat in the main part of the lake you could count 43 islands with a total area of 66 square kilometers according to Zhanna Tilekova of Kazakh National Technical University who has published research on the region’s geoecology Tilekova noted that as water levels decline new islands form and the area of existing islands grows Tasaral (north of this image) and Basaral islands are the largest Ortaaral and Ayakaral islands are also relatively large (see the detailed image) NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey View this area in EO Explorer and meadows of the Ili River Delta offer habitat for hundreds of species These are Africa’s Lake Tanganyika and Lake Rukwa many of the world’s prominent salt lakes are drying up Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry has identified the regions of Balkhash, Kurchatov, and Mangistau as potential sites for the country’s second and third nuclear power plants, Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev has announced. The first plant is set to be built in Almaty region. Initially, Kazakhstan planned to build a single nuclear power plant by 2035 to address potential energy shortages. However, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev later instructed the government to explore the construction of at least two additional plants. Following an Energy Ministry board meeting on Wednesday, Satkaliyev told reporters that three locations are under consideration for the second and third nuclear plants: Timeline and Contractors for the First Plant The government has approved the Zhambyl district of Almaty region, near the village of Ulken, as the site for the first nuclear power plant. However, the final decision will depend on engineering surveys in the region. Four companies are in contention to construct Kazakhstan’s first nuclear plant: “In the first half of 2025, we plan to announce the configuration for the first nuclear power plant,” Satkaliyev said. The Energy Ministry has sent a list of 207 questions covering 19 key aspects of construction and operation to all four bidders. Responses were received last week and are now under review by an interdepartmental commission. “It is too early to determine a frontrunner. The final decision on the contractor will be made after a thorough review, possibly even earlier than expected,” Satkaliyev noted. A referendum held on October 6, 2024, showed that 71.12% of voters approved the construction of a nuclear power plant in Almaty region. Introduction: This study investigates into the drought-prone region of the Lake Balkhash basin, conducting a thorough analysis spanning 2 decades, emphasizing its significant impact on agriculture and water challenges in Central Asia. Beyond the specific focus on this region, the research aims to contribute valuable insights that extend our understanding of the broader implications of drought in the area. Discussion: This research underscores the intricate link between drought and hydrological factors in the Balkhash Lake Basin, emphasizing the need for precise water resource management and climate adaptation. Crucial strategies include proactive monitoring, tailored interventions, and the application of probabilistic drought mapping to enhance water supply management, contributing actionable insights for sustainable practices in the region. Conclusion: This study significantly advances our understanding of drought dynamics in the Balkhash Lake Basin, recommending adaptive strategies, site-specific interventions, and sustainable water management. The findings provide a crucial foundation for informed water resource decisions in Central Asia, emphasizing the importance of region-specific approaches to address diverse challenges posed by drought. Volume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1291993 Introduction: This study investigates into the drought-prone region of the Lake Balkhash basin conducting a thorough analysis spanning 2 decades emphasizing its significant impact on agriculture and water challenges in Central Asia the research aims to contribute valuable insights that extend our understanding of the broader implications of drought in the area Methods: Utilizing MODIS satellite imagery the study employs the Vegetation Health Index a comprehensive indicator combining the Vegetation Condition Index and Temperature Condition Index ranging from 0 (extreme aridity) to 100 (optimal moisture) The assessment of drought conditions from 2000 to 2020 includes probabilistic mapping and Pearson’s correlation coefficients such as river water levels and the Balkhash Lake area along with in-depth analyses of land use data and the GRACE dataset on water equivalent thickness enhancing the study’s depth and reliability Results: Drought affected approximately 44% of the Balkhash Lake Basin during the study period highlighting the region’s vulnerability Analysis of drought trends revealed diverse patterns: 23% exhibited an increase Correlations between drought and hydrological parameters varied among stations with positive correlations at Kapshagay and Shelek Stations and a significant positive correlation at Lepsy despite the elevation Discussion: This research underscores the intricate link between drought and hydrological factors in the Balkhash Lake Basin emphasizing the need for precise water resource management and climate adaptation Crucial strategies include proactive monitoring and the application of probabilistic drought mapping to enhance water supply management contributing actionable insights for sustainable practices in the region Conclusion: This study significantly advances our understanding of drought dynamics in the Balkhash Lake Basin The findings provide a crucial foundation for informed water resource decisions in Central Asia emphasizing the importance of region-specific approaches to address diverse challenges posed by drought In Central Asia, a region historically susceptible to water scarcity and drought, the challenges arising from climate change and unsustainable water resource management practices have left a lasting impact on the Aral Sea basin, influencing landscapes, economies, and communities (Berdimbetov et al., 2021; Yegizbayeva et al., 2022) The objectives of this study are 1) systematically investigating and characterizing the distribution of drought events over the past 21 years within the Lake Basin 2) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of drought characteristics delineating spatial and temporal patterns influencing the frequency of drought occurrences throughout the study duration 3) to perform a rigorous trend analysis of drought events within the Lake Basin with a specific emphasis on evaluating the correlation between the onset of drought and relevant hydrological parameters This assessment relies on strategically positioned hydrological stations along four rivers that flow into the Balkhash Lake basin Using advanced remote sensing through MODIS satellite imagery, the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) proves valuable for real-time monitoring of agricultural drought in arid regions (Dorjsuren et al., 2016) This technology enhances the understanding of drought dynamics and supports large-scale water management and climate adaptation efforts It also aids in presenting geographically disaggregated data providing a comprehensive overview of the impact of drought over extensive areas there is a scarcity of studies utilizing satellite-based datasets in this study area Our study addresses this limitation by meticulously analyzing droughts and examining trends in their intensity and spatial distribution our research focuses on cross-border areas in the region specifically targeting the main rivers flowing into Lake Balkhash to advance understanding and address drought-related problems A hydrological assessment spanning from 2000 to 2020 explored drought events and water balance parameters drawing insights from four monitoring stations along key rivers of the basin Ili River is originated in Central Tien Shan glaciers, it spans 1,439 km, with a 140,000 km2 basin (Duan et al., 2020). Merging with Kunese and Kash Rivers in China before re-entering Kazakhstan, it flows into Lake Balkhash, sustaining the basin’s ecosystems (Qi et al., 2020b) Shelek River is the largest in the Ile-Alatau Range, it originates from southern slope glaciers, covering a 4,950 km2 basin (De Boer et al., 2021). Fed by over 45 mountain tributaries, it plays a crucial role in regional hydrodynamics, contributing to the water balance and sustainability of the Balkhash Lake Basin (Alimkulov and Moldakhanova, 2020) Lepsi River is ranking third in water volume, flowing 417 km from the Jetisu Alatau Range, it drains 8,110 km2 (Talipova et al., 2019). Originated from northern slope glaciers, it substantially contributes to Lake Balkhash’s water supply, influencing the region’s hydrological dynamics (Tursunova et al., 2022) Ayagoz River is formed by merging the Big and Small Ayagoz rivers, it originates in the Tarbagatay Range. Stretching 492 km and draining 15,700 km2, it flows into Lake Balkhash, exhibiting a unique elongated shape (Myrzakhmetov et al., 2022) The river’s distinct features contribute significantly to the hydrological dynamics impacting the water balance and sustainability of the Balkhash Lake Basin TABLE 1. Main land use characteristics of the selected Basin based on ESA CCI LC dataset (Zanaga et al., 2022) Over the past 2 decades, the Balkhash Lake Basin has seen changes in land use (table 1) while grasslands remained dominant at 39.4% and sparse vegetation slightly decreased to 18.7% highlight the evolving landscape of the region For assessing land surface thermal characteristics, the MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) product (MOD11C2), played a central role. This product was derived from thermal infrared bands, with a primary focus on bands 31 (10.780–11.280 µm) and 32 (11.770–12.270 µm), (Zhao et al., 2021) and (C) Balkhash Lake Basin and its hydrological monitoring stations Drought evaluations within the endorheic basin were computed using the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) on a pixel-wise basis for the years 2000–2020, on a monthly scale, with a specific focus on the mean growing season from April to September. The computation of drought parameters relies on the utilization of MODIS datasets due to their exceptional spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions (Chen et al., 2011) this data was employed in the computation of the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) known as the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) The formula for VHI is expressed as follows: Here, EVI max and EVI min indicate the highest and lowest EVI values within each observation period. As a standalone metric, the VCI serves as a valuable tool for drought assessment (Eq. 1) VCI has demonstrated a high level of accuracy in evaluating drought conditions considering parameters such as duration and its impact on vegetation Here, LSTmax and LSTmin signify the uppermost and lowest values of Land Surface Temperature (LST). The TCI algorithm (Eq. 2) closely parallels the VCI methodology, with conditions being assessed concerning the maximum and minimum temperature envelope. The subsequent formula accounts for the distinct vegetation responses to temperature variations (Kogan, 1995) VHI is a resultant metric obtained by computing a weighted average of two indices, with values ranging from 0 to 1. In accordance with the defined VHI formulation, both the TCI and the VCI were assigned equal weights of 0.5, as specified in Eq. 3 the VHI values were subsequently multiplied by 100 resulting in a range spanning from 0 to 100 A VHI value of 0 indicates extremely arid conditions while a maximum value of 100 signifies the most favorable wet conditions Drought severity classifications for VHI values less than 40 are employed to categorize the level of drought stress experienced by vegetation. These classifications are adaptable depending on the specific application and have been validated in previous research. VHI is categorized into five distinct classes utilizing predefined thresholds outlined in Table 2 TABLE 2. Classification of drought calculated by the VHI (Kogan, 2002) The recurrence, duration, and intensity of droughts are of paramount importance in water supply management, exacerbating the scarcity of natural water resources. To evaluate the likelihood of drought events, their occurrence probability was computed at the pixel level, encompassing the entire growth season timeframe. This probability (ρ^) is determined using the following Eq. 4: The confidence interval for p’ is expressed as (Eq. 5): Where: ρ^- represents the probability of occurrence N -represents the total number within the dataset The evaluation of trends in environmental parameters is important for the progression and sustainable management of natural resources a longitudinal assessment of change was conducted utilizing a linear methodology Linear trends were calculated for both annual and monthly intervals spanning the period from 2000 to 2020 A straight line was fitted to the temporal data of each pixel using the least squares linear regression technique The mathematical expression for the linear regression line can be stated as follows: The regression line was constructed with x (time) as the independent variable and y (drought) as the dependent variable (Eq. 6) depicting temporal changes at the pixel scale Positive values of the trend indicate growth Pearson’s correlation coefficients assessed the line’s fit measuring the linear connection between datasets with the significance level being evaluated at the 90%–99% confidence level Spatiotemporal patterns of annual drought severity and respective proportions of drought categories for each year (A–U) It is important to note that our analysis excluded moderate and mild drought occurrences considering them as minor anomalies typical of arid regions The analysis of the geographic distribution of severe drought frequencies was conducted using a probabilistic framework (Figure 3) The results revealed that approximately 26% of the basin’s area experienced prolonged 3-year drought events about 17% of instances exhibited recurring 4-year drought episodes roughly nine percent of the region displayed a recurring 5-year drought pattern while seven percent of the basin’s geographical territory endured drought occurrences lasting beyond a 6-year duration Spatial and temporal patterns of drought frequency Our scientific investigation, as illustrated in Figure 4 reveals noteworthy patterns of drought trend fluctuations within the assigned research zone predominantly concentrated in the northeastern and central areas of the study region encompassing the Chinese part of the basin within cropland areas approximately 17% of the area has experienced a decline in trend with focal points in the southern and northwestern sectors of the basin 60% of the study area has displayed a state of relative constancy devoid of any observable alterations in trend while TCI is better suited for desert regions The combined index between temperature and vegetation cover relies on their strong negative correlation. This is due to increased evaporation resulting from reduced soil moisture due to higher temperatures, leading to decreased vegetation cover. Therefore, researchers (Yao et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2021) widely applied the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) in various areas crop and pasture loss evaluation due to drought which encompassed selected stations situated at various elevations alongside different river systems we uncovered notable correlations as follows: At the Kapshagay station (Table 3 located along the Ile River at an elevation of 496 m above sea level we found that: Drought and river water level displayed a moderate positive correlation with a coefficient of 0.55 (p < 0.01) indicating a statistically significant relationship suggesting that as drought conditions intensified there was a corresponding rise in river water levels we identified a relatively strong positive correlation with a coefficient of 0.74 (p < 0.01) between drought and water equivalent thickness signifying that as drought intensity increased which reflects changes in snowpack and soil moisture we observed a statistically significant correlation of 0.4 (p < 0.1) between the Balkhash Lake area and water equivalent thickness suggesting that changes in the Balkhash Lake area were associated with variations in water equivalent thickness albeit with a slightly weaker correlation compared to the previous associations Correlation Matrix Plot of selected indices with significance levels indicated by asterisks: p < 0,1 (*) and p < 0,01 (***) In a scientific study conducted at the Shelek station (Table 3 several significant correlations were identified between various environmental factors The results are as follows: A moderate positive correlation (r = 0.4 p < 0.1) was observed between drought and river water levels indicating that as drought conditions intensified a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.4 p < 0.1) was found between drought and water equivalent thickness the water equivalent thickness also tended to decrease Another correlation was identified between the Balkhash Lake area and water equivalent thickness revealing a weak positive correlation (r = 0.42) between these two variables This implies that as the area of Balkhash Lake changed there was a slight influence on water equivalent thickness values a high positive correlation (r = 0.5 p < 0.05) was detected between water equivalent thickness and river water level indicating a strong relationship between these two variables river water levels tended to rise significantly In the study conducted at the Ayagoz station, situated at an elevation of 648 m, we observed the following correlations (Table 3 C): There was no notable correlation between drought and other tested parameters a significant correlation was found between the Balkhash Lake area and both river water level and water equivalent thickness with a coefficient of 0.4 (p < 0.1) a robust correlation of 0.5 (p < 0.05) was identified between river water level and water equivalent thickness demonstrating a strong relationship between these two variables These findings provide valuable insights into the relationships among drought and water equivalent thickness at the Ayagoz station contributing to our understanding of local hydrological and environmental dynamics At the Lepsy station (Table 3 situated at an elevation of 1,348 m our scientific investigation yielded the following results: No statistically significant correlation was discerned between drought and the examined parameters Drought exhibited no discernible relationship with these variables at this specific station A correlation coefficient of 0.4 (p < 0.1) was identified between the Balkhash Lake area and water equivalent thickness This correlation suggests an association between alterations in the size of Balkhash Lake and fluctuations in water equivalent thickness albeit with a relatively modest strength of relationship was observed between river water level and water equivalent thickness This substantial correlation underscores a pronounced connection between these two variables signifying that variations in water equivalent thickness exert a substantial influence on river water levels at the Lepsy station Despite the limited availability of literature for a direct comparison with our findings the challenges posed by drought and evolving climate patterns underscore the urgency of implementing sustainable water resource management practices To effectively address the specific vulnerabilities and correlations identified at different stations within the basin it is imperative to incorporate these considerations into water resource management practices The utilization of our probabilistic mapping of drought occurrences serves as a valuable tool for enhancing water supply management and enabling strategic planning for drought events The study underscores the critical importance of proactive monitoring and assessment leveraging remote sensing data and comprehensive indices like VHI to bridge existing research gaps in the region this study has provided valuable insights into the dynamics of drought within the Balkhash Lake Basin for the period spanning from 2000 to 2020 The research has revealed the significant and enduring impacts of severe drought events on the region affecting a substantial portion of the basin’s area and posing challenges for both Kazakhstan and China The analysis of temporal trends has uncovered a mixed scenario with certain areas experiencing deteriorating drought conditions while others maintain relative stability underscoring the spatial heterogeneity of drought patterns within the region the research has unveiled complex correlations between drought occurrences and hydrological parameters at monitoring stations in the basin emphasizing the complex interplay between these factors This highlights the critical importance of nuanced and localized approaches to water resource management in addressing the region’s vulnerabilities effectively In light of the recurring drought events and the challenges brought about by evolving climate patterns underlining the urgent need for proactive monitoring and the adoption of sustainable water management practices to safeguard the vital water resources and ecosystems of the Balkhash Lake Basin The region faces heightened challenges due to the simultaneous trends of increasing temperatures and population growth intensifying the overall impact on water availability comprehensive and localized strategies are essential to address the varying degrees of vulnerability across the basin with the research offering a novel perspective that can inform tailored approaches for managing water resources and adapting to climate changes in this specific geographical context thereby revealing previously unexplored avenues of research The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be made available by the authors The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research This study received financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the project titled “Technologies and Technical Means of Irrigation for the Establishment of New Irrigated Lands and Modernization of Existing Irrigation Systems” during the period from 2021 to 2023 (IRN—BR10764920) this study forms a part of AY’s Ph.D research at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University The authors express their gratitude to the editor and reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which greatly enhanced the quality of this paper Drought risk assessment in cultivated areas of central asia using MODIS time-series data CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Ecological state of the wetlands of Ile River delta Google Scholar Environmental resilience of rangeland ecosystems: assessment drought indices and vegetation trends on arid and semi-arid zones of Central Asia CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Analysis of impact of aral sea catastrophe on anomaly climate variables and hydrological processes CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Monitoring of soil moisture variability in relation to 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use *Correspondence: Asset Yegizbayeva, YXNzZXRAc3BhY2VyZXMua3o= An official website of the United States government Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan is one of the largest lakes in Asia and the 15th largest in the world the NOAA-20 satellite captured this stunning cloud-free view of the lake which is located in southeastern Kazakhstan The Saryesik Peninsula, located to the left of the Lake Balkhash label in this imagery, divides the body of water “into two separate hydrologic parts.” The western part of the lake is wider and contains almost fresh water that’s suitable for consumption whereas the eastern part of the lake is much more narrow and saltier Although true-color images like this may appear to be photographs of Earth, they aren't. They are created by combining data from the three color channels on the VIIRS instrument sensitive to the red green and blue (or RGB) wavelengths of light into one composite image data from several other channels are often also included to cancel out or correct atmospheric interference that may blur parts of the image Here we are to serve you with news right now quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis you can have full digital access to all news Proces du 13-November : ce que ces hommes opaques ont dans la tete Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit Blanditiis optio incidunt eum omnis ratione error temporibus iure porro esse Integer consectetur quam eget ipsum dictum accumsan Donec non lectus id risus rutrum ullamcorper sit amet vel nulla April 8, 2019JPEG Don’t blink or you might miss some of Earth’s most spectacular transitions. As spring tightens its grip on the Northern Hemisphere, natural events like rainfed wildflower blooms, wind-stirred sediment swirls and melting lake ice can fade as fast as they formed How long will it take Lake Balkash to become entirely ice free? In the past, the full transition has happened in a matter of weeks; check out this image pair from April 11 and 18 Water and air temperatures at this time of year are climbing Notice that in areas where ice has already released its grip That’s in part because the lake is extremely shallow—averaging 4.3 meters deep on the western side—which makes it easier for winds to stir up sediments from the bottom Most of the water feeding the western portion of the lake comes from the Ili River which is fed by meltwater runofff originating in the Tien Shan Mountains is pictured with caps of snow and ice.) Research has found that degrading glaciers and melting snow in the Tien Shan have led to increases in the water level of Lake Balkash in recent decades the authors note that if glacier degradation and melt continue water level increases could quickly shift to decreases NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership View this area in EO Explorer The break up of lake ice in springtime unveils the turquoise waters of one of Asia’s largest lakes This lake in northwest Russia is small compared to Lake Baikal yet it still manages to make a stately appearance in satellite imagery Canada’s Great Slave Lake runs nearly 2,000 feet deep The demise of the Aral Sea is a tragic tale often told Less known is the peril facing Central Asia’s largest remaining lake a key source of drinking water in an arid region Rapid development and expanding rice cultivation upstream in China pose a grave threat to the Balkhash basin The lake’s fate has quietly bedeviled Kazakhstan for decades Just how bad it will get depends both on Chinese farming and the magnitude of climate change which is all but certain to dispatch the last of the glaciers feeding the 1,500-kilometer Ili River the source of 80 percent of the lake’s water Researchers at Oxford University ran 738 simulations combining possible changes in water consumption with 80 future climate scenarios, ranging from warmer and drier to warmer and wetter conditions. Most of the simulations point to the same grim conclusion, they write in the peer-reviewed journal Water: To save the lake China would have to drastically reduce how much water it uses The risks to Lake Balkhash could be mitigated by “sustainable expansion of agriculture upstream if parties cooperate and coordinate water use.” Yet that is not possible without data The Ili begins in China’s Xinjiang province, a region currently in the global spotlight for its government-sponsored repression of local Muslims abuses that several Western nations have labeled genocide The Ili River valley is one of the most fertile in Xinjiang. A reduction in water consumption might be achievable with new, efficient technologies and by planting crops less thirsty than rice (and cotton, which Washington recently banned) the authors cite Chinese “plans for more rice production” by “continued conversion of scrub and grassland into irrigated agricultural fields.” the Ili’s level is below that needed to replenish Balkhash Even current demand reduces the flow to less than the replenishment rate almost half the time which may explain the “gradual degradation” of vegetation in the Ili delta over the last two decades About half of the models show that within 40 years too little water will flow into the Balkhash to save the lake “The combination of demand change with shifts in the climatic regime yield extreme outcomes” for the river’s reliability Certainly, Kazakh plans warrant more study, write de Boer and her coauthors. Previous research has documented poor management and widespread waste inside Kazakhstan And Balkhash was almost destroyed in the 1970s when Soviet engineers built the Kapchagay Reservoir upstream from Balkhash to power Almaty This time the source of the problem is also clear, though the lack of will in China may be insurmountable with Beijing on the backfoot in Xinjiang and trying to steer international attention to its Belt and Road global development initiative (which, other researchers have warned raises a host of water-related worries of its own) the other major river flowing from China into Kazakhstan Chinese scientists are not entirely ignoring the Ili-Balkhash basin. A forthcoming paper sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences examines effluent in the river, concluding that concentrations of pesticides on both sides of the border are “low to moderate, compared to concentrations in other rivers throughout the world.” Another new paper Lake Balkhash, the largest lake in Central Asia, is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission Click on the image below to explore it in its full 10 m resolution which is situated in east-central Kazakhastan is around 605 km in length from east to west The lake’s size varies depending on water balance with its area fluctuating from around 15 000 sq km to 19 000 sq km Jutting out into the lake is the Sarymsek Peninsula which divides Balkhash into two separate hydraulic parts The west part is wide and shallow with its water on this side particularly fresh and suitable for drinking with its waters on this side of the basin brackish and salty The two parts of the lake are united by a narrow strait the Uzynaral visible in the centre of the image The sediment plume passing through the Uzynaral Strait is most likely due to waves stirring up sediments from the bottom of the lake This has led to a higher reflection and thus a brighter water colour in this part of the lake The north banks of Lake Balkhash are high and rocky while the south banks are low and sandy with wide belts covered with thickets of reeds and numerous small lakes These low-lying banks are periodically flooded by the waters of the lake A high presence of sea ice can be seen in bright blue-greenish colours especially near the southern shoreline This colour is due to ice having a higher reflectance in the visible parts of the spectrum than in the near-infrared Balkhash usually remains frozen from the end of November to the beginning of April with this image captured on 29 November 2021 South of Balkhash lies the Saryesik-Atyrau Desert which stretches for around 400 km in east Kazakhastan ponds and wetlands in the desert (visible in brown) that support a varied animal and bird population Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in water bodies to be closely monitored This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme Explore our planet from above through the eyes of Earth observing satellites June 19, 2016JPEG An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph while flying over Asia and looking southeast toward the horizon. Astronauts have unique opportunities to photograph Earth from various angles while orbiting in the thermosphere layer of Earth’s upper atmosphere In the foreground we see Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. The lake’s main sources of water come from the Ili and Karatal (also Qaratal) Rivers. The Ili River Delta is a megafan deposit that forms a conical shape along the shores of Lake Balkhash The cloud-covered Tian Shan Mountains of northwest China feed snowmelt waters to the Ili River and Lake Balkhash Set against the darkness of space, the Moon appears to hover over the landscape. Astronauts on the ISS see the same lunar phases as we do on the ground. The steep color gradient in the upper third of the photo marks the edge of Earth’s atmosphere and is known as the limb The Moon does not have a gradually darkening limb because it lacks an atmosphere; the lunar limb appears simply as a sharp demarcation between the surface and the darkness of space View this area in EO Explorer The central Asian lake is fed by snowmelt but tugged by the Moon of which Lake Balkhash is a prominent part If the lake disappears or if it becomes so polluted that its waters can no longer be used for human consumption a third or more of Kazakhstan’s population will suffer De Boer and her research partners point out that the Ili River valley is one of the few areas in Xinjiang with enough water to permit rapid agricultural development; and thus it is Beijing’s best hope for attracting Han Chinese settlement to what has historically been a predominantly arid and Muslim region the Chinese have had to take ever more water out of the Ili putting the survival of Lake Balkhash at risk is that the issue of the survival of the Muslim community in Xinjiang (which includes ethnic Kazakhs) and the survival of Lake Balkhash and the people around it in Kazakhstan are becoming mixed together Anger about each interlinked factor exacerbates anger about the others the approaching death of Lake Balkhash may have an even larger impact on the world than the fate that has already overtaken the Aral Sea During Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s recent visit to Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed using “Russian technology” (a possible reference to Russian nuclear firm Rosatom) to construct a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan Tokayev’s deputy energy minister said that while no such plans have been finalized a town on the shores of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan’s Almaty province Approximately 69 percent of its electricity is produced from coal less than 2 percent from oil and less than 1 percent from other renewable sources Almaty province is located in an area rich in oil and gas it would also have serious implications for Lake Balkhash we take a look at the environmental effects of economic activity around Lake Balkhash (click to enlarge) America in TransitionThe Geopolitics of the American President Sign up now Get weekly analysis from New York Times bestselling author George Friedman and our global team of analysts Copyright © 2024 Geopolitical Futures® Sign up now and receive our special report Understanding our Geopolitical Model Subscribe Now Located 175 miles north-west of the country’s largest city Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash is the fifteenth largest lake in the world The remains of an ancient sea which once covered vast tracts of land a mixture of around 68,000 mostly ethnic Kazakhs and Russians eke out a living Lake Balkhash is under threat with its inflow sources diminishing Fed by glaciers in Xinjiang, China, the Ili River has traditionally accounted for the vast majority of Lake Balkhash’s inflow, but according to research as of 2021 China was blocking 40% of the river’s inflow leading to a rise in anti-Chinese sentiments in Kazakhstan With desertification now affecting one-third of the Balkhash-Alakol Basin the resultant dust storms are leading to an increase in the lake’s salinity with silt from these storms further affecting inflow Parallels to the Aral Sea – arguably the worst man-made environmental disaster in modern history – are all too apparent the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland body of water in the world The destruction of the Aral Sea first dates back as far as the U.S finding his supply of American cotton under threat the Russian tsar decided to use the sea’s tributaries to irrigate Central Asia and create his own cotton bowl With 1.8 million liters of water needed for every bale of cotton the Aral had shrunk to one-tenth its original size the land surrounding the Aral Sea was still cotton fields; today it’s largely an expanse of salinized grey emptiness The desiccation of the landscape has led to vast toxic dust-storms that ravage around 1.5 million square kilometers these storms – visible from space – used to occur once every five years home to the remaining section of the so-called Large Aral Sea and the region has the highest infant mortality rate in the former USSR Further into the manmade desert lies the forgotten hamlet of Moynaq mostly fishermen and their extended families with the Aral Sea producing up to 30% of the Soviet catch and saving Russia from widespread famine in the 1920s Accessible only by air and ferry well into the 1970s Moynaq also served as a popular beach resort for well-heeled bureaucrats its airport hosting fifty flights a day at its peak Digging channels through the sand in pursuit of the diminishing sea Moynaq’s fishermen discarded their ships where they became grounded the Amu Darya River no longer reaching its historic terminus the town’s population number less than 2,000 the remnants of the sea almost two hundred kilometers away Striped sunlight spills through the skeletal ribs of the desert ships hulls these inert objects take on an ethereal vitality in opposition to the overwhelming sense of desolation surrounding them Thorny grey and fuchsia pink thistles destined to become tumbleweeds shake as brackish gusts whip across the vast wasteland once so teeming with life the region is subject to searing summers and freezing winters a hundred types of fish and countless insects unique to the region all now extinct Lake Balkhash is an inland endorheic lake threatened by unsustainable human exploitation of its feeder river systems,” Dr an Economic Geographer and Associate Professor at KIMEP University in Almaty told The Times of Central Asia deficit conditions currently prevail with respect to Balkhash’s water balance This means that inflow from the four river systems – plus other additions from precipitation on the surface and runoff – is less than the net losses resulting from evaporation from the lake’s surface plus any groundwater seepage “The main concern in this equation is the Ili River which is responsible for approximately 75% of Balkhash’s water additions That the headwaters of the Ili lie in China makes the river a geopolitically sensitive trans-boundary waterway and water withdrawals on the Chinese side have powered agricultural and industrial development in Xinjiang As with other trans-boundary river systems actions taken in ‘upstream’ States often negatively impact populations and aquatic ecosystems ‘downstream,’ as Kazakhstan is in this case Being reliant upon decisions made in China particularly those requiring the consideration of ecological integrity and sustainable use of riparian resources has led to significant apprehension in Kazakhstan.” Whether Lake Balkhash can be saved or is set to mirror the fate of the Aral Sea remains to be seen is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission The lake’s size varies depending on water balance Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in water bodies to be closely monitored – Download the full high-resolution image Whether you're looking for the latest space exploration (Try us out for a month before you pay anything.) the largest lake in Kazakhstan (14th in the world) could dry up and repeat the fate of the Aral Sea due to China’s intensive water withdrawal unsustainable agriculture and the effects of climate change How does Kazakhstan solve the problem of water sharing with China and what consequences can we expect with the drying up of this unique lake Lake Balkhash is a closed semi-freshwater lake in the Balkhash-Alakol depression in the south-east of Kazakhstan The main source of the lake is the transboundary Ili river The sources of this river begin in China and provide more than 80% of the water inflow of lake Balkhash The uniqueness of the lake lies in the fact that it is divided by a narrow strait into two parts with different water compositions – in the western part it is practically fresh The entire territory adjacent to the Ili river is included in the Ili-Balkhash water basin. The Ili-Balkhash basin is one of the most complex ecosystems in the world, occupying a vast territory of 413 thousand square kilometers in area in the South-East of Kazakhstan and North-West of China. A fifth of the population of Kazakhstan lives in the basin, 50% of which are rural residents[1] The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), along with many experts, notes in its report the risk of shallowing Lake Balkhash. The water level in the lake basin has been declining since 1960. This is due to the intense evaporation of the water surface and the increase in the catchment area of ​​China for the development of Northwest China, as well as for the irrigation of crops in the two countries[2] It should be noted that the melting of glaciers and the intense evaporation of water resources caused by climate change are intensifying the tendency for the Ili-Balkhash basin to become shallow The shallowing of Balkhash is especially noticeable in its shallow western part and the southern part of Balkhash itself lost about 150 km² of water surface during this period The water resources of this basin are used to irrigate crops (in particular rice and cotton) to accumulate reservoirs in the two countries Although according to the official departments of Kazakhstan there is no reason to assert that shallowing is occurring scientists from the University of Oxford in the UK have modeled 738 possible options for the development of the Ili-Balkhash basin comparing possible changes in water consumption with 80 options for climate change in the future – from drier to more humid And virtually all of the results point to the same conclusion: to save the lake China needs to drastically cut its water use it serves as a reference point for China in the development of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) How does China affect the shallowing of Lake Balkhash The PRC has created and is implementing the concept of transforming the Xinjiang into a regional trade and economic center of Central Asia the influence of which should extend to the entire region as well as to the countries of the Middle East The concept of developing the west of China will speed up the process of implementing the "One Belt and One Way" project in Central Asia In the 1980s the population of the territory of the Chinese part of the Ili basin did not exceed one million people, but over the past twenty years the population of Xinjiang has almost doubled. According to the latest census, more than 25 million people live in the Xinjiang[3] This is related to the intensive development of the Xinjiang's natural resources which entailed an even larger scale of water resources use The volume of water consumption is increasing not only for the needs of new irrigated lands and water-intensive sectors of the mining and processing industries but also for a huge number of migrants from the interior regions of the PRC Satellite image of the border area where the Ili river flows westward from China to Kazakhstan The river and coastal vegetation are clearly separated from the surrounding arid landscape of Kazakhstan irrigated fields are visible extending to the border According to satellite calculations and vegetation calculation methodologies (NDVI) the area of irrigated areas in Xinjiang is growing rapidly due to water withdrawal Also, in the Xinjiang, the construction of a canal from the Ili River is in full swing, which is aimed at water supply to the Tarim Basin - large oil and gas fields have been discovered there, and at the moment the Chinese are intensively developing them. The planned flow of water through both canals is more than six cubic kilometers per year[4] having a favorable geographic location in the upper reaches of the Ili-Balkhash basin is successfully implementing its plans for the intensive intake of water resources from the transboundary Ili river for irrigating western lands and diverting the river to the Tarim basin How does Kazakhstan solve the problem with water sharing of the Ili river with China Kazakhstan is trying in every possible way to avoid the same scenario of development with Balkhash as that of the Aral Sea the official authorities are implementing various programs for the sustainable development of the Ili-Balkhash basin in Kazakhstan In the messages of Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev Balkhash has always occupied a special place which can be traced at the largest conferences “Balkhash-2000” and UN assemblies on lake Balkhash Kazakhstan has repeatedly initiated dialogues with China and referred to the norms of international law on transboundary water resources the main documents in the management of transboundary water resources are the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (1992) and the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997) These documents are of great importance in the regulation of transboundary environmental problems the main drawback of these documents is that their actions apply to the states that signed them (or to the states that joined them) the PRC has not yet joined any international convention on transboundary rivers and does not intend to join them since almost all transboundary rivers in China originate within the country By committing itself to equitable water management China will aggravate the socio-economic situation in its western part it should be noted that there are attempts and progress in the development of bilateral relations in the field of transboundary water resources between Kazakhstan and China the states signed the Agreement "On cooperation in the use and protection of transboundary rivers" (12.09.2001 the management system is considered not only in the Ili river basin but also issues related to the equally sensitive basin of the Black Irtysh river a canal has already been built on the Irtysh river to drain water for the oil industry under the same name “Kara Irtysh-Karamay” It should be noted that all these agreements are of a declarative and technical nature capable of changing the river regime in favor of Kazakhstan Nevertheless, in 2007 Kazakhstan offered a barter contract for ten-year food supplies to China with the condition for more river flow to Balkhash. But according to experts, China rejected the proposal[5] Kazakhstan's contribution to the shallowing of Lake Balkhash Almost all of its water resources Kazakhstan spends on the agricultural sector[6] it should be recognized that Kazakhstan also makes a significant contribution to the drying up of the Ili-Balkhash basin On the Ili river in the Kazakh part in 1970 the dam of the Kapchagai hydroelectric power station was built the balance of Lake Balkhash was disturbed which caused a deterioration in water quality especially in the eastern part of the lake But the most important crisis for Balkhash was the decrease in the water level from 1970 to 1987 The minimum water level in the lake (340.65 meters above sea level) was recorded in 1987 after the completion of the filling of the Kapchagai reservoir and in January 2005 there was an increase in the level to 342.5 meters which some experts attributed to the large amount of precipitation that fell over last years The statistics on water consumption in Kazakhstan confirms the fact that there are huge losses of water resources with the existing irrigation method in agriculture Another factor affecting the shallowing and pollution of the Ili-Balkhash basin is emissions from the Balkhash mining and metallurgical plant As steps to improve the environmental situation it was proposed to stop the filling of the Kapchagai reservoir purify the wastewater of the metallurgical plant it is worth recognizing that the modern system of traditional irrigation of agricultural crops in Kazakhstan is still ineffective contributing to large losses of water in the rivers Impact of climate change on the drying up of Lake Balkhash Climate change, which is expressed in an increase in average annual temperatures, a decrease in precipitation, due to and in intensive evaporation of water, lead to the melting of glaciers. In the Nature Climate Change study, Balkhash is named as one of the basins particularly susceptible to depletion of glacial runoff[7] runoff can be expected to decrease by at least 10% in the future due to the shrinking of glaciers Peak water has not yet been reached for most of the Tien Shan glaciers but this is expected to happen in the next 20 years it should be noted that the situation with the drying up of the largest lake is aggravated by the consequences of climate change It seems that in the current situation without creating an institutional framework for the settlement of disputes over transboundary and border watercourses it should be assumed that China will not take water less than the amount it takes Regarding the establishment of a potential crisis with China it is worth noting that Kazakhstan needs to use almost all negotiating platforms within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Belt and Road Initiative but the chances that China will yield to Kazakhstan in this matter are very small which is reflected in Central Asia by the intense melting of glaciers will also intensify the drying up of lake Balkhash in the future Almost all glaciers feeding the Balkhash lake basin have not yet approached the level of maximum consumption of water reserves which means that surface runoff from glaciers will continue to increase annually everything will change in the coming decades and the volumes of runoff will finally decrease If by that time reliable methods of water resources management are not introduced then one can expect a surge of contradictions on the basis of water use between the two countries - and it will be difficult for Kazakhstan to win in this struggle [1] National report on the state of the environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan http://ecogosfond.kz/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NDSOS_2011-2014.pdf [2] UNEP Cross Link https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/fr/node/236628 [3] Seventh Communication of the Statistical Committee of the People's Republic of China on the Population Census http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202105/t20210510_1817188.html [4] China turns Kazakhstan into a desert https://forbes.kz/news/2013/01/24/newsid_16617 [5] Zonn.I / Transboundary rivers of Kazakhstan and China http://ecogosfond.kz/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CA.D.366-Transgranichnye-reki-Kazahstana-i-Kitaja.pdf [6] Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan / Effective Water Management of Kazakhstan https://www.riob.org/fr/file/289934/download?token=JnL1FHYX [7] Matthias Huss / Global-scale hydrological response to future glacier mass loss https://clck.ru/VkqUP [8] Ksenia Bondal / How the area of irrigated land is being increased in the Republic of Kazakhstan https://kapital.kz/gosudarstvo/89432/kak-v-rk-uvelichivayut-ploshchad-oroshayemykh-zemel.html notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter the Ili River Delta contrasts sharply with the beige deserts of southeastern Kazakhstan March 7, 2020JPEG Most of the water in Lake Balkhash comes from the Ili River which pours in through the southeastern shore The expansive delta and estuary—still dark brown in this image thanks to Central Asia’s harsh winters—is nevertheless an oasis for life year round Hundreds of plant and animal species make a home here including dozens that are threatened or endangered Wild boars, gazelles, marbled polecats, and several other mammals roam the reed beds, meadows, and occasional forests. Dozens of fish species live or spawn in the lake and in the delta’s mosaic of streams and ponds, including ship sturgeon and wels catfish Several species of jumping rodents—such as jerboas and gerbils—scurry amidst the underbrush including massive Dalmatian pelicans and endangered white-headed ducks NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland View this area in EO Explorer The largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula is colored by sediments eroded from the surrounding highlands North America’s largest northward flowing river gets its start at Great Slave Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article Balqash, city, east-central Kazakhstan. The city is a landing on the north shore of Lake Balqash (Balkhash) The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Journal of HydrologyCitation Excerpt :Finally and 1998–2017 were designated as the base period It is well-known that both climate change and human activities can disrupt hydrological regimes (Duan et al. The shortage of water resources is one of the most critical reasons for the ecological havoc of the Aral Sea All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V.