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The Complexity and Challenges of Central Asia’s Water-Energy-Food Systems

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Landscape Dynamics of Drylands across Greater Central Asia: People, Societies and Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Landscape Series ((LAEC,volume 17))

Abstract

Central Asia encompasses five republics that were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They exist in an arid and isolated region with a harsh, unforgiving climate. Water and other natural resources must be intensively managed if this region is to sustain its water-energy-food system into the future. Water and energy – and thus the ability to produce food – are unevenly distributed among the Central Asia republics such that the upstream republics have much more water and the downstream republics have much more fossil energy. These disparities were balanced by Moscow during the Soviet period but became accentuated when centralized control was relaxed in the early 1990s. The region now faces multiple water-energy-food system challenges. Water budgets will likely decline in the future as climate change begins to bite. Transboundary conflicts over water are being exacerbated as the region develops economically, and impoundment of rivers for hydroelectric power is disrupting seasonal water flows downstream. These factors are now impacting Central Asia’s ability to produce food, which is based on three linked pillars: crop production, animal herding, and, to a lesser extent, fisheries. This chapter considers the complexity of the Central Asia’s water-energy-food system from the standpoint of the region’s unique geography, environment, and socioeconomic status. We pay special attention to the system interrelationships among water, energy, and food.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the financial support from NASA’s Land-Cover and Land-Use Program grant (NNX15AD51G), NASA IDS grant (80NSSC17K0259), and the United States Department of Agriculture (MICL02264) through AgBioResearch at Michigan State University. We thank Shuxin Li and Yachen Xie for assistance in the creation of figures used in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Jiaguo Qi & Shiqi Tao

  2. Asia Hub, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

    Jiaguo Qi & Steven Pueppke

  3. Department of Biology, National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    Rashid Kulmatov

  4. Department of Capacity Development and Scientific Cooperation, Central-Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

    Temirbek Bobushev

  5. Kazakh National Agrarian University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Tlektes I. Yespolov

  6. AgriTech Hub Kaz, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Marat Beksultanov

  7. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Science Xinjiang Branch, Urumqi, China

    Xi Chen

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  1. Jiaguo Qi
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jiaguo Qi or Shiqi Tao .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA

    Garik Gutman

  2. Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Jiquan Chen

  3. Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Geoffrey M. Henebry

  4. Cartography, GIS & Remote Sensing Department, Institute of Geography, Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany

    Martin Kappas

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Qi, J. et al. (2020). The Complexity and Challenges of Central Asia’s Water-Energy-Food Systems. In: Gutman, G., Chen, J., Henebry, G., Kappas, M. (eds) Landscape Dynamics of Drylands across Greater Central Asia: People, Societies and Ecosystems. Landscape Series, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30742-4_5

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