A new research paper, “Assessing the Vulnerability of Lakes in Western Kazakhstan to Climate Change and Anthropogenic Stressors” has been published in the JCR and Scopus-indexed Water journal. The full version of the manuscript can be downloaded for free here.
This work has been done in cooperation between researchers from the Institute of Geography and Water Security (Almaty, Kazakhstan) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). This study, employing cartographic and remote sensing techniques, identified 323 lakes in Western Kazakhstan, covering a total area of 1944 km2. Comparative analysis with historical data from the 1960s and 1970s revealed a 23% decrease in lakes exceeding 1 km2.
The most significant decline was observed in the Atyrau and Mangystau Regions, where the number of such lakes diminished by a factor of three. These findings highlight the pressing need for an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to water resource management in Western Kazakhstan.
