Research in Central Asia

The formerly Soviet Central Asia, and particularly Kazakhstan –
the largest country of this region and Mongolia, - is one of the regions which is characterized by a large economic, political, climatic and ecological importance with respect to the ongoing climate change and problems of food security, water scarcity, ecosystem degradation. For mitigation of these problems in the nearest future and developing adaptation strategy for human society and ecosystems in this region we need better understanding and improved knowledge of feedbacks between climate, ecosystems, human activity, and political development in the region.






From this background, the research interests of our working group are focused on the following topics:


1. Inter-actions between vegetation, climate, and human activity with respect to changing anthropogenic impact.

2. Remote sensing-based modeling and mapping of vegetation structure characteristics such as leaf area index (LAI) and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation (FAPAR) over Kazakhstan.

3. Satellite-based modeling and mapping of biomass production/carbon sequestration over various vegetation biomes of Kazakhstan.

4. Water security and environmental problems in the drainage basin of Lake Balkhash (southern Kazakhstan).

5. Assessing changes in anthropogenic impact throughout the region due to the political change in 1991.






To the extent possible, our research tries to narrow the existing research gaps in the above topics. The publications resulted from the research work in recent years contribute to the 5 subjects above. With respect to the large role of this region in the global change, global carbon circle, and global population dynamics, the meaning of these studies is very valuable.