中亚地区水问题研究综述

中亚地区地处内陆干旱区,水资源匮乏,是国际上水问题十分严重的地区。本文收集了自2000年以来近15年的相关文献,从文献数量、研究机构、研究方法和主要水问题等方面,综述国内外中亚地区水问题研究成果。通过对文献分析得出以下认识：① 中亚地区水问题是地理学研究热点之一,中国、德国和美国等国家的研究机构开展了大量研究工作,主要集中在水循环过程对气候变化的响应和流域水环境两个方面,中国在跨界河流管理方面的研究成果相对丰富;② 气温升高与降水增加是中亚地区气候变化的基本特征,受气温升高影响,陆地水储量与河川径流减小趋势明显,水资源日趋短缺;③ 不合理的水资源利用方式,加剧了土壤盐渍化和土地退化,加重了水环境污染,加大了流域水环境的压力;④ 复杂的地缘政治使中亚地区跨界河流管理成为当前国际社会面临的重大难题。从已经获得的成果还可以看出,基础数据获取方法、人口—资源—环境相互关系分析、气候—水文—社会—政治相互作用机制等将是未来中亚地区水问题研究发展的重要方向。

A review of water issues research in Central Asia

Central Asia, which is an arid inland area, has the most severe water-resource problems in the world. This paper reviews the literature on water issues in Central Asia published in the last 15 years (i.e., since 2000), covering the quantity of literature, the research institutes involved, the research approaches, and the major issues in the subject. The following conclusions can be reached based on the literature: (1) Water issues in Central Asia are an important area of geographical research. Many studies from China, Germany, the USA, and other countries have focused on the responses of water cycling processes to climate change, and on the hydrological environment of the catchment. In addition, Chinese researchers have tended to focus their studies on trans-boundary river management. (2) Temperature rise and precipitation increase are the fundamental features of climate change in Central Asia. Terrestrial water storage and river runoff have an obvious decrease as a result of temperature rise. (3) Soil salinization, land degradation and water pollution have been worsened by irrational utilization of water resources, and all of these have increased the pressures on the environment of the catchment. (4) Complicated geopolitics makes it difficult for the international community to manage the trans-boundary rivers in Central Asia. The water utilization situation in Central Asian countries is getting worse, which causes a series of ecological problems and even endangers the stability of social and economic development. Important future directions for studies on water issues in Central Asia include the relationships between population, resources and environment; the interaction mechanism of hydrology, methodological, social and political aspects; as well as the collection of basic hydrological data.