An Investigation into the Hydro-Climate Processes Impacting Aral Sea Region in Central Asia

Abstract

Since 1960, the anthropogenic activities had severely impacted the hydrological balance of the Aral Sea (AS), which has led to dramatic changes in the climate around the AS, likewise changes in ambient temperatures and potential evapotranspiration. Moreover, the rainfall patterns are not homogenous in the study region. Trend analyses are performed on the monthly gridded climate data of rainfall and temperature, potential evapotranspiration, and relative humidity using the Mann-Kendall (MK) test for the period 1901-2017 years. The outcomes of this study investigated a significant difference (negative) between precipitation and evapotranspiration in AS region, during the analysis period of 1901-1960, and 1960-2017. Analysis of air temperature around the AS further suggests the positive trend of air temperature contrary to a significant difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration negative trend, which means that the annual hydrological budget remarkably decreased in the regional analysis. The present study investigates the changes in hydro-climate processes observed over the AS region, as in recent few decades global warming impacted the socioeconomic and environmental conditions of this region.