Institute of Geography

An Integrated Climate and Water Stress Index for Index-Based Insurance of Irrigated Agriculture: Development and Validation in the Shu-Talas Water Management Basin, Kazakhstan

In the context of increasing climate variability, the assessment of risks to irrigated agriculture requires a combined consideration of climatic and water management factors. The aim of this study is to develop an Integrated Climate and Water Stress Index (ICWSI) and to assess it...

Study of Snow Cover Characteristics According to the Data of Meteorological Stations of Western Kazakhstan in the Context of Global Climate Change

In the Republic of Kazakhstan, runoff in lowland rivers is 90% determined by snowmelt. Therefore, assessing snow reserves in a changing climate is of great scientific and applied importance. This work aims to assess how global climate change affects snow cover characteristics in...

ESFire30: unravelling four decades of wildfire burned area data in peninsular Spain

Background Spain has experienced extensive wildfires over the past four decades, yet long-term, high-resolution spatially explicit burned area data covering the whole country are not available. Aims This study presents ESFire30, a burned area perimeter dataset for peninsular Spai...

Spatial Coherence and Non-Stationary Drought Dynamics in Water Management Basins of Northern and Central Kazakhstan

This study investigates the spatiotemporal variability, spatial consistency, and non-stationarity of meteorological and hydrological droughts in three major water management basins (WMBs) of northern and central Kazakhstan: Nura–Sarysu, Esil, and Tobyl–Torgai. Long-term instrumen...

Beyond commodification: a framework for governing indigenous arts for sustainable tourism development

Purpose This study develops a conceptual framework for indigenous arts-based cultural tourism by positioning indigenous arts as cultural commons and providing guidance on operationalizing collective governance and sustainability within tourism systems. Design/methodology/approach...

The Integrated Spatial Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy-Metal Contamination in Arid Mining-Influenced Region in Central Asia

The spatial distributions of the potential ecological risk index (RI) and the geoaccumulation index (Igeo) in soils of the Zhetysu region (Kazakhstan) were examined. The enrichment factor ranged from 39.4 for cadmium to 21,481 for nickel. There are few non-ferrous metal enterpris...

Uncovering the Associations between Human Big Five Personality Traits and Built Environment Characteristics from Street View Imagery

Human–environment interactions, a classic topic in geography, suggest that individuals and their environments might shape each other. Yet the specific mechanisms underlying these interactions regarding human personality traits have not been explored. This study examines the assoc...

Mechanical properties and fracture failure characteristics of fractured limestone under coupled freeze-thaw and cyclic loading

<title>Abstract</title> The Central Asian Orogenic Belt possesses abundant mineral resources. As mining activities extend into high-altitude cold regions, the safety and stability of rock engineering projects, such as open-pit mine slopes, have become increasingly prominent. This...

Casting light on the workings of illegal fishing markets

About 3.5 million fishing vessels ply the world’s oceans, providing livelihoods and food for millions of people. Sound management is key to fisheries’ sustainability, but illegal fishing, along with fishing overcapacity generally and environmental change, are putting many fisheri...

Ensuring Sustainable Development in Arid Regions: Assessing Sustainability Thresholds and Investment Needs in Western Kazakhstan

Western Kazakhstan is one of the most climate-vulnerable macro-regions in Central Asia. Intensifying aridification, acute water scarcity, and active land degradation are already undermining its ecosystems and an economy built heavily on oil and gas. Yet investment in the region i...

Improved forecasting of spring flood volume and low-flow discharge in the Buktyrma river (Kazakhstan) using hydrometeorological and soil–water indicators

Abstract Accurate forecasting of spring flood volume and low-flow discharge is essential for water resources management and flood risk mitigation, particularly in mountain basins with snow-dominated hydrology. This study proposes an enhanced statistical approach to predict these...