Recent Environmental Change in Central Asia

This open access book offers a range of studies highlighting how both climate change and globalization are driving changes to myriad social-environmental systems across Central Asia. Home to more than 70 million, Central Asia is a vast region spanning mountain peaks over 7000 meters to lowland deserts and many large inland lakes, including the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, Balkhash, and Issyk Kul. Due to historical reasons, Central Asia has received less scientific attention in the past 30 years than others parts of Asia, something that has been noted multiple Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here we present current research on aspects of recent and ongoing changes to the social-environmental systems of Central Asia, highlighting key knowledge gaps and challenges to adaptation and providing glimpses to possible futures. Contributors to this peer-reviewed book include leading researchers from Central Asia, Europe, and the USA. Target audiences are researchers and graduate students in environmental science, landscape ecology, land change science, rural sociology, remote sensing, natural hazards, and sustainability science.