Long-Term Monitoring and Water Resource Management in the Republic of Kazakhstan

This chapter highlights current issues regarding long-term monitoring and water resource management in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It includes basic information about water resource monitoring systems, features and characteristics of water use in Kazakhstan, and the average costs of water for production. The most urgent water management problems have been outlined, for example that of water distribution from trans-boundary rivers such as the Ertis, Ile, Syrdarya and others, and ensuring the security of water facilities in Kazakhstan. The results of a catastrophic flood in the village of Kyzylagash are shown along with data from operative space imaging of the reservoir. Space-based information is described with a proposal for how it could be applied for the complex assessment of emergency risks in flood-endangered parts of river basins. A technological scheme is developed for Remote Sensing of Earth (RSE) data processing using GIS technology, and an outline is provided of the stages of digital data processing and GIS analysis technology and data interpretation. The proposed methodology is most promising and offers a new approach to evaluating water resources and identifying emergency situations and their consequences.