Events

The Changing Role of Land Use and Climate Change for the Fate of the Aral Sea

19 December 2024, 16.15-17.45
Hybrid: HU Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 24, Hörsaal 1.101 & on Zoom

The drying up of the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest inland water body, is a textbook example of a man-made environmental disaster. Excessive water extraction for irrigation during the Soviet era drastically reduced the lake's volume, with severe and lasting ecological and economic consequences. I review the history of the Aral Sea disaster and examine developments in the region since the collapse of the Soviet regime. I show that overall water consumption in the region continues to rise despite less water-intensive agricultural practices. Accelerating climate change, leading to increased evapotranspiration, is now the main factor for reducing water flow into what remains of the Aral Sea.

Daniel Müller is Deputy Head of the Department "Structural Change of Farms and Rural Areas" at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) and lecturer at the Geography Department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Daniel's talk is part of the lecture series “Der grüne Faden” organized by the student-driven Sustainability Office at HU Berlin.