The Aralkum, a Man-Made Desert on the Desiccated Floor of the Aral Sea (Central Asia): General Introduction and Aims of the Book

Abstract

What is the meaning of “Aral”? The name Aral Sea is not easy to explain. Berg (1908) gave some explanations. He cited several papers where the Aral Sea is called the Sea of the Islands, e.g. by the Russian topographer Rychkov (1762). This interpretation was also taken by von Humboldt (1844) in his book Zentralasien, as well as by Berg (1901) in his first publication on the Aral Sea. The khan of Khiva Abulgazi (1603–1663) in his history book writes, “…1644 I became the khan in the country Aral, which is located at the inflow of the Amu to the sea…”. The region of the Amu Darya delta was apparently called “Aral”. The old Russian geographers called the Uzbeks from the Amu Darya delta the “Aralthsy”, meaning the “Aral settlers”. Since the delta area is a complex region with many islands and changing water courses, the original word “Aral” was apparently used for this area of islands; later it was used for the whole Aral Sea. The Aral Sea basin is located in a vast-stretching tectonic depression. This Aralo-Caspian basin in Central Asia exhibits a dry desert climate. Today, only four more or less saline lakes and some salt swamps exist. There are many plans for tackling and combating the disastrous situation. Many new developmental projects have been performed and increasingly research was done. The aim of this book is to bring together the results from long-term studies on the ever-increasing desiccated sea floor of the Aral Sea and the formation of the Aralkum, as well as new developments to combat the various serious desertification processes, which almost have more than regional dimensions, and if possible, to reverse the disastrous developments by adaptive rehabilitation projects and new approaches.