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The intensifying effects of climate change have led to increased flooding, even in desert regions, resulting in significant socio-economic and ecological impacts. This study analyzes the causes and consequences of flooding in the Zhem River basin using data from ground stations, including Kazhydromet, and satellite platforms such as USGS FEWS NET and Copernicus. Spatial analyses conducted in ArcGIS utilized classified raster data to map the dynamics of flooding, snow cover, vegetation, and soil conditions. This enabled a geoecological analysis of flood damage on the vital components of the local landscape. Results show that flooding in the Zhem River basin was driven by heavy winter precipitation, rapid snowmelt, and a sharp rise in spring temperatures. The flood damaged Kulsary city and also harmed the region’s soil, vegetation, and wildlife. In July 2024, the flooded sail area tripled compared to the same period in 2023. Additionally, the area of barren land or temporary water bodies (pools) formed three months after the water receded also tripled, increasing from 84.9 km2 to 275.7 km2. This study highlights the critical need for continued research on the long-term environmental effects of flooding and the development of adaptive management strategies for sustainable regional development.

The Late Holocene was characterized by several centennial-scale climate oscillations including the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The detection and investigation of such climate anomalies requires paleoclimate archives with an accurate chronology as well as a high temporal resolution. Here, we present 230Th/U-dated high-resolution multi-proxy records (δ13C, δ18O and trace elements) for the last 2500 years of four speleothems from Bunker Cave and the Herbstlabyrinth cave system in Germany. The multi-proxy data of all four speleothems show evidence of two warm and two cold phases during the last 2500 years, which coincide with the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, as well as the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Little Ice Age, respectively. During these four cold and warm periods, the δ18O and δ13C records of all four speleothems and the Mg concentration of the speleothems Bu4 (Bunker Cave) and TV1 (Herbstlabyrinth cave system) show common features and are thus interpreted to be related to past climate variability. Comparison with other paleoclimate records suggests a strong influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation at the two caves sites, which is reflected by warm and humid conditions during the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, and cold and dry climate during the Dark Ages Cold period and the Little Ice Age. The Mg records of speleothems Bu1 (Bunker Cave) and NG01 (Herbstlabyrinth) as well as the inconsistent patterns of Sr, Ba and P suggests that the processes controlling the abundance of these trace elements are dominated by site-specific effects rather than being related to supra-regional climate variability.