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Abstract: In the Northern Amudarya delta (Uzbekistan), the regulated hydrological regime is one of the main factors determining the ecological state of riverine ecosystems, such as the characteristic tugai forests. Euphratica poplar (Populus euphratica, syn. ariana) is the dominant tree species of tugai forests in Central Asia. A habitat suitability index for P. euphratica is developed to provide a measure for the evaluation of future water management alternatives as to their effects on the ecological situation in the delta region. The following environmental variables are chosen as determining parameters for habitat suitability: geomorphology, groundwater level and flooding regime (i.e. flooding frequency, timing and duration of the last flooding). Here, flooding frequency is a dynamic variable that reflects the flooding history at a given site. Collected semi-quantitative and qualitative knowledge about the impact of those variables on suitability of a site for P. euphratica is formalised using a fuzzy set approach. The resulting index is implemented in GIS and applied to a test period (1991–1999). The results are compared to the actual distribution of tugai forest in the year 2000 to check their plausibility. By these means a ‘virtual expert’ is created that enables a fast and simple evaluation of the habitat suitability for P. euphratica on a landscape scale. As part of an integrated simulation tool, the HSI shall support the ecological impact assessment of future water management strategies on the Northern Amudarya delta. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Participatory research has in recent years become a popular approach for problem-oriented scientific research that aims to tackle complex problems in a real management context. Within the European Union project NeWater, stakeholder processes were initiated in seven case studies to develop approaches for adaptive water management. The Uzbek part of the Amudarya River basin was one of the studied river basins. However, given the current political and cultural context in Uzbekistan, which provides little room for stakeholder participation, it was unclear to what extent participation could be realized there. In this paper, we present an evaluation of the participatory research carried out in the Amudarya case study with respect to (i) the choice and application of different participatory methods and their adaptation to the given political, socioeconomic, and cultural environment, (ii) their usefulness in improving system understanding and developing strategies and measures to improve water management and monitoring, and (iii) their acceptance and suitability for enhancing policy-making processes in the Amudarya River basin context. The main lessons learned from the comparison of the different participatory methods were (1) the stakeholder process provided an opportunity for meetings and discussions among stakeholders from different organizational levels and thus promoted communication between different levels and organizations, and (2) in a context where most stakeholders are not generally involved in policy-making, there is a danger of raising expectations that a research project cannot meet, e.g., of transferring local interests to higher levels. Our experience shows that in order to choose participatory methods and adapt them to the Uzbek cultural and political setting (and most likely this applies to other post-Soviet transition countries as well), four aspects should be taken into account: the time required to prepare and apply the method, good information about the participants and the context in which the method will be applied, knowledge of the local language(s), and careful training of local moderators. While these aspects are relevant to any application of participatory methods, they become even more important in a political and socio-cultural setting such as that found in Uzbekistan. One added value of the activities and a crucial aspect of a participatory research processes was the capacity building of local scientists and practitioners, which facilitates the further application of the methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]