Search

In 2015, the UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 corresponding targets. To reach these goals, it is needed to use different quantitative and qualitative indicators based on global, national, and country data. One of the useful indicators is the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) that grades countries’ performance in relation to two principal environmental policy objectives: the Protection of Ecosystem Vitality and the Environmental Health. With regard to these principal objectives, the EPI covers nine problems’ areas: Climate and Power production sector, Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Fisheries, Forestry, Water quality, Health Impacts, Air pollution, and Water sanitation. According to the 2016 EPI, Russia occupies the 32nd position in this rating. 40% of population in Russia is living at the territory occupying 15% of total country area with unfavorable environmental conditions because of air and water pollution, deforestation, biodiversity worsening and forests’ cover loss, poor waste management. The World Wildlife Fund estimates annual loses of the country reached about 1 billion dollars from the illegal export of wood. The measures to improve energy efficiency policy, to decrease air pollution were studied for Baikal model region. It is expected that the SDG indicators will become a common reference point for national and subnational monitoring in the Russian Federation.

We evaluated changes in the deficit of irrigation water in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia under different scenarios of climate change and water management. The Fergana Valley is located within the Syr Darya River basin and is shared by Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. We estimated the climate-related changes in irrigational water demand in the Fergana Valley in the 2020s, the 2050s, and 2080s. Considerably higher temperatures and a moderate change in precipitation lead to increasing potential evapotranspiration (PET), which nearly doubles the irrigation water demand by the 2080s. This is driving the request for a scientifically substantiated scheme of irrigation that takes into account the quality of soils and the ground water table, correction of the water consumption norms for different crops, and changes in the crop composition in favor of winter horticulture plantations and cereals.

We evaluated changes in irrigation water deficit in the Fergana Valley, Central Asia under different scenarios of climate change and water management. The Fergana Valley is located within the Syr Darya river basin and is shared between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The main driver of economic activity in the Valley is cotton farming, which consumes large volumes of water. Growing population drives irrigation water demand with plans to modernize the irrigation system increasing the irrigated areas by 10–15% underway. However, climate change may alter projected water demand increase in the Valley. We estimated the climate-related changes in irrigational water demand in the Fergana Valley in 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s using future weather patterns generated with five global circulation models (GCMs) run under the A1FI, A2, and B1SRES scenarios. Considerably higher temperatures and a moderate change in precipitation lead to increasing potential evapotranspiration (PET), which nearly doubles irrigation water demand by the 2080s. In turn, the area under persistent water deficits increases from current 12% to 18.3% by 2020s, 27% by 2050s, and to 38.2% by 2080s. That is driving demand for a scientifically substantiated scheme of irrigation keeping in mind the quality of soils and groundwater table, correction of water consumption norms for different crops, and change of crop composition in favor of the winter horticulture plantations and cereals. On a long run, a radical modernization of the irrigation system will be needed to cope with climate change in the Fergana Valley.

This research project, carried out in the framework of the INTAS/VEGETATION Programmes at the Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, aims to assess and to map land use and land cover of Russia using a combination of remote sensing, traditional maps and in-field survey of different spatial and temporal resolutions as geographical indicators of environmental status and dynamics. Coarse -, medium - and high-resolution imagery (NOAA-AVHRR, RESURS-01-3/MSU-SK, RESURS-F/MK-4) have been processed, interpreted and analysed for the compilation of reference maps in a Geographical Information Systems database, which contains multiple information layers, including remote-sensing data, cartographic ancillary data layers, and statistics. A feasibility study was undertaken to elaborate methodology for scale-dependent landscape applications and the study of land-cover dynamics in the changing land-use system in Russia.

The results of land use/cover and biodiversity change and people well-being study in Russia are presented. Agriculture is one of the major driver of land cover and biodiversity change. The main agricultural territory belongs to the steppe zone, where more than 40 % of agricultural production is produced on fertile soils and the major part of the rural population is concentrated. Agriculture restructuring started in country from 1991–1993 have put severe strains on the agricultural production and creates dramatic threats to biodiversity because of plowing mostly of all tillable lands, abandonment or transformation part of them to grazing lands, accelerating of soil erosion, overgrazing and pasture degradation, landscape fragmentation by the fields and infrastructure. Between the global factors that shape the land cover and biodiversity in Russia, climate is the most important one. Climate change scenarios on the base show significant increase of temperature and moderate increase of moistening, that will influence the agriculture production. A complex present-day landscape methodology is used to study land cover and biodiversity changes under agricultural impact in Russia. Due to the ongoing agriculture restructuring reforms in Russia local communities have to manage an outdated and inefficient economic and social infrastructure that previously was maintained by federal budget money and the living standards of people are still lower than in the most developed countries. The ecologically sound land use practice and biodiversity conservation should help to reconcile social needs with the requirements of the environment and to avoid the unfavorable consequences of land degradation.