MĀRIS KĻAVIŅŠ,
AZAMAT AZIZOV,
JĀNIS ZAĻOKSNIS
ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION,
DEVELOPMENT:
THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
Rīga, 2014
Māris Kļaviņš, Azamat Azizov, Jānis Zaļoksnis. Environment,
pollution, development: the case of Uzbekistan. Riga, UL Press, 2014
The book is prepared with the support of Project «Master Program in
Environmental Science and Sustainable Development with Focus on
Water Management for Uzbekistan Higher Education – UZWATER»
and with the support of University of Latvia.
Translation by Andra Damberga
Figures prepared by Laura Kļaviņa
Layout by Ieva Tiltiņa
Cover photo: Māris Kļaviņš
© Māris Kļaviņš,
Azamat Azizov,
Jānis Zaļoksnis, 2014
© University of Latvia, 2014
ISBN 978-9984-45-888-5
3
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. UZBEKISTAN: A COUNTRY WITH HISTORY, PRESENT AND FUTURE . . . . . . . . 9
2.1. Geographic situation and climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2. Natural resources of Uzbekistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3. Biological resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4. Natural ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3. WATER RESOURCES OF UZBEKISTAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1. Hydrological cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2. Water resources of Uzbekistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3. River Amu Darya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4. River Syr Darya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5. The Aral Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4. HUMANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1. Systems of the Earth: the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere . 43
4.1.1. Environmental science – a science of environmental systems . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.2. Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1.3. Biosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2. Cycling of elements and energy on the earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2.1. Energy flow and the Earth’s climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.2. Carbon cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2.3. Nitrogen biogeochemical cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.4. Phosphorus biogeochemical cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.1. Environmental pollution and environment quality degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2. Global environmental pollution problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2.1. Earth’s ozone layer and the consequences of its depletion . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2.2. Global warming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.3. Regional environmental pollution effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3.1. Sulphur compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3.2. Nitrogen compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.3. Dust and aerosols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.4. Indoor air pollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6. ACTION OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES IN THE ENVIRONMENT –
BASIC CONCEPTS OF ECOTOXICOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.1. Concept of ecotoxicology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.2. Effects of toxic substances on living organisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.2. Toxicity assesment of substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
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ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
6.3. Effects of pollutants and physical factors on humans and ecosystems . . . . . . . . 107
6.3.1. Types of toxic effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.3.2. Effects of environmental pollutants and factors on human beings . . . . . . 108
6.3.3. Effects of environmental pollutants on the endocrine system . . . . . . . . . 109
6.3.4. Genotoxic effects of environmental pollutants and factors . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.3.5. Carcinogenic effects of environmental pollutants and factors . . . . . . . . . 113
6.3.6. Teratogenic substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7. AIR POLLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.1. Sulfur compounds in the atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.2. Nitrogen compounds in the atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.3. Carbon compounds in the atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.4. Dust and aerosols in the atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.5. Halogenated organic compounds in the atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7.6. Urban air pollution problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.7. Acid precipitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
7.8. Indoor air pollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8. WATER POLLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.1. Water resources and their use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.2. Natural water composition and conditions of formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.3. Most significant water pollution problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
9. POLLUTION OF SOIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
9.1. Contamination of soil with organic substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
9.2. Contamination of soils with inorganic substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
9.3. Soil desertification and salinization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
10.1. Mutual cooperation and development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
10.2. International environmental issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10.3. Institutions involved in international environmental protection . . . . . . . . . . . 209
10.3.1. International environmental organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10.3.2. Environmental activist groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
10.3.3. International corporations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
10.4. Role of science and scientists in identification and tackling of
environmental problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
10.5. Development of international cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
10.5.1. First phase: sea resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
10.5.2. Second phase: activities of the environmental protection movement
and the united nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
10.5.3. Third phase: from Stockholm (1972) to Rio de Janeiro (1992) . . . . . . . . . 223
10.5.4. Fourth phase: the period of integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
10.6. Recent tendencies in international cooperation on environmental protection
and sustainable development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
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11. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: LEGISLATION, POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS 233
11.1. Legislation of environmental protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
11.1.1. Law as an environmental protection instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
11.1.2. Law and environmental science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
11.1.3. Law and environmental ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
11.2. Legal principles of environmental protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
11.3. Process of enforcement of environmental legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11.3.1. Approaches to elaboration of legal documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11.3.2. Environmental legislation instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
11.3.3. Dialogue with society and the role of society in
environmental protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11.4. Environmental policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
11.5. Environmental management system – from vision to implementation . . . . . . . 250
11.5.1. Discussion and approval of the environmental policy vision . . . . . . . . . 251
11.5.2. Determination of environmental problems and their causes . . . . . . . . . 252
11.5.3. Setting environmental policy objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.5.4. Types of action to accomplish environmental policy objectives . . . . . . . 258
11.5.5. Development of the programmes to accomplish
environmental policy objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
11.5.6. Implementation and control of the environmental action
programme or plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
11.5.7. Further development of the process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
11.6. Voluntary measures of environmental policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
11.7. EU environmental management institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
11.7.1. EU directorate-general for the environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
12. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
12.1. Limits to growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
12.1.1. Nature of growth and social development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
12.1.2. Limits to development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
12.1.3. Beyond the limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
12.2. Concept of sustainable development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
12.3. Formation of the concept of sustainable development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
12.4. Guiding principles of sustainable development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
12.5. Ecological footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.5.1. Ecological footprint calculation methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.5.2. Contemporary society’s ecological footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
12.5.3. How to reduce the ecological footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
1. INTRODUCTION
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |