Central Asia Republics – Decision Support System (DSS) Water Resources of the Syr Darya River Basin

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, deterioration of water regulating structures, migration of trained personnel, and reduced capacity for information management has damaged the effectiveness of the water control and allocation systems for the Aral Sea basin. Central Asia’s Syr Darya River Basin in particular faces a multitude of water policy, management, and technical challenges. The upper basin of the Syr Darya River lies mostly in Kyrgyzstan, from where the river flows through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan into the lower basin in Kazakhstan, and then into the Aral Sea. Distribution of water between the countries in the Syr Darya River Basin is determined by international agreement where, in practice, the basin demands are largely carried over from year to year based on historic water requirements computed during the Soviet era.

Riverside Technology, inc. (RTi) has been contracted by PA Consulting, Inc. to assist USAID to design a Decision Support System (DSS) to improve the capacity for planning, controlling, and allocating water resources in the Syr Darya River Basin. Due to a lack of reliable and verifiable water data, there is considerable disagreement among the republics along the river basin regarding water distribution efficiencies and on-farm water requirements. The DSS will improve flow measurement and control, and will contain information for the riparian countries along the basin that will reduce the potential for water allocation conflicts.

The DSS is being developed by RTi’s hydrologists and DSS specialists with a team of local specialists. The fundamental design for the DSS includes an attribute database encompassing the entire Syr Darya River Basin that interfaces with a water resource allocation model. There is also an interface to a Geographical Information System component for presentation of model results.

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