Geography of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia (with 4% of the country (108,996 km2) in Eastern Europe[1]). With an area of about 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,100 sq mi) Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.
Borders, Lands and Waters
Source:[2]
Borders
Russia (7,591 km)
China (1,783 km)
Kyrgyzstan (1,242 km)
Uzbekistan (2,351 km)
Turkmenistan (426 km)
Total length: 13,200 km.
Lands
More than three-quarters (75%) of the country, including the entire west and most of the south, is either semidesert (33.2 percent) or desert (44 percent).
Semi-Deserts: 14% (381,486 km2)
Deserts + Semi-Deserts: 58% (1,580,442 km2)
Deserts + Semi-Deserts + Steppes: 84% (2,288,916 km2)
Waters (Rivers and Lakes)
Northeastern of the Caspian Sea
Part of Aral Sea
48,000 large and small lakes such as
8,500 rivers
Topography and drainage
There is considerable topographical variation within Kazakhstan. The highest point is the top of the mountain
Many of the peaks of the
Except for the
Some 9.4 percent of Kazakhstan's land is mixed
Climate
The climate of Kazakhstan consists of mostly continental, semi-arid, and cold desert climates. In summer the temperatures average more than 30 °C (86 °F) and in winter average −9 °C (15.8 °F).[3]
The climatic charts seen below are some noteworthy examples of the country's differing climates, taken from two contrasting cities (with their respective tables) representing two different parts of the country; Aktau and the Caspian Sea shore on the country's west having a distinct
Despite the nation's relatively low precipitation rates and mostly arid geography, spring floods brought on by occasional heavy rainfall and snowmelt are not unusual in the northern and central regions of the country. In April 2017, following a winter with snow volumes 60 percent above average, heavy rains resulted in widespread damage and temporarily displaced thousands of people.[4]
Aktau (Caspian Sea shore) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Petropavl (North Kazakhstan) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Location | July (°C) | July (°F) | January (°C) | January (°F) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Almaty | 30/18 | 86/64 | 0/−8 | 33/17 |
Shymkent | 32/17 | 91/66 | 4/−4 | 39/23 |
Karaganda | 27/14 | 80/57 | −8/−17 | 16/1 |
Astana | 27/15 | 80/59 | −10/−18 | 14/−1 |
Pavlodar | 28/15 | 82/59 | −11/−20 | 12/−5 |
Aktobe | 30/15 | 86/61 | −8/−16 | 17/2 |
Environmental problems
The environment of
By contrast, the water level of the Caspian Sea has been rising steadily since 1978 for reasons that scientists have not been able to explain fully. At the northern end of the sea, more than 10,000 square kilometres of land in
Wind erosion has also affected the northern and central parts of the republic because of the introduction of wide-scale dryland wheat farming. During the 1950s and 1960s, much soil was lost when vast tracts of Kazakhstan's prairies were plowed under as part of Khrushchev's Virgin Lands agricultural project. By the mid-1990s, an estimated 60 percent of the republic's pastureland was in various stages of desertification.
Industrial pollution is a bigger concern in Kazakhstan's manufacturing cities, where aging factories pump huge quantities of unfiltered pollutants into the air and groundwater. The former capital, Almaty, is particularly threatened, in part because of the postindependence boom in private automobile ownership.
The gravest environmental threat to Kazakhstan comes from radiation, especially in the Semey (Semipalatinsk) region of the northeast, where the Soviet Union tested almost 500 nuclear weapons, 116 of them above ground. Often, such tests were conducted without evacuating or even alerting the local population. Although nuclear testing was halted in 1990, radiation poisoning, birth defects, severe anemia, and leukemia are thought to be very common in the area.[9]
With some conspicuous exceptions, lip service has been the primary official response to Kazakhstan's ecological problems. In February 1989, opposition to Soviet nuclear testing and its ill effects in Kazakhstan led to the creation of one of the republic's largest and most influential grass-roots movements, Nevada-Semipalatinsk, which was founded by Kazak poet and public figure
Once its major ecological objective was achieved, Nevada-Semipalatinsk made various attempts to broaden into a more general political movement; it has not pursued a broad ecological or "green" agenda. A very small green party, Tabigat, made common cause with the political opposition in the parliament of 1994.
The government has established a Ministry of Ecology and Bioresources, with a separate administration for radioecology, but the ministry's programs are underfunded and given low priority. In 1994 only 23 percent of budgeted funds were actually allotted to environmental programs. Many official meetings and conferences are held (more than 300 have been devoted to the problem of the Aral Sea alone), but few practical programs have gone into operation. In 1994 the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United States Environmental Protection Agency agreed to give Kazakhstan $62 million to help the country overcome ecological problems.
- Natural hazards
- mud slides around Almaty
- Environment—current issues
- Radioactive or toxic chemical sites associated with its former defense industries and test ranges are found throughout the country and pose health risks for human beings and animals; industrial pollution is severe in some cities; because the two main rivers which flowed into the Aral Sea have been diverted for irrigation, it is drying up and leaving behind a harmful layer of chemical pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then picked up by the wind and blown into noxious dust storms; pollution in the Caspian Sea; soil pollutionfrom overuse of agricultural chemicals and salination from poor infrastructure and wasteful irrigation practices
- Environment—international agreements
-
- Party to: Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78)
- Signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
- Party to:
Area and boundaries
- Area
-
- Total: 2,724,900 km2 (1,052,100 sq mi)
- Land: 2,699,700 km2 (1,042,400 sq mi)
- Water: 25,200 km2 (9,700 sq mi)
- Land boundaries
-
- Total: 13,364 kilometres (8,304 mi)
- Border countries: the People's Republic of China (to the southeast) 1,765 kilometres (1,097 mi), Kyrgyzstan (to the southeast) 1,212 kilometres (753 mi), Russia (to the north) 7,644 kilometres (4,750 mi), Turkmenistan (to the southwest) 413 kilometres (257 mi), Uzbekistan(to the south) 2,330 kilometres (1,450 mi).
- Coastline
- 0 km (0 mi); the country is landlocked, but does border the Caspian Sea (1,894 km/1,176 mi).
- Maritime claims
- None (landlocked)
- Elevation extremes
-
- Lowest point: Vpadina Kaundy-132 m
- Highest point: Khan Tangiri Shyngy(Pik Khan-Tengri) 6,995 m
- Lowest point:
Land use
According to
- Agricultural land 77.4% (2011)
-
- Arable land: 8.9%
- Permanent crops: 0%
- Permanent pastures: 68.5%
- Forest: 1.2%
- Other: 21.4%
- Irrigated land(2012)
-
- 20,660 km2
Water resources
- Total renewable water resources
-
- 107.5 km3 (2011)
- Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)
-
- Total: 21.14 km3/yr (4%/30%/66%)
- Per capita: 1,304 m3/yr (2010)
Deserts
- Aral Karakum Desert 40,000 km2
- Aralkum Desert
- Barsuki Desert
- Betpak-Dala 75,000 km2
- Kyzylkum Desert 298,000 km2
- Moiynkum Desert 37,500 km2
- Ryn Desert 40,000 km2
- Saryesik-Atyrau Desert
- Taukum 10,000 km2
- Ustyurt Plateau 200,000 km2
References
- ISBN 978-1-84234-461-3.
- ^ https://www.akorda.kz/en/republic_of_kazakhstan/kazakhstan [bare URL]
- ^ ClimateTemp.info Archived 2016-01-01 at the Wayback Machine What is the Climate, Average Temperature/ Weather in Kazakhstan?
- ^ "Flooding Sparks Complaints, Finger-Pointing". EurasiaNet.org. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ^ "Svali.ru" (in Russian). Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ "Weather and Climate - The Climate of Petropavlovsk (Petropavl)" (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат). Archived from the original on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
- ^ "Kazakhstan climate information". Weatherbase. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
- ^ International Crisis Group. "Water Pressures in Central Asia", CrisisGroup.org. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
- ^ "Kazakstan - Environment". countrystudies.us. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
- ^ a b "Central Asia :: Kazakhstan — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Kazakhstan: A Country Study. Federal Research Division.
- This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.