Aral Sea Governance in Central Asia: Problems and Directions

W.N. Gao; H. Li

doi:10.26577/IRILJ113120269

Authors

W.N. Gao Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7576-6219
H. Li Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0880-5321

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26577/IRILJ113120269

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Abstract

The Aral Sea crisis remains a defining transboundary environmental challenge in Central Asia, with persistent implications for environmental security, regional stability, and sustainable development. This study synthesizes the literature on Aral Sea governance to consolidate the main constraints identified by scholars and to distill actionable directions for improving regional coordination and policy implementation. Drawing on a multilingual publication dataset published between 1991 and 2024, we first conduct a CiteSpace-based bibliometric analysis of the English-language subset to map the international research landscape, and then apply boundary analysis to the full multilingual dataset to identify and categorize the key governance problems discussed for the Aral Sea basin.

Across the reviewed literature, 27 governance problems are identified. Based on mention frequency, regional-level barriers account for the largest share (65%), followed by national (24%), individual (8%), and international-system factors (3%). Governance responses discussed in the literature largely fall under mitigation and adaptation, yet implementation is repeatedly constrained by weak institutional coordination, limited governance capacity, and related constraints. By showing how these barriers are distributed across governance levels, the study offers practical directions for regional cooperation and future research on Aral Sea governance.

Key words: Aral Sea governance; Central Asia; ecological crisis; boundary analysis

Author Biographies

W.N. Gao, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Wanni Gao (corresponding author) – Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Institute of Central Asian Studies and the School of Politics and International Relations at Lanzhou University (Gansu, China, e-mail: gaown@lzu.edu.cn).

H. Li, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Hong Li – Master of Political Science, School of Politics and International Relations at Lanzhou University (Gansu, China, e-mail: lihong2023@lzu.edu.cn).