Natural and anthropogenic geomorphological changes of Ural River, Kazakhstan

English Abstract:

The geomorphological changes of the Ural River in the West Kazakhstan have been studied by our group during the dozens of years. The number of outstanding floods in the Ural River has been registered during the observations, in 1914, 1922, 1923, 1931, 1940-1942, 1946-1948, 1957, 1970, 1993-1995. The main factors determining the high floods are due to rapid snow melting, high runoff due to the small hydrologic conductivity of the frozen soil. The historical river bed studies with the application of the earth observation satellites (EOS) were applied for this research work. The historical cartographic and EOS images were used to determine the river bed positions at different time slices with analysis of the river bed evolution changes. The estimated shifts, meandering intensification of the Ural River were modeled. The magnitude and speed of the river bed shifts have been determined with geomorphological dynamics, including meandering, bifurcating, straight lined intensity changes. The analysis of river beds evolution with river bed morphology changes were analyzed by the nature and intensity of river bed deformations due to natural and anthropogenic processes. Detection of regional patterns in the development of river bed adjustments and their forecast estimates give the opportunity to analyze the probability of certain geomorphological changes for the prevention of the adverse consequences. The future research work is planned with the data applications from EOS KazEOSat-1. The KazEOSat-1 is a high-resolution observation satellite, which was built by Astrium for the Space Company Garysh Sapary of the Republic of Kazakhstan. KazEOSat-1 satellite was launched in the first quarter of 2014 (KazEOSat on 30 April 2014 and KazEOSat-2 is planned to be launched on 20 June 2015). KazEOSat-1 satellite provides high-quality panchromatic, 1 m, and four multispectral channels, 4 m, for a wide range of applications. KazEOSat-2 satellite provides medium-quality five multispectral channels, 6.5 m, for a wide range of applications. The current stage of the satellite’s data applications for geomorphological research work is also to be discussed. The research results are used for the long-term forecasts of river bed regime changes.