The decline of the Kura River water level and the impacts of climate change, human activity and water management on environment and society in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The Kura River is a transboundary water system whose quantity, quality, and ecological condition are closely connected to water security in Azerbaijan. This study develops an original school research project into a structured academic synthesis of the interacting causes and consequences of declining water availability in the Kura River. The analysis is based on secondary research using government and international reports, scientific literature, maps, photographs, and recent peer-reviewed studies. Three research questions guide the paper: how climate change, human activity, and water-management systems influence water availability; how pollution affects ecosystems and human use of the river; and why Tugay riparian forests are important for ecological resilience. The evidence indicates that water scarcity should not be attributed to a single driver. Climatic variability, drought and evaporative demand interact with irrigation withdrawals, conveyance losses, reservoir regulation, pollution, and transboundary management constraints. Water-quality deterioration further reduces the effective availability of water suitable for drinking, irrigation, ecosystems, and recreation. Riparian Tugay forests provide bank stabilization, habitat connectivity, and landscape functions, but depend on appropriate flow and groundwater conditions. The study concludes that efficient irrigation, leakage reduction, wastewater treatment, monitoring, ecosystem restoration, nature-based solutions, and basin-scale cooperation should be pursued together. These measures also have green-economy relevance because they protect natural capital, reduce avoidable resource losses, and strengthen the resilience of agriculture and water-dependent communities.