THE CAUSES OF WATERLEVEL CHANGES OF THE ARAL SEA IN THE HOLOCENE

A specialist in loess geomorphology and arid-zone hydrology distinguishes three categories of factors accounting for waterlevel changes in the Aral Sea. She judges the most significant to be changes in inflow resulting from changes in the course of the Amudarya, the more important of the two tributary streams. The Amudarya at various times emptied into the Sarykamysh depression, southwest of the Aral Sea, giving rise to a flow of water through the now dry Uzboy channel to the Caspian Sea. Climatic change, involving alternations of wet and dry cycles, is said to have accounted for only minor water level fluctuations, of the order of 4 to 6 m, against the background of the major fluctuations produced by the Amudarya course migrations. Human activity, notably irrigation, is regarded as having become significant only in modern times as a result of an expansion of irrigation works. The present abrupt decline in the Aral waterlevel (6 m from 1960 to 1977, including 2 m in the last three years) is attributed to the combination of a dry climatic cycle and greatly increased use of water for irrigation.     

ALMA-ATA CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF A DROP IN THE LEVEL OF THE ARAL SEA

A large body of empirical data on the dynamics of local travel in the USSR is surveyed to illustrate the influence of commuter movement on the formation and spatial interaction of settlement systems. Correlations are established between commuting patterns and the population levels of cities of different size cateogries. (Translated by Marcia Levenson, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.)     

CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURE OF EVAPORATION IN THE ARAL SEA BASIN

An analysis of evaporation changes in the Central Asian plain in connection with the drop of the Aral Sea level beginning in 1961 shows that there has been a reduction in evaporation from stream valleys and deltas and an increase in evaporation from irrigated land and newly formed evaporating surfaces. These new entities are primarily the Arnasay depression (west of the Golodnaya Steppe irrigation district) and the Sarykamysh depression (west of the lower reaches of the Amudarya), which have become filled with spent irrigation water draining from the irrigated land. Another new source of evaporation associated with human activity are the lakes and wetlands formed along the Kara Kum Canal as a result of the filtration of canal water. It turns out, furthermore, that irrigation on sloping piedomon plains, such as those watered by the Kara Kum Canal, requires more water than in old irrigated alluvial plains because of the additional water needed to flush salt out of the soil and to fill subsoil cavities and raise the watertable.     

MANAGEMENT OF THE WATER BALANCE OF THE ARAL SEA

In view of the declining inflow into the Aral Sea, alternative proposals are advanced to save this inland sea by reducing its area as well as its salinity levels. The proposals involve the closing off of some portions of the sea, notably the Little Aral in the northeast and the Western Aral, from the large shallow eastern portion. Some portions of this fragmented sea would then be treated as active bodies of water with a throughflow regime, discharging surplus waters of high salinity into other portions, which would be allowed to become salt marshes. Various combinations of active water areas and residual water areas are examined, and possible trends in waterlevel and salinity are projected to the middle of the 21st century.     

RESEARCH ON THE ARAL SEA AND ARAL REGION

The author, an expert in Central Asian toponymy, culture, and physical geography, examines major trends in research on the Aral region's geography by focusing on major themes of paleogeography, bottom and shoreline morphology, hydroclimatic conditions, migration of salts, and forecasting negative impacts of hydrological engineering projects on the region's environment. In the process he presents much interesting material on the early history of the sea and its hinterland (most notably, the deltas of the Syr Dar'ya and Amu Dar'ya) and about differences in the interpretation of quantitative information about the sea by scholars at different times and using different methodologies.     

MAN-INDUCED CHANGES IN OVERALL RUNOFF IN THE ARAL SEA BASIN

The article examines the prospects of using runoff characteristics and changes in runoff composition as a basis for predicting environmental modification. The technique is employed to assess changes in the circulation of matter that are taking place in the drainage basin of the Aral Sea as a result of the intensification of irrigation. Overall runoff, including its liquid, solid (suspended sediment) and chemical phases, is analyzed in connection with a shift in the deposition of material from the Aral Sea to the irrigated plains.     

THE DRYING OUT OF THE ARAL SEA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The author examines the problem of the present state of the environment in the desert irrigation districts of southern Kazakhstan and Central Asia. A drop of the level of the Aral Sea and the formation of new land on the exposed seabed, the desiccation and desertification of the Amudarya and Syrdarya deltas caused by an intensification of agriculture have been proceeding against the background of a series of dry years. Irreversible environmental changes are having a negative impact on the socioeconomic conditions of the Aral region. The author, basing himself on the results of scientific investigations related to the Aral Sea problem, proposes a number of measures designed to moderate this negative impact.     

CHANGES IN THE LEVEL OF THE CASPIAN SEA AND THE POSSIBILITY OF FORECASTING THEM

A second paper devoted to problems of predicting the future level of the Caspian Sea attempts, as did the first, to discount overly simplistic explanations for its nearly century-long decline and recent slight rise. Long-term climatic changes within the drainage basin of the Caspian and the resultant change in discharge of tributary rivers are proposed as the basic mechanism controlling sea level fluctuations and not, as argued in the popular press, tectonic movements, groundwater discharge variations, or the damming of the Kara-Bogaz-Gol. Various models for predicting future levels are compared, although no specific forecasts are made (translated by Andrew R. Bond).     

CONCEPT FOR PRESERVING AND RESTORING THE ARAL SEA AND NORMALIZING THE ECOLOGICAL,PUBLIC HEALTH,AND SOCIOECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE ARAL REGION

The government committee charged by the former USSR Supreme Soviet with formulating measures for resolving the Aral Sea crisis presents a list of basic recommendations for ameliorating public health and economic problems in the Aral Region and reversing the decline of the sea. Considerable emphasis is placed on basic structural change in the regional economy and water budget. A staged procedure is outlined for the gradual transformation of the water balance and economic structure while maintaining the Aral Sea as a single (unified) water body.     

HISTORY IN THE SIKH PAST1

This article offers a reading of an early eighteenth‐century Punjabi text—Gur Sobha or “The Splendor of the Guru”—as a form of historical representation, suggesting reasons for the importance of the representation of the past as history within Sikh discursive contexts. The text in question provides an account of the life, death, and teachings of the last of the ten living Sikh Gurus or teachers, Guru Gobind Singh. The article argues that the construction of history in this text is linked to the transition of the Sikh community at the death of the last living Guru whereby authority was invested in the canonical text (granth) and community (panth). As such a particular rationale for history was produced within Sikh religious thought and intellectual production around the discursive construction of the community in relation to the past and as a continuing presence. As such, the text provides an alternative to modern European forms of historical representation, while sharing some features of the “historical” as defined in that context. The essay relates this phenomenon to a broader exploration of history in South Asian contexts, to notions of historicality that are plural, and to issues particular to the intersection of history and religion. Later texts, through the middle of the nineteenth century, are briefly considered, to provide a sense of the significance of Gur Sobha within a broader, historically and religiously constituted Sikh imagination of the past.     

DETECTING TRENDS IN THE PREDICTION OF THE BURIED PAST: A REVIEW OF GEOPHYSICAL TECHNIQUES IN ARCHAEOLOGY*

Geophysical survey techniques are a highly visible part of the scientific toolkit that is now used by archaeologists. In this paper, the history of the use of geophysical techniques in archaeology will be discussed, as will significant research themes associated with the most widely used prospecting devices. It is apparent that while the use of geophysical techniques is at an all‐time high, there are many key areas where prospecting is rapidly developing. Some of the advances relate to fundamental aspects of the techniques, while others dictate how we undertake survey in the future. There is a movement away from pre‐gridded survey areas towards real‐time GPS for navigation. This allows greater integration, or fusion, of disparate data sources using visualization techniques derived from associated disciplines. The analysis of landscapes has become a major component of the application of new technology and there are many challenges to be tackled, including how to analyse and interpret significant archaeology within large‐scale, data‐rich, multi‐technique investigations. The reflective nature of the review acknowledges the important role of Archaeometry in the development of archaeological geophysics.     

INTENSITY OF THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD IN THE UKRAINE AND MOLDAVIA DURING THE PAST 6000 YEARS

Archaeomagnetic intensity measurements are reported for 200 leaked clay samples taken from bricks, pottery kilns, furnaces and hearths, etc.     

厦门主题公园面临的问题、原因与对策

厦门主题公园运行的时间不长 ,但全国大多主题公园所面临的客流量少、重游率低等问题 ,在厦门已有突出的表现。文章剖析了厦门主题公园客流量少 ,重游率低的主客观原因 ,提出促进厦门主题公园发展 ,政府部门必须加大招商引资力度 ,加强宏观指导和行业管理 ;投资及经营管理者必须重新审定主题及规模 ,调整园区规划 ,完善和丰富景区旅游产品 ,加大宣传促销力度等对策及建议     

THE CAUSES OF THE ASIAN FERTILITY DECLINE

The Asian demographic transition is treated as one aspect of the global Industrial Revolution, which started in the West but now involves the whole world. In fact, the multiplication of per capita income in Asia in the second half of the twentieth century has been the world's fastest. With the rise in female education, urban living and non-agricultural employment, as well as the mortality decline that began early in the twentieth century and government family planning programmes, fertility fell nearly everywhere from the 1960s presaging below-replacement fertility levels. The continent's macro changes are outlined and micro studies of the causes of fertility decline and the delay or forgoing of marriage are drawn from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and South Korea. It is concluded that marriages will be increasingly forgone or delayed and that most, perhaps all, ESCAP Asia will this century experience below-replacement fertility. The path followed is much more likely to resemble that of Mediterranean Europe than Northern Europe.     

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CASPIAN SHORELINE UNDER THE PRESENT INCREASE IN ITS LEVEL

The authors, questioning the implications for the Caspian of a conventional model of shoreline dynamics on a flat, sandy coast upon a rise in sea level, present the findings of field observations made along the Dagestan shore during the period (post-1977) of the recent rise of the Caspian Sea level. They argue that changes in coastal morphology have varied largely according to the steepness of the offshore slope and, in general, sharply accelerated erosion was observed only on more steeply sloping sections of coast and in areas previously protected by rock benches (translated by Jay K. Mitchell; PlanEcon, Inc.; Washington, DC 20005).     

4. THE MATERIAL PRESENCE OF THE PAST

This article deals with the material presence of the past and the recent call in the human sciences for a “return to things.” This renewed interest in things signals a rejection of constructivism and textualism and the longing for what is “real,” where “regaining” the object is conceived as a means for re‐establishing contact with reality. In the context of this turn, we might wish to reconsider the (ontological) status of relics of the past and their function in mediating relations between the organic and the inorganic, between people and things, and among various kinds of things themselves for reconceptualizing the study of the past. I argue that the future will depend on whether and how various scholars interested in the past manage to modify their understanding of the material remnants of the past, that is, things as well as human, animal, and plant remains. In discussing this problem I will refer to Martin heidegger's distinction between an object and a thing, to bruno latour's idea of the agency of things and object‐oriented democracy, and to Don Ihde's material hermeneutics. To illustrate my argument I will focus on some examples of the ambivalent status of the disappeared person (dead or alive) in argentina, which resists the oppositional structure of present versus absent. In this context, the disappeared body is a paradigm of the past itself, which is both continuous with the present and discontinuous from it, which simultaneously is and is not. Since there are no adequate terms to analyze the “contradictory” or anomalous status of the present‐absent dichotomy, I look for them outside the binary oppositions conventionally used to conceptualize the present‐absent relationship in our thinking about the past. for this purpose I employ Algirdas Julien Greimas's semiotic square.