Water economy balance of the Almaty City

Abstract

This article provides and analyses the detailed water balances of the Almaty city in regards to the water resources, the share of which for different water bodies is 50%, 75% or 95% at the present level of surface and groundwater use. We have quantitatively assessed such surface water resources for specific water bodies and for the whole city. We have analysed the field studies of channel water balances of small rivers conducted in 2006, 2007 and 2013 (Almaty city) to identify the areas of abstraction losses and groundwater outcrop in riverbeds. The water balance analysis shows that Almaty city suffers from significant deficits in water resources. On the basis of the population growth dynamics, we assume that it will only increase. We have clarified the methods for calculating hydro-meteorological characteristics and gained the updated information about the stream flows in a number of control sections and the channel water balances of the Karasu.