water Review Essentials of Endorheic Basins and Lakes: A Review in the Context of Current and Future Water Resource Management and Mitigation Activities in Central Asia Vadim Yapiyev 1,2,* ID , Zhanay Sagintayev 1, Vassilis J. Inglezakis 3, Kanat Samarkhanov 4 and Anne Verhoef 5 ID 1 School of Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan;
[email protected] 2 National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan 3 Environmental Science & Technology Group (ESTg), Chemical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan;
[email protected] 4 State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, The XinJiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;
[email protected] 5 Department of Geography and Environmental Science, The University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +7-701-440-8516 Received: 31 July 2017; Accepted: 13 October 2017; Published: 21 October 2017 Abstract: Endorheic basins (i.e., land-locked drainage networks) and their lakes can be highly sensitive to variations in climate and adverse anthropogenic activities, such as overexploitation of water resources. In this review paper, we provide a brief overview of one major endorheic basin on each continent, plus a number of endorheic basins in Central Asia (CA), a region where a large proportion of the land area is within this type of basin. We summarize the effects of (changing) climate drivers and land surface–atmosphere feedbacks on the water balance. For the CA region, we also discuss key anthropogenic activities, related water management approaches and their complex relationship with political and policy issues.