Search Results (14)

One of the worst natural, economic, and social catastrophes caused by human activity is the Aral Sea crisis in Central Asia. The Aral Sea’s desiccation, which has an impact on the region’s overall sustainable development, human welfare, security, and survival, is what led to the problem. This study assesses the effects of economic expansion, population ageing, life expectancy, internet usage, and greenhouse gas emissions on the fertility rate in the countries that made up the Aral Sea basin between 1990 and 2021. Several econometric techniques were used in this study, including Pooled OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) with the Driscoll–Kraay estimating method, FMOLS (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square), and DOLS (Dynamic Ordinary Least Square). Additionally, we used the Hurlin and Dumitrescu non-cause tests to verify the causal links between the variables. The empirical findings verify that a decrease in the fertility rate among women in the nations surrounding the Aral Sea occurs when the population of a certain age (women aged 15–64 as a percentage of the total population) grows and life expectancy rises. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) also have an adverse effect on reproductive rates. Conversely, the region’s fertility rate may rise as a result of increased internet usage and economic growth. Furthermore, this study indicates that certain variables—aside from greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)—have a causal relationship with the fertility rate. Full article

Central Asia (CA) is a young integrated region formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with most of its infrastructure based on fossil fuels. The traditional energy and water infrastructure is facing huge inefficiency and technical losses. This study investigates the transition of the green, blue, and energy economies in Central Asia using a small-dimensional panel dataset on five countries, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, over the period 1995–2018. The authors analyze the impact of ecological footprint, water withdrawal, and energy consumption on gross domestic product. In applying the Panel Vector Error Correction Model, evidence was found supporting the long-running association between variables. Furthermore, the adjustment coefficients suggest that only GDP growth will adjust toward equilibrium. Overall, the findings suggest a more effective role of green transition compared to blue and energy transitions. Full article

Remittances are a crucial part of economic expansion, especially in Central Asia. Nevertheless, it is not possible to ignore its environmental damage. This paper is a pioneer in investigating the association among CO₂ emissions, remittances, energy consumption and economic development in Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) spanning the period of 1995–2022. As a methodology, the FMOLS estimator is applied to check linear impact and long-run association as well. Panel threshold regression model and 2SLS method are applied to examine potential non-linear relations among the studied variables. Hausman–Taylor and Amacurdy estimators are employed to control the endogeneity issue among the variables of interest. The results suggest the existence of a long-run relationship among the studied variables. Precisely, applying the FMOLS method, remittances negatively impact CO₂ emissions in the long run. The relationship between CO₂ emissions and remittances is distorted when the endogeneity issue is considered with the Panel threshold regression model, 2SLS method, and Hausman–Taylor and Amacurdy estimators. This distortion validates the linear impact of remittances on CO₂ emissions in CA. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality test shows that all independent variables have a causal effect on the dependent variable, validating the effect of the studied variables. Consequently, decision-makers should facilitate remittances towards more environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions to prevent the detrimental effects of remittance inflows on carbon emissions in Central Asia. Full article

This study investigates how life expectancy is influenced by CO₂ emissions, health spending, GDP, water usage, agricultural output, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption within the Aral Sea basin, which is an environmentally catastrophic zone in the world. This research utilized data from the years 2002 to 2020 and employed various econometric approaches, including FMOLS, DOLS, and Driscoll–Kraay. The outcomes of the study reveal that health spending, GDP, water productivity, agriculture output, energy consumption, and human capital have a positive impact on life expectancy, but CO₂ emissions have a negative impact on life expectancy. The most important policy takeaway from this study is the need to develop and implement comprehensive policies that take into account health spending, GDP, water, agricultural output, energy consumption, and education level in order to ensure life longevity. Full article

This study investigates the impacts of alternative energy use, urbanization, GDP, agriculture, ICT development, and FDI on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the 14 leading CO₂-emitting countries in Asia. This research comprises various econometric techniques, including MMQR, FMOLS, DOLS, and Driscoll–Kraay, to extend the data analysis from 1996 to 2020. The findings provide significant support for an inverted U-shaped link between economic expansion and environmental deterioration, known as the environmental Kuznets curve. Moreover, this paper verifies that the GDP square, renewable energy use, and agriculture are shown to help to decrease pollution, as indicated by the research findings. On the contrary, urbanization and the GDP are demonstrated to be variables that contribute to carbon emissions. Furthermore, the panel quantile regression models validate that the impacts of each explanatory variable on CO₂ emissions vary across various quantiles. Finally, this analysis provides valuable suggestions to scholars, environmentalists, politicians, and authorities for identifying and mitigating the main cause of emissions. Full article

Environmental sustainability concerns are growing worldwide. Reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is crucial to combating global warming and reaching sustainable global economic development. Many recent studies have focused on key indicators of CO₂ emissions, but less consideration has been given to associated factors such as renewable energy and human capital. This article applies the two-step system FOD-GMM (Forward-Orthogonal Deviations-Generalized Method of Moments) to estimate the role of renewable energy and human capital in reducing environmental degradation in Europe and Central Asia. The results reveal that renewable energy consumption and human capital have a significant negative impact on CO₂ emissions in the EU and Central Asian countries, government efficiency has a positive effect on CO₂ emissions, and economic development has a neutral effect, confirming the strong role of renewable energy and human capital in reducing CO₂ emissions in EU and Central Asian countries. The role of human capital and renewable energy in promoting CO₂ reduction should be fully utilized. Policymakers should develop infrastructure for renewable energy and education to support the decrease in CO₂ emissions in Europe and Central Asia. Full article

The economics of globalization are changing due to digitization. The increasing global scope of digital platforms is lowering the cost of cross-border communications, allowing companies to connect with customers and suppliers across borders. This leads to the emergence of new competitors from anywhere in the world, increasing competition within an industry. The main objective of this research was to conduct an analysis of the DIANA Economy and Global RPM and to examine the various definitions and concepts of measuring the digital and analog economies in a comprehensive approach. Furthermore, this study analyzes and ranks the changes that countries around the globe have seen in their digital competitiveness, presenting the foundations of analog and digital economies and refining their definitions. Based on the results, most countries, 41 out of 60, are analog and anatal, which implies that they rely on an analog economy and need to develop digitalization strategies to transition from analog to digital. By providing rankings, policy implications, and strategies tailored to different population categories, it offers a roadmap for countries and businesses seeking to thrive in an increasingly digitalized world. Full article

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing and most visible sectors of the global economy, contributing significantly to boosting a nation’s economy. Currently, tourism-led economic growth considering sustainable approaches is becoming increasingly important in public policy. Recent urban and regional studies have begun to focus on the sustainability of tourism from social, economic, environmental, and cultural perspectives. The research aims to identify the most important issues and barriers to sustainable tourism development in Uzbekistan and proposes the most effective culturalization strategies to overcome those barriers. This paper involves the application of Global RPM (Globalization, Rationality, Professionalism, and Morality) analysis in combination with SANEL HERMES (Sightseeing, Admission paying, Night touring, Experiencing, Learning, Healing, Enjoying, Rest and Relaxing, Memento shopping, Eating and Drinking, and Staying) model based on data from a variety of sources, including literature review, participation interview, tourist survey, and expert questionnaire to identify and classify influencing factors that show existing barriers to sustainable tourism in Uzbekistan. Finally, a set of culturalization strategies is proposed, evaluated, and ranked by experts using a Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix. The results of the survey have shown that tourism activities are currently not sustainable in a satisfactory manner. However, if the policymakers consider the relevant strategies and take this study into account, as well as its findings, then Uzbekistan can be made more attractive in terms of sustainable tourism. Full article

The primary aspiration of this paper is to learn about the effects of economic growth, energy consumption, agriculture and irrigation water consumption and agriculture productivity on environmental pollution in five countries of Central Asia. The data cover the period from 1992 to 2020 by applying panel data models, namely the Panel FMOLS, Panel DOLS and Panel ARDL-PMG approaches. The results indicate that there is a positive long-term impact of economic growth, water productivity, energy consumption and electricity production on CO₂ emissions while agriculture value added and trade openness have a negative and statistically significant influence on CO₂ emissions in Central Asia. Country specific short-run coefficients from Panel ARDL reveal that energy consumption is the main driver for rise in the level of CO₂ emissions in the countries under the study. Indeed, country level analysis generates unique nexus correlation among agriculture, energy and environmental degradation in each country of Central Asia. Full article

This paper reports a case of a 21 year old primigravida at 6 weeks gestation, suffering from important abdominal pain, who was admitted into the medical center with a giant cyst of 28 × 20 cm on her left ovary. A torsion of the ovarian cyst was suspected. Her COVID-19 status was unknown. In view of the emergency of the situation and the COVID-19 pandemic, laparoscopy in spinal anesthesia was performed. The patient remained conscious during the surgical intervention and tolerated it well apart from a slight dyspnea, which was easily eliminated by changing her body position and decreasing the pneumoperitoneum pressure. The ovarian cyst was removed by enlarging the trocar incision. The patient recovered with neither incident nor pregnancy loss. COVID-19-related complications can induce adverse pregnancy outcomes. Under general anesthesia, patients with COVID-19 are at risk of severe pneumonia and of passing their infection to the medical personnel. To avoid such complications in non-specialized centers, laparoscopy should be performed in regional anesthesia. Laparoscopy in spinal anesthesia can be performed safely on pregnant patients by placing them in the proper position, using a low pneumoperitoneum, and monitoring the hemodynamics. During early pregnancy, general anesthesia induces a higher risk of teratogenic effects and of miscarriage. Full article

Background: laparoscopic surgery is mainly performed in general anesthesia. Symptomatic patients infected with COVID-19 needing surgery are however at higher risk for COVID-19 complications in general anesthesia than in regional anesthesia. Even so, Covid transfection is a hazard to medical personnel during the intubation procedure and treatment drugs may be in shortage during a pandemic. Recovery and hospital stay are also shorter after laparoscopy. Laparoscopy performed in regional anesthesia may have several advantages in limiting Covid. Methods: international literature on the risk of COVID-19 complications development was searched. 3 topics concerning laparoscopic surgery were reviewed: (1) Achievements in laparoscopy; (2) Advantages of regional anesthesia compared to general anesthesia; (3) Feasibility to perform laparoscopy in regional anesthesia in COVID-19 pandemic. The authors reviewed abstracts and full-text articles concerning laparoscopic surgery, gynecology, anesthesia and COVID-19. Studies published in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and found in Google Scholar before 1st FEB, 2021 were retrieved and analyzed. Results: a total of 83 studies were found, all of them written in English. 17 studies could be found in gynecology and in general surgery about laparoscopy with regional anesthesia. In Covid time only one study compared laparoscopic surgery in general anesthesia to laparotomy and another study laparotomy in general anesthesia to regional anesthesia. Laparoscopy showed no disadvantage compared to laparotomy in Covid pandemic and in another study laparotomy in general anesthesia was associated with higher mortality and more pulmonary complications. Trendelenburg position can be a threat if used by inexperienced personnel and can induce unintended anesthesia of breathing organs. On the other hand Trendelenburg position has advantages for cardiovascular and pulmonary functions. Pneumoperitoneum of low CO₂ pressure is well tolerated by patients. Conclusions: elective surgery should be postponed in symptomatic Covid patients. In inevitable emergency surgery intubation anesthesia in COVID-19 pandemic is as far as possible to be avoided. In COVID-19 pandemic, regional anesthesia is the preferred choice. The optimum may be the combination of laparoscopic surgery with regional anesthesia. Reducing the pneumoperitoneum is a good compromise for the comfort of patients and surgeons. A special case is gynecology, which needs to be performed in Trendelenburg position to free pelvic organs. Full article

Energy plays an essential role in the modern society and can serve as one of the vital parameters of socio-economic development. Despite developments in technology, over three billion persons living in rural parts of the low- and middle-income countries continue to cover their energy needs for cooking through traditional ways by burning biomass resources. This paper as a case study focuses on the Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan, possessing a well-developed agricultural production with high livestock numbers and intensive crop production. The manure of the livestock farms is not used efficiently and the energy supply of the farms depends primarily on centrally produced gas and electricity. Some areas are not yet connected to the gas grid. Agriculture causes huge environmental damages in its current form. The benefit of biogas production would therefore be fivefold: (1) local energy source, (2) mitigation of environmental impacts, (3) reducing CH4-emissions, (4) producing organic fertilizer as a side product and (5) additional earnings for farmers. Full article

The paper examines ecotourism in the Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan, an area with a fragile environment that has faced ecological crises and requires careful sustainable development. It looks at the supply side of ecotourism by examining Uzbekistani tour operators’ awareness of benefits derivable from promoting ecotourism in the region, and the local tourism industry’s motives to engage in this development. As a research methodology, the results of an exploratory survey of travel agents and tour operators highlight the policy-making and management interventions required for the more effective promotion and development of ecotourism in the Aral Sea region. The paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities associated with promoting ecotourism activities in the Aral Sea region in pursuit of sustainable regional development, improved livelihood for the local population, employment opportunity and income source creation, and enriched service exports. Key findings from the study show that stakeholders are aware of ecotourism’s value and are motivated to implement ecotourism in the region, but they have limited experience, competence, and international networks to promote and market ecotourism products and services. Local stakeholders have raised the issue that infrastructure development and access to microfinance are their greatest needs from local authorities in Uzbekistan. Full article

This paper focuses on regional integration through the lenses of the Water–Food–Energy (WEF) nexus, a concept putting strong emphasis on cross-sectoral and multi-level interactions as well as on resource interdependencies. There is an extensive amount of published research focusing on the Aral Sea basin. In this paper, the authors build upon these different contributions and provide a meta-analysis of the literature of WEF nexus opportunities in Central Asia (CA) countries. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions regarding how the WEF Nexus can represent an opportunity for reinforced collaboration regarding resources management. To do so, focusing on existing literature, this paper first (1) explores how the nexus can be a relevant instrument for regional integration. Second (2), it provides an overview of water, food, energy conditions and challenges in the Aral Sea basin in particular. Third (3), synthesizing existing research, the authors identify critical variables to be considered as hurdles or leverage points for WEF nexus implementation in the Aral Sea basin. Finally (4), we go back to our initial set of questions and identify some possible avenues for future research. Full article