Section Five:Designing Solutions: Social, Ecological and Technological Approaches

Abstract

During our visit to the Aral Region, our exchange team had a lengthy meeting with a former Karakalpak leader, Ubbiniyaz A. Ashirbekov. Director of the Executive Committee, Nukus Branch, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. As we sat in his cramped office in Nukus, he pointed in despair to the bookshelves on his wall, filled to the ceiling with multiple millions of dollars of studies of how to address the Aral disaster. The sea level had fallen and in its place there rose a pile of books. If only they could have been employed to dam the remaining waters they might have served some utility. Much as the Soviets before them, those designing solutions to the region's problems think big. A big disaster requires a big solution with big impacts and a very big budget. But, perhaps a big disaster requires many small solutions instead, each designed to mesh with the others but not so interdependent that the failure of one brings down the lot.

Citation

Edelstein, M.R. (2012), "Section Five:Designing Solutions: Social, Ecological and Technological Approaches", Edelstein, M.R., Cerny, A. and Gadaev, A. (Ed.) Disaster by Design: The Aral Sea and its Lessons for Sustainability (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 323-326. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2012)0000020032