We review historical and contemporary literature on change in water-management institutions in post-socialist Uzbekistan, exploring the dynamics of change of formal institutions in irrigationwater management there by analyzing relationships between the perceptions and beliefs of policymakers, policy interventions they undertake, and the consequences that these seem to have on resource-use practices. We have mainly relied on the reviewed literature, but have also made use of expert interviews conducted by the authors during 2011-2016 in Uzbekistan. Our results indicate that Uzbek policymakers have learned much from the unanticipated and undesired consequences of earlier irrigation reforms, as their perceptions and beliefs have changed and developed over time. Yet, although policymakers' beliefs have been fostered by a newly emergent Integrated Water Resources Management approach-which has become a central, globally promoted paradigm-the beliefs and institutions inherited from the Soviet era, as well as informal practices in irrigation-water use, have also been acting to constrain the choices of politicians and economic entrepreneurs.
The paper is devoted to improving the theory of bending and vibrations of three-layer plates with transverse compressible filler and thin outer bearing layers. For the outer layers, the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis is accepted and the motion of their points is described by the equations of the theory of thin plates relative to forces and moments. Unlikebearinglayers, a filler is considered as a three-dimensional body that does not obey any simplifying hypotheses. The equations of the bimoment theory of thick plates with respect to forces, moments and bimoments, created in the framework of the three-dimensional theory of elasticity, taking into account the nonlinearity of the distribution law of displacements and stresses over the thickness, are taken as the equations of motion of the filler. Expressions of forces, moments, and bimoments in the layers, as well as boundary conditions at the edges of a three-layer plate with respect to force factors are given. In the conjugate zones of the layers, the complete contact conditions for the continuity of displacements and stresses are set. An example is considered and numerical results are obtained.
Sustainability of irrigated agricultural development has been severely impacted by global climate change in recent decades, which is among the main environmental and economic problems facing the world community. The article presents the results of the research conducted in selected areas of irrigated agriculture in eastern Uzbekistan to study the impact of climate change on agricultural production and the agricultural producer’s perspective and awareness. Major factors affecting agricultural producers’ behavior under climate change and their current practices and skills for adapting to climate change were studied. The field study has been conducted in 9 districts located in two regions of the Ferghana valley. The respondents-representatives of agricultural producers selected from the list of Farmer’s Associations members taking their location relative to irrigation water sources into account. Quantitative analysis of data carried out with the use of SPSS-22 software. As the research results show, the impact of climate change on irrigated agriculture has become incredibly tangible in the last decade. It affected the situation with losses in yields of up to 16% and decreasing the quality of agricultural products. The rural population’s vulnerability factors include low income from agriculture, acute dependence on irrigation in conditions of increasing water scarcity, low level of applied technologies, adaptation measures, low yields, land degradation, etc. Analysis of the research results, and other related studies on this issue, allows us to indicate directions for improving adaptation measures in the short, medium, and long-term periods.
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