Our research is based on the results of four previous studies conducted one after another over the span of the last five years, and it builds on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous efforts.


While working on the last research project, we came up with a new vision for our project. We decided that it was not enough to focus on rivers only and that we need to look at the wider conception of nature in the city and include green spaces into our analysis. In the process of discussing the focus of our research, we came up with the new concept – Kok Bishkek. The word “kok” in Kyrgyz language has several meanings and can be applied to several elements of nature: “kok asman” means “blue sky”, “kok suu” means “blue water”, but “kok terek” is “green tree”, while “kok taala” stands for “green field”. So, the word “kok” can mean both blue and green and generally in Kyrgyz culture, it is associated with everything natural and ecological.


Thus, we proposed that this word would ideally suit what this project tries to accomplish. In addition, we believed that using the traditional word from Kyrgyz language would help us promote the concept among city residents, administrators and politicians. It would be perceived much better than some longer and more technical titles. It has strong associations with nature and it is easy to remember and thus popularize. As the project progressed, we tested the new proposed title among various groups of city residents and saw that the concept was perceived well. We did not encounter any objections to it.


This report summarizes the work our research team carried out during the year. The project included a number of research activities. The first of the report summaries the results of social inventory, while the second part presents the project recommendations developed on the basis of this research.

We start by analyzing the results of survey conducted among the city residents. Most of the survey was conducted through in-person interviews in various parts of the city. All in all the team conducted 236 interviews. It so happened that 70% of respondents were women and 30% men. As for the age, the distribution was following:

On average, our respondents lived in Bishkek for 21 years and as the graph below depicts, almost 70% lived here for more than 10 years. Thus, the perception of our respondents could be considered as that of long-term residents familiar with the city

We started the survey with the request to evaluate the environmental situation in the city distinguishing between summer and winters times and we can see that in winter months, the vast majority perceive the situation as either bad or terrible.

The most well-known waterways in the city are: Ala-Archa River, BChK, and Alamedin River. The number of people who know these waterways however is two-three times higher than the number of people who actually visit them. Two smaller canals: Eastern BChK that runs in the middle of the city and Southern BChK in its southern fringe, are poorly known and almost never visited. The Southern BChK has been completed, but never had water in it. Nonetheless, it is in a very good shape and we propose a special use for it in our recommendations.

Further analysis reveals that the frequency of visits to the rivers and canals is not very high either. Most people do not visit them at all, one third drops by few times a year, one fifth few times a month, one tenth every other day and 7% come every day.

Almost half of all respondents visit rivers and canals simply for walks; 14% are passing the rivers on their way from home to work or other destinations and 10% come to rivers to socialize. Very few do sports there.

Unfortunately, nearly half of respondents also think of rivers’ and canals’ physical condition as either terrible or bad. Only one third thinks of them as normal and 9% as good. This tells a lot about the attractiveness of rivers and about the need to improve them. This significantly depends on where respondents live. Ala-Archa river segments located in the 9-th and 10-th micro-districts get the highest evaluations. One of the reasons why rivers are abandoned by the city administration, is because they are managed by the Ministry of Water and thus the city has no control over its use.

The most important recommendation for improving the river conditions is to clean them. Water accumulates trash as it moves across the city, which then gets stuck in some places and it is common to see bottles and plastic bags, which are only removed by the next flood when larger volumes of flowing water can remove the trash. But rivers are also places, where residents throw their everyday and construction garbage. This cannot be removed by water and trash gets piled on the banks so much so that it can even change their shape. The research also reveals a large number of segments where riverbanks and river cascades are eroded due to the effect of time or destroyed by construction companies using excavators and tracks to collect stones from the riverbeds. That is why the second recommendation by survey respondents is to renovate the physical infrastructure of rivers and canals. This recommendation is followed by the equally important recommendations to put lighting, plant greenery, renovate (or create where absent) pedestrian paths, and install benches. All these recommendations are aimed at making the riverbanks more habitable and turning them into safe and comfortable public spaces.

The survey reveals that city residents know green spaces in Bishkek better and visit them more actively than rivers and canals. The following graph shows that the most popular green spaces are located in the city center. These are Panfilov Park and Erkindik Boulevard. These are also the city’s oldest parks. They are followed by two parks in the Southern part of the city: Ata-Turk (former Park Druzhby) and the Southern Gates (or Victopry) Park. Two new parks Yntymak 1 and Yntymak 2 were built very recently (one year ago and this year accordingly), but they are already becoming popular and people come to visit them even from other parts of the city. These parks do not have tall trees, but they are located in the large open space along Southern Magistral, they are well ventilated and have new infrastructure. Botanical gardens have the great potential, but because of their closed or semi-public status, they are not visited that much. The Karagachovaya Rosha is not visited often mostly because of its remote status.

The following images show the popularity of green spaces on the map.

The frequency of visiting parks is also higher than that for rivers. As the chart below depicts, nearly a third visit parks at least once a week and more than a third, at least once a month, while 12% visit parks daily.

Like with rivers, the majority of respondents come to parks for walking, but one third also comes for socializing with friends and family members. Meetings in the parks is the old Soviet tradition and it is still important. Parks are also important places for sports. They are particularly attractive for runners.

It turns out the condition of parks is significantly better than the condition of river. The vast majority (83%) perceive it as normal, good or even excellent. Only 16% see it as bad or terrible. Parks are under the management of city administration with two agencies carrying the responsibility: Zelenkhoz and Municipal Parks. Having their own budget helps these organizations care for the green spaces.

Interestingly, the most popular recommendation is to build public toilets in the parks. The newer parks, like Yntymak 1 and Yntymak 2 have modern toilets, but most of other parks either don’t have them or the toilets are in a poor condition. The second most important recommendation is to fix the irrigation system. Bishkek is located in the arid zone with insufficient amount of rain. The city greenery would not survive without artificial system of irrigation. During the Soviet times, the city had very intricate and well-functioning system of aryks – irrigation ditches. There are two main problems with it today: first, the system itself physically deteriorated and needs renovations, and secondly, the city does not receive enough water. We discuss this issue later in the report in more details.

In addition, respondents recommend more greenery and then better infrastructure: lights, benches, walking paths, children playgrounds, and sportsgrounds. All these would make parks more comfortable public spaces.

In addition to the survey, the research team conducted weekly meetings with various stakeholder groups and interviews with experts in the field. Such groups included: ecologists, bikers and runners, youth, people with limited mobility, bloggers and influencers, representatives of Zelenkhoz and Bishkek Municipal Parks, members of two regional administrations in the city and urban planners and architects. Each meeting started with us presenting the results of our previous research projects and sharing key idea from our vision for Kok Bishkek. This was followed by opening the space for discussions and recommendations by participants and then by the design charettes where participants worked together with our architect directly on the map of the city and produced graphical forms of analysis and recommendations. In this section, we summarize some of the key ideas generated during these meetings.

One of the very first meetings was with the Kyrgyz Research Institute for Urban Planning, which is currently a part of the Ministry of Construction. The key spokesperson for the group was Janyzak Kulbatyrov – the author of Bishkek Master Plan – document that defines major directions for the city growth and strategy for its development. For many years, the Master Plan was kept secret, but few years ago, under the pressure of city activist groups, the institute was forced to make the document accessible by public. Bishkek Master Plan is a larger vision that pays special attention to the rivers and green spaces and clearly marks the conservational protective boundaries for both. Unfortunately, the Master Plan is only a vision and it does not have a legal weight. In order to implement the Master Plan the Institute’s team produced a more specific and legally bounding document – Proekt detalnoi planirovki (Detailed Planning Project). This document legally fixed three types of lines: 1) blue lines (marking the boundaries of areas along the rivers, which should not be encroached on by any form of construction), 2) green lines (marking the boundaries of legally protected green spaces), and 3) red lines (boundaries for construction). This was a very important document that could preserve the blue and green spaces and limit the construction. The document was approved by the City Council, but later was taken to court by a group of activists, who claimed that the plan was infringing on the property rights of Bishkek residents. Activists lost in two courts, but won in the Higher Court; thus the plan was cancelled and lost its legal power. As a result, today there is no single document that protects the blue and green spaces of Bishkek. One conclusion that the author of the Master Plan came to was that their mistake was to disregard community in the discussion. Mr. Kulbatyrov suggested that perhaps what we were doing with our approach of working with various groups is more productive in the long run and should bring better results. We concluded that there was a need to develop a new plan for blue and green spaces of Bishkek and have it approved by the City Council.

At our meetings we concluded that it is important to engage citizens representing not only various groups of interests, but also various demographic groups, particularly residents of various age. Two groups, which are most active represent the two ends of the age spectrum: the youngsters and the elderly. People in the middle age group are often too busy with work and family obligations and do not have much time: neither for discussing ideas, nor for actually using the rivers and parks for recreation purposes. All of our meetings with local community residents were mostly attended by the elderly and pensioners who had a lot to say about rivers and parks. At the same time, one of our most productive meetings during this research was with the group of young green activists. They generated a large number of ideas and shared their major concerns for the city ecology and their great enthusiasm for the project.

The majority of participants in our community meetings agreed that for the Kok Bishkek project to be successful, it needs to find a popular support among city residents. If the idea becomes popular and finds its place in mass media and social media, it will be easier to push it through the legislation and have the higher ministries involved in its realization. We had a separate meeting with Bishkek bloggers and influencers. All of them supported the idea and agreed to help us with the promotion of Kok Bishkek concept. However, they said that we need to generate visual content for them to share and spread in their own channels. Such visual content could include short videos, stories, plans and drawings. They also proposed that we can even create a music video with popular singers making a song about Kok Bishkek. Kok Bishkek must become a common knowledge known to various groups in the city for politicians and higher government officials to support it administratively and financially. One of the key actors who could promote the idea are the City Council deputies. They can make it a part of their party politics and campaigns. When we presented the preliminary results of our work, several City Council deputies representing various parties expressed their interest in our ideas and in supporting them.

The SMM experts stressed that for the Kok Bishkek concept to be recognizable, it needs one strong visual symbol. Thus, it was recommended to engage artists in creating the logo of Kok Bishkek that would become a part of the information campaign and would make Kok Bishkek recognizable. The logo would have to be visually appealing, easily conveying the main idea of the project and be simple and replicable. Once the projects starts to be implemented, the logo can be used for marking the interventions on the ground for people to know that this work is done in the frameworks of Kok Bishkek. We had one session with students, artists and architects, where we brainstormed ideas for the logo and sketched some preliminary drafts. Here are three designs that we selected as potential designs for the logo.

Kok in Kyrgyz language is written with “ө” and in the two designs on the left and on the right, it is drawn as if the circles is the boundary of Bishkek city, while the line that runs through it is the river. The design in the center represents the new interpretation of Bishkek coat of arms that has the snow leopard as its main symbol. The leopard is drawn in blue and represents the river, while the tree is drawn in green and represents parks and other green spaces in the city. The two interweave and thus tell how the blue and green infrastructures of Bishkek are connected.

A number of important suggestions were raised by various participants in regards to the ecology of rivers and parks. The number one recommendation was to fill places with meanings: it is not enough to have nature for the sake of nature, it is important for various natural places to carry certain functions and to help residents learn, obtain information and connect to rivers and parks in some meaningful ways, for example, observing animals and birds. One tool that could help with this is installing well-designed and aesthetically appropriate information boards, that could tell the history of places, their cultural and social significance and ecological role.

As for the vegetation along the river, the preference was given to wilder forms. The way the city administration treats green spaces in Bishkek is often perceived as too artificial: particularly with flowers of different colors planted in such a way as to form an ornamental pattern. Instead, rivers, parks and green spaces on the streets should have more authentic plant species. This way, we can talk about “real” nature in the city. For that landscaping should be kept to the minimum. It is recommended to make a good use of the interesting morphology of the riverbeds inside the concrete riverbanks, which often have very picturesque shape with water gently curving around the islands of stones and greenery. The banks along the river should also have more greenery in order to attract residents.

In order to have interesting blue and green spaces, we need to enrich their typology and create a diverse urban vocabulary to define and work with nature in the city. For example, we could have “natural reserves” along the river – spaces that are protected by law and where various forms of wildlife could safely develop.

“Rivers without water are not rivers. They are just dry ditches,” – stated one of the discussion participants. In the last few years, it has become more and more common to see rivers without any water in them during the summer months. This happens due to a number of different factors. First of all, a lot of water is distributed towards the farmlands surrounding the city. These farmlands used water in the past too, but their use has been intensified and they are still relying on the old methods of open irrigation, when water flows through open irrigations ditches on the ground. This results in the high losses of water due to evaporation and absorption by soil on the way to the fields. The need to switch to more efficient methods of irrigation, e.g. drip irrigation, is long overdue.

Secondly, Kyrgyzstan is located higher in the local Central Asian topography and it supplies valleys in Central Asia with water from its mountains. So, quite a lot of water is given by our government to the neighboring republics, and in the case of Chui Valley, it is Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan must fulfill its regional cooperation obligations. The problem with both supplying water to our neighbors and to the farmlands is the new law that was introduced not too long ago and that changed the status of water from a public good to commodity. In the past, water could not be sold, now it can and there is an agency that is responsible for distributing it – Ministry of Water. When the water was a public good, the Ministry distributed water according to its plan, which took into consideration the needs of multiple beneficiaries. Now, since water can be bought, the priority is given to those who pay. The local municipalities, like that of Bishkek do not have a separate budget for water and that is why the city with the population of 1.5.mln people do not have any say in how much water they receive. It completely depends on the good will of the Ministry and it receives only the leftovers.

One proposal was raised several times in the meetings – to make a better use of water reservoirs located up the river between rivers and mountains. Bishkek receives quite a lot of water in the colder season when water is not distributed to the fields, but the city does not need water at this time either. So, reservoirs could store the water in winter times, so that this water could be used for irrigating Bishkek in the summer time. One unique proposal was made by the Chief Architect himself – to create the water reservoirs from the quarries also located in the Southern fringe of the city, up the stream. These are quarries of large sizes and they can hold significant amount of water, thus they could be of great help for watering green spaces of the city in the hot season.

Finally, a proposal was made about the need to use the underground water for irrigation. Ground waters are already very high in the lower Northern parts of the city, where in fact, they are even the reasons of flooding. However, because Bishkek is located on the slope and its topography recedes from the mountains in the North to the valley of Chu River in the South, the distance to ground waters in the higher areas of the city could be quite long – up to 60-80 meters. Nonetheless, it is possible to dig the wells and such work has already been done for the two Yntymak parks, which are watered with the underground waters. For the more efficient use, this water is distributed not via open irrigation ditches, but via the system of water sprinklers. Kalicha Omuralieva, the head of Bishkek Parks proposes that such the same method can be introduced in all parks of the city, but it is important to use better quality equipment for sprinklers.

The core idea of Kok Bishkek project is to use rivers and canals as the main channels for pedestrians and bikers. Kok Bishkek Ecobelt depicts a ring that circles the city and connects its various segments and green spaces into one system. The idea was very much supported by the participants representing the runners’ and bicyclists’ clubs in Bishkek. They proposed that the ring could be used for organizing marathons and for regular daily running exercises. Running along the river has its own advantages because water brings freshness and rivers also serve as channels for the movement of fresh air from the mountains. Rivers connect nicely to the nearby parks and Botanical gardens with trails also fit for running and bicycling.

For riverbanks and park trails to be suitable for running and biking, they must meet at least three main criteria. First of all, they should have appropriate paving. The most appropriate surface is asphalt. In the past few years many sidewalks along river banks were covered with concrete tiles. This type of cover is problematic because the surface is not even, which makes movement difficult for both runners and bikers, and because tiles themselves are very hard and can have negative impact on the runners’ knees. The second condition is the uninterrupted passage along the river. Currently whenever river comes across the road, the pedestrian traffic comes to halt and in most cases, there is a need for detour since the nearest traffic light or pedestrian crossing might be up to 200 meters away. Once solution to the problem, which is popular in many cities around the world is to create the under-the-bridge passages that would allow pedestrians and bikers cross the bridge without stopping. The group of activists who promote cycling already developed the project proposal for creating bike-paths that would very effectively connect different corners of the city and this project incorporated riverbanks. In this project, they also produced a detailed technical plan for creating the under-the-bridge passages. This was done four years ago, the project was approved by the Chief Architect Bureau, however because they could not raise funds for the project implementation, it was shelved. The participants proposed that they will be happy to bring the project back to life and share it with us if the Kok Bishkek vision finds administrative and financial support.

Participants representing the group with limited mobility emphasized the importance of making pathways along the rivers and in the parks inclusive for people with all kinds of limitations. Currently, there are many bridges to cross rivers and canals that do not have ramps; the paths have many abrupt level changes also without the ramps; and the quality of paths in some river segments is very poor. In addition, some river banks do not have any safety barriers between the paths and the river and people with blindness could easily fall from the riverbanks, which in some places can be up to 2 meters tall. All these complications make it difficult and often impossible for people with limited ability to use rivers and parks. One very important point was made by the participants: if we make paths suitable for people with limited mobility, we will make them suitable for all, including mothers with strollers, children on bicycles, and elderly.

The title for our vision is Kok-Bishkek - Blue and Green Bishkek. Kok in Kyrgyz can mean both blue and green. In our long-term vision, this means Kok Asman (blue sky), Kok-Suu (blue rivers) and Kok-Terek (green trees).

The basis of the project’s larger conceptual vision of rivers is so called Bishkek Eco-Belt. It includes a series of green open spaces connected via walkways and bike-paths running along Bishkek rivers and canals. Currently, all green, such as Botanical Gardens, various parks, Karagachovaya Rosha, and authentic wild green spaces exist in isolation. However, as the diagram below shows, almost all of them are located next to or in the near distance from the rivers and canals. Thus, rivers and canals can become infrastructural elements that connect them all together into one ecological network of greenery and water – two major ecological components of urban environment.

Creating a city-wide ecological network of spaces is particularly important in the context of acute ecological crisis in Bishkek: for the last three years, the city has been continuously rated in the top three cities with the most polluted air. Bishkek Eco-Belt can become the basis of a more developed network of walking and biking routes that can serve as alternatives to cars. In addition, Eco-Belt can provide many more recreational and exercising opportunities for city residents. The perimeter length of the Eco-Belt would be 26 km.

One of the international examples that served as an inspiration for Bishkek Eco-Belt vision was the Atlanta Beltline project that used a former railway corridor and railway easements around the core of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA to create a 22-mile loop for pedestrians and bikers. The project was very simple in its vision, yet, it was very successful and led to all kinds of new developments taking place along the Beltline. It has 5 open trails and it connects 7 public parks and 45 neighborhoods.

Similarly to Atlanta Beltline, the Bishkek Eco-Belt can become a city-wide recreation and socialization space that brings together city residents from various neighborhoods and diverse social groups. Its simplicity, boldness and city-wide scale can serve as the vision that can help generate funding for various smaller scale projects necessary to implement this large conceptual vision. We have developed several more specific recommendations for the Bishkek Eco-Belt vision implementation.

The first recommendation is to ensure the stable flow of water in rivers during the warm season. The following two images show the difference in the amount of water in the cold and warm seasons.

The two images illustrate very well that during the warmer season, both rivers become dry and cannot fulfill their main functions. To correct that, the city should lobby a certain minimal amount of water in both rivers all year around. Currently, the city has no saying in how water is distributed up the stream, but it is important that it sits as an equally important actor on the negotiation table and lobby the rights of city residents for water. One additional possible solution offered by the Chief Architect’s Bureau is to use the currently existing quarries as water reservoirs that collect water in the winter time and release it during summer times.

We propose 14 places along the rivers cross the main roads and where such passages are needed as depicted on the following map. Passages are labeled with the names of streets. The passages can be created either on both or at least on one side of the river.

Following images depict the 3d-illustration of such under-the-bridge passage on the intersection of Aaaly Tokombaeva Street and Ala-Archa River.

This is another recommendation towards creating the uninterrupted passages along the rivers and it is also one of the legally most complicated. Segments of the river, which are currently blocked by residential or commercial property, are shown in red color in the following map. Opening the passages might require enforced demolition if the property was extended all the way to the river illegally and legal suits if the property was extended legally. According to the law, the distance between the river and any kind of property should be no less than 6 meters. 78% of respondents in the survey support the idea of clearing the passages.

One of the main segments of Ala-Archa River blocked by property is the territory of Osh Bazaar. As depicted in the following images, there are no sidewalks and the river views are also blocked by the metal walls of trading containers.

We propose to open up the sidewalks and turn the bazaar to face the river having either trading rows or cafes and restaurants along the sidewalks. Here are some possible design solutions for such passages as envisioned by our architect Meder Ahmetov.

Both Ala-Archa and Alamedin rivers are in the major need for the rehabilitation of damaged banks and dissipation walls.. Some banks have become truly hazardous and can endanger the safety of people. This would require significant resources, but it is definitely a priority.

One potential solution is the use of gabion mesh filled with stones. The mesh itself is not very expensive, while the stones can be collected from the river itself. We have seen a number of successful examples of using gabion mesh to treat the banks of rivers in the neighboring large cities: Almaty and Tashkent.

There are many segments of both rivers and canals, which would benefit greatly from adding greenery along them. One example is the segment of Ala-Archa River from Aaaly Tokombaev to Akhunbaeva Street. The 1.6 km long western bank of the river does not have a single tree.

Following images show how the sidewalks could become greener. Another segment where greenery is required is the Southern BChK if it is turned into a pedestrian zone as proposed earlier. In many places where there is no unpaved surface small pockets of land could be cleared for planting trees.

To enliven the space along the rivers, we propose to create small public spaces of diverse uses: from simple places to rest with benches as illustrated in the following image

Other examples of more active anchors include children playgrounds and sports grounds along the Ala-Archa River next to Gorodok Sovmina.

The second recommendation is to create the biking-pedestrian space inside the Southern Chui Canal. This canal has been built during the Soviet period in the Southern part of Bishkek for the purpose of collecting water from the upper streams and distributing it across the city. However, it has never been used for its original purpose and it always remained empty. Some small portions of it became filled with plants, some accumulated garbage. Nonetheless, most of its parts are still in excellent condition. Its banks and its floor are made of good quality concrete. The banks have the shape of a letter “L” with bottom part of it approximately 1,5 meters wide and about 15-20 cm higher than the concrete basin. Along the banks, there are few trees.

We propose to use the paths along two sides of the canal as one-direction biking paths and to use the space in the middle between them as a pedestrian space. Entering and exiting the space would be through the series of bridges with ramps into the canal.

Because of its remote nature, the canal attracted a lot of street artists and it has very interesting graffiti pieces in it, which we recommend to preserve. We also recommend to encourage further use of the canal walls as facades for this kind of informal public art.

The room in the canal is perfect as a public space for recreation by various groups of population: youth, elderly, kids. When inside the canal, one does not hear the noise of the city, it is safe from traffic, the kids would not run away. The multi-floor apartment buildings next to the canal provide the overlooking eyes. It is also an excellent path for increasing mobility that would allow residents of Southern micro-districts to bike or walk to the rivers that would then connect them to the central parts of the city. We propose to create several zones along the length of canal: some more active, some less active. For example, there is one segment where the canal is wider than in other places and has an open space with two additional walls inside the canal. We propose that this space is used for creating a skate park for youth.