Geography of Uzbekistan Kazakhstan, also yielded about 60% of the total volume of Central Asia's emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Because automobiles are relatively scarce, automotive exhaust is a problem only in Tashkent and Farghona. The reduction of water in Uzbekistan has resulted in soil degradation, and the spread of the salt from the evaporated Aral Sea has contaminated the surrounding soil. The soil has lost much of its water due to the increased surface irrigation. The irrigation of farmlands with water from the Aral Sea has resulted in increased salinization of the soil, causing the farmland to be less productive
Seto Inland Sea Chūgoku, Shikoku, and eastern Kyūshū. The Seto Inland Sea provided each of these regions with local transportation and connected each region to the others and far areas, including the coastal area of the Sea of Japan, Korea, and China. After Kobe port was founded in 1868 to serve foreign ships, the Seto Inland Sea became a major international waterway with connection to the Pacific. Due to the development of land transportation, the travel between east and west — that is, transportation within Shikoku, within Honshū, and between Honshū and Kyūshū — shifted to railroad and road transport. Two coastal railways,