The purpose of this study was the scientific justification of the concept of assessment of the agro-resource potential of agricultural landscapes and the improvement of the methodology for such assessment, on the basis of knowledge integration principles that allow for the combining of various fields of science in order to create an integrated methodological approach to addressing scientific and practical problems of environmental management. Based on the analysis of modern worldviews and natural scientific ideas on the mechanisms of biomass production in natural systems, we propose a methodology for the assessment of the agro-resource potential of agricultural landscapes that is an integral function of four key components (groups of factors)—agroclimatic resources (ACR), soil–land resources (SLR), agrobiological resources (ABR) and water resources (WR)—and that is based on the laws of nature and the principles of agricultural nature management. The proposed algorithm for predicting the natural state of agricultural landscapes based on agroclimatic, agrochemical and agrobiological integrated indexes allowed us to develop a unified integrated approach to the methodology for the assessment of the agro-resource potential of agricultural landscapes that makes it possible to determine the logical sequence of the trend of changes in the natural process, fully characterizing its state in the space–time scale.

This study presents the level of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution in the transboundary Ile River in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2023, and 2024. PCB contamination of water, as well as the presence of a large number of individual congeners, including strictly controlled ‘marker’ and dioxin-like congeners, were detected along the entire length of the river within Kazakhstan. Water samples were analyzed using a Chromos GH-1000 gas chromatograph. Significant interannual variability of river water contamination and a noticeable decrease in 2023 and 2024 compared to the previous periods have been identified. The study examined the PCB concentration transformation in the Ile River, from the transboundary section to the river’s confluence with Lake Balkhash, assessing not only fluctuations in total PCB concentration, but also their congener composition. The main natural and anthropogenic PCB sources and factors causing the transformation of the toxicant along the river course were identified. The total amount of transboundary PCB discharge both into Kazakhstan and into Lake Balkhash was calculated. The results can be used by state and local environmental protection agencies for the development of measures to protect rivers from pollution by these highly toxic pollutants, which is in line with the requirements of the Stockholm Convention on POPs.