Main research directions:
- monitoring of the development of cryosphere components of the runoff formation zone (snow cover, glaciers, ground ice);
- producing of new inventories of glaciers of the control basins in a volume sufficient to reliably determine the area of glaciation and glacial resources;
- study of the climatic conditions of the glaciers evolution ablation and runoff in the second half of the 20th early - 21st centuries;
- calculation and mapping of distribution of the climatic snow boundary altitude in the territory of transboundary basins;
- calculation and mapping of distribution of the annual accumulation of solid precipitation at the altitude of the snow boundary;
- assessment of current and forecast changes in glacial systems of transboundary basins;
- study of the laws of distribution and structure of permafrost and seasonally frozen grounds in the mountains and adjacent plains of Kazakhstan and Central Asia;
- monitoring of the temperature of permafrost, seasonal freezing-thawing in various landscape conditions of the Northern Tien Shan and forecasting their changes due to climate change and human economic activity;
- study of the laws of distribution, morphology, dynamics and evolution of cryogenic processes and phenomena, including on new moraines in connection with degradation of glaciers and formation of glacial mudflows;
- development of methods and producing of geocryological maps of various scales and purposes;
- study and assessment of the degree of danger of geocryological processes and phenomena in the mountains and plains of Kazakhstan;
- study of the laws of distribution and conditions for the formation of hazardous exogenous processes (avalanches, mudflows, landslides, rock falls) in the mountainous regions of Kazakhstan;
- development of methods for assessing and mapping of natural hazards and natural risks;
- development of scientific bases for natural risk management.