See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226812319 Anthropogenic impact on the runoff of Russian rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean Article in Water Resources · January 2008 DOI: 10.1134/S0097807808010016 CITATIONS READS 10 48 1 author: Dmitry Magritsky Lomonosov Moscow State University 44 PUBLICATIONS 135 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Heavy metals, metalloids and biogens fluxes into Arctic ocean by largest Siberian rivers View project Environmental changes in the Arctic and their impacts on the human wellbeing and infrastructure View project All content following this page was uploaded by Dmitry Magritsky on 05 March 2018. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. ISSN 0097-8078, Water Resources, 2008, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1–14. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2008. Original Russian Text © D.V. Magritskii, 2008, published in Vodnye Resursy, 2008, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 3–16. WATER RESOURCES AND THE REGIME OF WATER BODIES Anthropogenic Impact on the Runoff of Russian Rivers Emptying into the Arctic Ocean D. V. Magritskii Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, Moscow, 119992 Russia Received Abstract—The effect of water consumption and reservoirs on the regime and water resources of Russian rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean is discussed. The impact of reservoirs on the annual and seasonal runoff of reg- ulated rivers is estimated. The transformation of this impact along the rivers down to their outlet sections is ana- lyzed. Possible variants of the development of water management measures in Arctic river basins in the first quarter of the 21st century are considered. DOI: 10.1134/S0097807808010016 INTRODUCTION The priority of this type of studies is now undeni- able. Their significance is due to the lack of quantitative River water runoff is regarded as the most available estimates of anthropogenic changes in the runoff of resource that renews every year. This property of river many northern rivers, the need to ensure the safety of water makes it most significant for practice as com- production and the life of population under the condi- pared with water resources that renew more slowly or tions of changing nature development, the importance groundwater that renew annually. The hydropower of studying the hydrological consequences of global potential of rivers is another factor of importance for climate warming, etc. humans. The simultaneous development of water and Because of the size of the Russian part of the Arctic hydropower resources of rivers and the withdrawal of Ocean drainage basin, the number of rivers, and the lake and subsurface waters that feed rivers constitute diversity of forms of anthropogenic impact on runoff, the maximum anthropogenic impact on river runoff and all issues that appear because of the economic activity regime. cannot be discussed in a single paper. Therefore, the The resources of rivers emptying into the Azov, Cas- scope of this study was limited to pian, and Baltic seas are best developed in Russia. The the assessment of the extent of water consumption anthropogenic decline in the annual runoff of the Volga, in the watersheds of Arctic rivers, its long-term varia- Don, Kuban, Ural, and Terek (with the Sulak) in 1986– tions, and the assessment of its impact on the volume of 1990 amounted to 10, 28, 46, 31, and 30%, respectively water resources of these rivers; [26]. The operation of reservoirs had a considerable the assessment of the number of regulated Russian effect on the water regime of the Svir, Narva, Ural, rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean and the bound- Volga, Sulak, Don, and Kuban rivers. aries of periods with the conventionally natural and reg- The effect of economic activity on the basins of riv- ulated runoff; ers in North European and Asian parts of Russia is the quantitative assessment of the effect of reser- much weaker. This activity has almost no effect on voirs on the annual runoff and water regime of rivers, many water bodies in the region, while in developed the examination of its longitudinal transformation rivers, this effect is often shaded by the natural varia- downstream of reservoir (down to the mouth reaches of tions in the hydrological characteristics. In some cases, regulated rivers); however, as for example, in regulated rivers of Siberia the consideration of possible changes in the anthro- and Far East, the anthropogenic impact extends over pogenic load in the future. large distances and reaches their mouths. Other types of economic activity ant their hydrolog- The materials available from the literature are not ical effect were not considered because of the lack of enough to identify the features and assess the extent of reliable data. However, their impact on the runoff and such impact. Until recently, the anthropogenic changes water regime of some rivers is undeniable. in the water regime and water resources were studied The source materials for this study included data inadequately because of the poor development of north- collected during long-term observations at hydrologic ern territories, the small number of level gauges and the gauges of Roshydromet (39 gauges in total), converted unfavorable conditions for hydrometric works. into the electronic form, processed, and analyzed by the 1 2 MAGRITSKII author of this study. Additionally, data from reference Lena basins, and the mining areas in the Pur and publications of Soyuzvodproekt and State Water Kolyma rivers. Cadaster, information from official sites of participants of water management complex in the areas under study, and some significant results of previous studies were WATER CONSUMPTION used. The most important among the latter are [1–7, 9, Water intake from water sources in river basins and 15, 18, 22–26, 28, 29, 31], etc. the discharge of wastewater and return waters have an appreciable effect on the volume, regime, and quality of BACKGROUND DATA ON THE REGION water resources. The structure of economic activity and AND ITS RIVERS the extent and regime of the use of water resources depend on the features of water bodies, the physico- The runoff of Russian rivers emptying into the Arc- geographic conditions, and the social–economic char- tic Ocean forms within the territory of the Kola Penin- acteristics of river basins. The dynamics of water con- sula and Karelia; the northern part of East European sumption and water disposal correspond to long-term Plain; the Polar Urals; Western, Middle, and North- changes in the scale and structure of the economic Eastern Siberia; Eastern Kazakhstan; China and Mon- activity in the country. golia; Altai–Sayany highlands; Cisbaikalia and Trans- Water consumption and disposal in RSFSR attained baikalia; the northern slopes of Chukotka and Arctic their maximum values in the late 1970s and in the islands. 1980s. Until the mid-1970s, water consumption vol- The area of the drainage basins of the Barentz, ume was found to rapidly grow because of the steadily White, Kara, Laptev, East-Siberian, and Chukcha seas increasing economic demand for water and the exten- totals 13.286 million km2. The share of the Russian sive economic development. From 1975 to 1991, the Federation in this area is 12.064 km2 (90.8%), which total normal annual water consumption volume in accounts for 70.7% of the total territory of the country. RSFSR amounted to 90–120, and the volume and the The major portion of the drainage basin of the Russian volumes of water disposal was 60–80 km3 [2]. part of the Arctic Ocean belongs to basins the Kara and The majority of this volume was consumed in the Laptev seas, in which the basins of the largest rivers in river basins of the southern Russian seas and the Baltic the country, i.e., the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena are predom- Sea, where the main economic potential of the country inant. The drainage basins of the Chukcha Sea and the is concentrated and the population density is very high. western part of the Barentz Sea are much less. Water consumption in the basins of the western part of The area under study (within the RF territory) con- the White Sea drainage basin, and the basins of the tains >1629 small, medium, and large rivers [13]. A Pechora, Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma was low small portion of these empties directly into Arctic seas. (0.13 km3/year in 1990), and in many northern rivers it These can be conventionally divided into small (with was close to zero (Table 1). Only 1.1, 17.7, and 5.1 km3 the drainage area of < 2 thousands km2), medium of water per year were withdrawn in this time even (2−50 thousands), large (50–200 thousands), very large from the most economically developed rivers—the (200–1000 thousands), and largest (> 1 million km2) Northern Dvina, Ob, and Yenisei (1, 4.3, and 0.8% of rivers. their normal runoff), respectively; the volume with- drawn from the rivers of Murmansk province was The largest rivers in the region (and the country) are 2.3 km3/year (1990) or 4.4%. Since these volumes are the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena. The very large are seven riv- comparable with the errors in the calculation of normal ers: the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Khatanga, Olenek, annual river runoff, it can be assumed that no statisti- Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma; the large are nine rivers: cally significant changes took place in the water the Onega, Mezen, Nadym, Pur, Taz, Pyasina, Lower resources of northern rivers because of the industrial, Taimyra, Anabar, and Alazeya. About 110 rivers are agricultural, and municipal water consumption. How- medium. ever, in some regions, such as Ob–Irtysh basin, the eco- According to V.I.