State of the small rivers of the Volga basin within the lower Volga

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays the water management measures are ineffective. The field trips of 2017-2018 are carried out. The Lower Volga is drained by 37 watercourses, 34 of them belong to small rivers. The right bank tributaries of the Volga are short and flow in deep channels - 76% of all tributaries of its lower reaches. Left bank waterways are long, flowing in shallow channels - 24%. This is due to the location of the right bank of the Volga within the Volga Upland with a developed ravine-net system and a zone of dry steppes. The left bank of the lower reaches of the Volga River lies in the semi-desert zone, where the ravine-gully network is poorly developed. Factors affecting the state of these rivers: the flow of wastewater from industrial enterprises; pollution by fertilizers, pesticides; flow regulation; irrevocable withdrawal of river runoff for household, industrial, agricultural needs. Measures to address these problems: the transition to modern water-saving technologies; cleaning of domestic, agricultural and industrial waste; toughening control over compliance with the norms of discharge of pollutants into rivers; the establishment of water protection and sanitary zones for all reservoirs; clearing channels, coasts and floodplains from debris; tight control over livestock grazing in floodplains; planting forest belts along the river channels.