FEATURES OF THE HYDROGRAPHY OF EUROPE: RIVERS, LAKES, RESERVOIRS

Abstract

Europe has a dense hydrographic network, mainly related to the Atlantic Ocean basin. A certain part of the rivers of Eastern Europe belongs to the basin of the endorheic Caspian sea-lake. Only a few rivers carry their waters to the seas of the Arctic Ocean. Thus, 43 large rivers with a catchment area of more than 50 thousand km2, among which 8 are connected with the territory of Ukraine, are distributed as follows: a) the basin of the Caspian Sea-lake – 9 rivers (Volga, Ural, Kama, Oka, Belaya, Vyatka, Ufa, Sura, Moksha); b) the basin of the Arctic Ocean – 3 rivers (Pechora, Northern Dvina, Mezen); c) North Atlantic basin – 9 rivers (Rhine, Elbe, Vistula, Western Dvina, Neman, Oder, Warta, Seine, Narew); d) the basin of the South Atlantic – 6 rivers (Tagus, Loire, Douro, Guadiana, Guadalquivir, Garonne); e) the Mediterranean Sea basin (together with the Black and Azov Seas) – 16 rivers (Ebro, Rhone, Danube, Dnieper, Don, Dniester, Desna, Siverskyi Donets, Khoper, Tisza, Sava, Kuban, Southern Bug, Pripyat, Po, Maritsa ). With significant water content, the rivers of Northern, Western and Southern Europe are characterized by a small length and basin area. This is due to the relatively small area of the territory of Europe, its strong horizontal dissection and the frequent alternation of mountains and plains. On the expanses of the East European Plain, rivers get the opportunity to develop a catchment area and a channel network. Therefore, among the largest rivers in Europe, whose basin area exceeds 50 thousand km2, the rivers of Eastern Europe account for more than 60%. An important feature of European rivers is the transboundary nature of their basins. Among the huge rivers, with a catchment area of more than 50 thousand km2, transboundary rivers account for 51%. In Europe, there are about 16 thousand lakes with a surface area exceeding 1.0 km2. Three quarters of the continent’s lakes are located in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Karelian-Kola part of Russia, and are of glacial-tectonic origin. The largest in Europe Ladoga (area 17700 km2) and Onega (9720 km2) lakes are located in Eastern Europe (north-western part of Russia) and significantly exceed other European lakes in size. The deepest lake in Europe is Lake Hornindalsvatnet (Norway) – 514 m. In Europe, about 7,000 large reservoirs have been created with a total area of more than 100 thousand km2, of which 50% is the area of reservoirs in the European part of Russia. Among the 13 European reservoirs with an area of more than 1000 km2, a dozen are located in Russia, two (Kremenchug Reservoir and Kakhovka Reservoir) are in Ukraine, and one (IJsselmeer) is in the Netherlands. The states with the largest number of reservoirs are Spain (about 1200) and Ukraine (about 1050). Other countries with a large number of reservoirs are Turkey (610), Great Britain (570), Italy (570), France (550), Norway (360), Russia (250) and Sweden (190)