Water regime of the Oka river floodplain under climate change as a factor limiting nature management

Based on the long-term studies of water regime of the Oka River floodplain and its left tributary, the Pra River, the data on maximum water levels during the floods at the Ryazan gauging station have been summarized. According to the series of observations a downward trend in the maximum water level from 1945 to 2010 was revealed. During the years of maximum spring floods, backing of the Pra River by the Oka River waters reaches a distance of more than 160 km upstream. In 1997 the Oka floodplain was for the first time not flooded with water. An increase in average annual air temperatures has been established since the mid-1970s. The decrease in flood levels could be also attributed to the increase in water withdrawal and water consumption in Moscow and other large cities, as well as high water losses in housing and communal services, amounting to more than 20%. The effects of changes in the water regime of landscapes adjacent to the middle and lower reaches of the Pra and Oka rivers, such as decreasing water level in wells in the rural settlements, or increasing fire danger (example – 2010), are described. It was found that in the years of high floods the productivity of potential pastures and hayfields in the Pra River basin (Vozhskaya drainage system) is 28,2% higher than in the years of low spring floods, and the number of the latter is on the rise. A list of interrelated socio-economic problems caused by climate warming and changes in water regime is given. As a result of climate warming, the European part of Russia, in particular the Ryazan region, is experiencing a change in hydrometeorological parameters that affects the hydrological regime of the Oka River, leads to the drying out of floodplain agricultural landscapes and constrains the use of natural resources. In the reclamation sphere, one can expect lower need for drainage and the decrease in such drainage parameters as the drainage rates and inter-drain distances, with simultaneously increasing need for irrigation and an increase in the parameters of irrigation systems, such as irrigation rates, water intake volumes, etc. Both climatic and anthropogenic factors have limited the conditions and the scope of nature management in such spheres as water use, river navigation, recreation and river tourism. Their restoration will require significant investments.

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