One man's view of riverpreservation

PRINCIPLES OF THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF SMALL
AND MEDIUM RIVERS
V. S. Lapshenkov UDC 551.482.2
In contrast to the hydrological interpretation of terms, "river" should be defined as a natural set of interrelated entities,
the unity of whose formation and development is dictated by river flow. It is an entity of a living and nonliving (inert) nature,
and rivers are therefore bioinert systems of the Earth.
Agricultural, ecological, and recreational usefulness of rivers is determined by their status: from maximum full productivity
with annual renewal of useable resources to complete unsuitableness and even handfulness. The status of rivers is determined
by a regime that depends on both natural factors, and also anthropogenic load.
The following are referred to as basic components of the river complex, which provide value (usefulness right up to
irreplacability of river systems):
river water (drinking and industrial needs, habitat for ichthyofauna, aquatic birds, and, irrigation and water supply,
dilution of waste water, the necessary conditions for water transport, and an effective body when used in hydraulic power
engineering);
river channel (discharge of excess water and waste water, regional drains, condition for year-round life support of river
biosynoses, recreation);
flood plains (regulation of flood conditions with a reduction in maximum flow rates and an increase in the duration of
the flood, active improvement of water quality, high productivity of flooded lands, recreation);
permeable soils that fill the erosion in-cutting of the river valley (a required component for drainage and the wetting of
bottomland soils);
biosynoses (river productivity, effect on channel processes, recreation);
quarries producing nonmetallic materials; and,
recreation zones (optimal combination of landscape elements, water surface, and vegetative cover).
The basic problem of river-system protection is the preservation of the above-enumerated useful entities. Retention of
the properties of the river and the ability to reproduce its own natural resources and improve its condition on an annual basis
serves as a criterion of preservation quality.
Increases in the productivity of river systems to the optimal can be achieved by taking recultivation and agricultural
measures within limits ensuring guaranteed annual restoration of natural resources (the volume and regime of the water flow,
fertility of flood-plain areas, water supply, optimal conditions for river processes, etc.).
As studies have indicated, river systems without active continuous preservation and technically literate use of their
natural resources cannot exist under rather high levels of development in the national economy: degradation of individual rivers
and their segments occurs right up to their death. The matter of the preservation and rational use of rivers should be entrusted
to a special technical service that can be created for each river system with a medium river at the head. Conversion from
spontaneous use of river resources to their literate engineering exploitation is required.
Measures that stimulate natural creative forces and useful processes are based on the principle of the preservation and
use of rivers. Their active origin is in the water flow.
To implement this principle, it is necessary to create the possibility of control over the river system by taking required
organizational, agrotechnical, forest-reclamation, hydrotechnical, sanitary-technical, and operational measures.
The means of controlling a natural-technical riparian water-distribution system should affect the following elements,
which ensure the preservation and productivity of the rivers:
Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 12, pp. 8-9, December, 1992.
0018-822CJ/92/2612-0767512.50 9 Plenum Publishing Corporation 767



Principles of the preservation and use of small and medium rivers
Journal Power Technology and Engineering (formerly Hydrotechnical Construction)
Publisher Springer New York
ISSN 1570-145X (Print) 1570-1468 (Online)
Issue Volume 26, Number 12 / December, 1992
DOI 10.1007/BF01545814
Pages 767-768
Subject Collection Engineering
SpringerLink Date Monday, May 02, 2005