SHI ACHIEVEMENTS FOR THE LAST 10-15 YEARS

* Accomplished is the scientific generalisation of variations in water resources, water use and water availability throughout the current century and for the future till 2025.

* Prepared is the capital monograph "World Water Resources at the Beginning of the 21st Century" being a major contribution of Russian scientists into realisation of the International Hydrological Program of UNESCO.

* Created and functioning are the data banks "Water Resources" and "Lakes and Reservoirs" providing, in the framework of conducting the Federal water inventory, a computer processing of hydrological information about the condition of land surface waters and preparation of generalised materials on the regime of water objects in the territory of Russia and the former USSR

* Made are estimations of past, and forecasts for future till 2010, variations in annual and seasonal runoff of all the principal rivers of Russia and the former USSR, and the inflow into inland seas by taking into account anthropogenic activities by using the mathematical models developed. Accomplished are variant calculations of the inflow to the Caspian Sea for different scenarios of economy development in its basin and diverse climatic situations.

* Given is the forecast of possible variations in global climate for the first half of the 21st century based on the use of paleoclimatic reconstructions. Developed are the forecasts of changes in the components of the natural environment till 2025 with climate warming for the global and regional levels.

* Prepared are the Federal Specifications in the series "Construction Norms and Rules" on engineering-hydrological calculations "Determining the Design Hydrological Characteristics". The dialogue computer system is being now completed that helps to carry out engineering-hydrological computations by PC in automated regime.

* Developed, tested on independent material, and introduced into practice are the solutions of different hydroecological and water management problems by deterministic mathematical models of hydrological cycle:

• the model of river runoff formation "Hydrograph" with a day design step orientated for using the standard hydrometeorological information;
• the water-balance model with a decade design step orientated for prediction estimates of variations in the elements of hydrological cycle with man's impact and expected global climate warming;
• conceptual mathematical models;
• the model for flood formation;
• the model for sediment and pollutant transport by river flow.

Realisation of the last model would allow modeling of the ecological state of water objects with a day time step.

* Developed are the calculation and forecast methods for moisture exchange in soil, and ice thermal regime in water objects. Made are major generalisations, and prepared are the specifications for calculating evaporation from different underlying surfaces (land, water, snow). Created is an experimental sample of a thermally isolated evaporator allowing an increase in measurement accuracy for evaporation from land and water.

Elaborated and introduced into practice of forecasting the spring floods the remote sensing method for gamma-survey of snow cover allowing determination of water equivalent in snow during the cold period of a year till the beginning of flood. Created are automated technologies for cartography by the data of satellite images of the state of ice cover on large water bodies, flooding river valleys, river and lake floods, as well as the state of polluting snow cover near cities and large industrial centers. Prepared are special Atlases of zones of snow cover pollution around large cities of Russia.

* Created is the complex of methods for determining the ground inflow to rivers used with assessing ground water resources within large regions of the European part of Russia as well as in the countries of Europe. Developed is the computer technology for assessing and forecasting reservoir effects on arising ground backwater in a coastal zone of a reservoir. Proposed are the calculation technique for hydrological regime of cryogenic water objects (icing, seasonal ground and river ice), ground river alimentation in permafrost regions with water phase transformations taken into account.

* Developed are the hydromorphological theory of a fluvial process and the method for hydraulic modeling widely applied for assessing and forecasting channel deformations with water management activities on principal rivers of Russia: Volga, Ob, Amur, Danube, Neva, in the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, and other water objects. Composed are specifications for taking account of channel deformations with designing and constructing electric power lines, passages of oil and gas pipe lines across rivers, waste water outlets, pump stations in coastal regions, and other kinds of man's impact in river channels and flood-plains.

• Developed is typisation of kinds of man's impact on water ecosystems and the principles of organising the system of monitoring of the state of water objects. Proposed are the methods and practical techniques to assess effects of different economic objects on water ecosystems. Complex assessments have been made of the ecological state of different water objects under the conditions of intensive anthropogenic load (the water system of Ladoga Lake - Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland under the conditions of construction of a complex of flood protection structures, the Aral Sea , Lake Balkhash, reservoirs-coolers of the Kalinin and Ignalina Nuclear Power Plants, the Pribaltiiskaya and Lukomlskaya thermal power plants, the swampy massifs of Western Siberia in the regions of oil and gas mining, etc.).

* In the Valdai Branch of SHI, created and successfully functioning are:

• unique field experimental watershed;
• the small flat-bottom valley Usadievsky with automated measure-ments of all major elements of water balance and their processing by PC (see Valdai data);
• experimental gauge site for intercomparisons (under the WMO) of readings of gauges of different types used in different countries of the world;
• site for studying moisture exchange under canopy and developing the methods for assessing the effects of cut-over lands and aforestation on water and thermal regimes of forest ecosystems.

Scientists and specialists of the institute are always ready to render a qualified assistance in solving the problems related to studying, using and protecting water resources, estimating the ecological state of water objects, realising different projects in the field of engineering-hydrological and water management calculations.