The Role of Anthropogenic Modifications in Landscape and Hydrological Organization of Mayma River Basin

Abstract

The landscape and hydrological organization of the territory is a mosaic of landscapes with different modes of water yield and water balance structure. The landscape and hydrological approach becomes very important under the lack of hydrometeorological information. The factors determining the landscape and hydrological organization of the Mayma river basin, located in the Russian Altai, are considered in the present article. The classification of the landscape and hydrological complexes based on the static and dynamic indicators is performed. The set of interpretive landscape and hydrological maps has been developed. The climatic and hydrological conditions provide the excess moisture over a larger part of the basin. The lithological and hydrological background is characterized by the predominance of rocks and thin weathering products. A peculiarity of the studied area is the prevalence of transit locations that creates risks of dangerous hydrological processes in case of excessive humidity. Using the remote sensing data, the main classes of ground cover are described. A significant anthropogenic impact on the basin landscapes is observed. The analysis of soil structure shows that anthropogenically modified (mostly situated on slopes) soils make up approximately 30 %. It is assumed that it leads to the deterioration of the landscape and hydrological situation in the catchment. It is concluded that the landscape and hydrological approach allows solving the problems on minimizing the hydrological objects damage and optimizing the nature management in the catchment in the context of the lack of hydrometeorological information.

Keywords

• landscape and hydrological organization
• river basin
• ground cover
• landscape mosaic
• anthropogenic factor
• precipitation
• evaporation
• Russian Altai
• Mayma rive