Современная ситуация на пограничном участке реки Аргунь

Abstract

Water/economic problems and the current changes in the Argun River boundary reach hydrological regime have been analyzed. The Russian-Chinese boundary coincides with the 951 km long reach of the Argun River. In the upper part of this reach there are no tributaries to the Argun so the water regime is completely determined by the runoff from the territory of China. High rate of rise of the neighboring regions of China resulted in the shortage of water resources and a number of environmental problems. Various water/economic measures are taken on the territory of China in order to solve these problems. Diversion of the part of the Khailar River (the Argun River upstream) runoff to the Lake Dalaynor (Khulun) should be specially mentioned. The Lake Dalaynor is sublecte to the water level cyclic changes. The last low-water period started in 1999 and the level lowering was 4.6 m by 2009. The transfer of the part of the Khailar River runoff started in 2009 and over the past period the water level in the lake became 3.5 m higher. The water level rise is observed only in high-water years while during the other periods all the volume of transfer is spent to evaporation. The runoff transfer caused the radical change of the Argun hydrological regime: the lowwater flow demonstrated the 3-5 times decrease, the floodplain flooding recurrence and duration also decreased. The vegetation index (EVI) downstream the transfer canal is an evidence of the floodplain vegetation suppression as a result of water availability decrease. Indices of the Argun River water quality at the starting section of the boundary reach are the worst in the region.