Assessment and Forecast of Water Availability in Omsk Oblast

Abstract

To carry out the assessment of water availability in regions, the landscape-basin approach is proposed. The algorithm of assessment includes the collection and analysis of hydrological, socioeconomic and water management information, creating a database and conducting analysis of the current water supply, the evaluation of efficiency of use of water resources and long-term water supply of population and economy of a region. The results of the evaluation are presented in the context of landscape provinces, separate regions and prospective zones of economic development. The approach is implemented on the case study of Omsk oblast, for which the indicators of specific water availability for population, use of water for various needs, water intensity of the gross regional product, as well as industrial and agricultural production in 10 landscape provinces were calculated. The characteristic of zones of prospective development of the oblast is given on the basis of documents of strategic planning. For the Central zone corresponding to the Western Baraba landscape province, prospective water availability was estimated for two scenarios (innovative and inertial) of socioeconomic development.