Classification and Zoning of Rivers by Their Water Regime: History, Methodology, and Perspectives

Abstract

Among all hydrological factors, water regime characteristics have always received special attention as integral parameters of the hydrological conditions of a water body, because they can be used in various estimation and forecast procedures. This study considers the development, in both Russia and other countries, of various theories and approaches to zoning the territories by the specific features of the water regime of riv-ers. The evolution of the classification developed by the late XX century, reflects changes in the level of knowledge about river basins and the accumulation of data on their runoff formation conditions. It is shown that the development of specialized databases, containing information about the characteristics of climate and river runoff, thematic electronic GIS-projects, and maps have determined the development of modern quantitative methods. The incorporation of a large volume of hydrometeorological data, the automatization of the means for processing and interpretation of data on river runoff characteristics, software complexes, supporting databases and geoinformation technologies, and web-applications made it possible to pass from general geographic and descriptive classifications and zoning to quantitative approaches, based on rigorous calculations of runoff characteristics and the development of new criteria characterizing the specific features of river water regimes, which can be of use in various economic branches.