ENGINEERING METHODS FOR CALCULATING THE HIGHER WATER LEVELS OF THE UNEXPLORED TRANS-URAL LAKES

Abstract

The article presents a method for calculating the water levels provided of the unexplored lakes of Trans-Urals, based on the analysis of materials of long-term observations of the water levels of the studied lakes, analysis of the morphometric characteristics of the surface of lakes and hydrographic characteristics of their catchments, as well as data of long-term meteorological observations. The relevance of the development of this methodology is due to the fact that the current standard SP 33-101-2003 “Determination of the main calculated hydrological characteristics” offers a method for calculating the water levels of unexplored lakes only for the territories of Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, the northern and central regions of the European territory of Russia; for the territory of the Urals, the parameters of the methodology are missing. The aim of the study is to develop a publicly available engineering method for calculating the highest water levels of unexplored waste lakes. The limiting amplitude of the fluctuation of the water level in natural lakes is determined by the excess of the input part of the water balance over the expenditure part for a group of years. This excess, which is an indicator of changes in the volume of water in the lake basin in engineering methods for calculating levels can be characterized by the ratio of the surface area of the lake and its catchment area. The synchronism of the perennial fluctuations of the water level in lakes with integral difference functions of the area's wetting coefficient (the ratio of precipitation over the warm period to the evaporation over the same period) and precipitation over the warm period at the nearest weather stations has been established. The dependence of the water levels of the lakes with a moisture ratio and the amount of precipitation allows one to reconstruct the series of the highest water levels of the lakes under conditions of a limited duration of the observation series. The considered technique does not contradict the requirements of standards and can be used when performing engineering and hydrometeorological surveys.