Geographical Aspects of the use of Water Resources in the Soviet Economy

Abstract

AbstractThe future distribution of the limited water resources of the steppe and wooded steppe of the European USSR is analyzed in light of the agricultural intensification program aimed at doubling the grain harvest by 1980. In the wooded steppe, soil moisture can be increased significantly by land treatment, snowpacking, watershed afforestation, increased fertilizer application, and effective crop-rotation systems. But in the steppe, irrigation will be essential if yields per unit area are to be raised. In view of the uniqueness of the steppe of the European USSR as the nation's principal food producing region, priority will have to be given to agriculture in the expected competition for water between irrigation and large industrial users. Major industrial users, such as power generating plants and chemical industries, will have to be located primarily in the water-rich eastern regions of the Soviet Union to make the limited water supply of the European USSR available for the vastly increased program of...