Monitoring and assessment of the environment in the Lake Baikal region

Abstract

Analysis of many years’ observations of the environment in the Lake Baikal basin leads to the conclusion that the levels of pollutants in Baikal are extremely low, scarcely above the global background of biospheric pollution.Economic activity in the Baikal watershed basin is a potential threat to the environment. The main influences are global environment and climate change, the Irkutsk dam on the Angara River and pollution of the environment. These impacts have been analyzed on a regional basis. Since the early 1970s routine information has come from monitoring programs for the Lake Baikal.Models (dynamic and statistical) have been developed to describe and predict changes in the state of the environment (ambient air and precipitation, waters of the Lake Baikal and the tributaries, soils of the region and lake sediment, biota).