METHODOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF HYDRO-ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF SMALL RIVERS OF THE STEPPE

Abstract

The generalized experience of hydro-ecological studies of the current state and water management assessment of small rivers of the Steppe (on the example of the territory of the Mykolaiv region) indicates a clear inconsistency of the existing methodological approaches and methodological tools for working with similar objects. The latter are characterized by an extremely pronounced dependence on the state of catchments, seasonal weather conditions and anthropogenic destruction of watercourses, most of which are able to quickly transition from surface to underground flow. It is natural that the study of small drying rivers as water bodies and the evaluation of the obtained results immediately gives rise to a number of problematic issues, the experience of solving which is given in the article. Thus, the use of methods for assessing the state of small rivers on the basis of integrative indicators and bioecological indicators for open water bodies of the Steppe zone turned out to be not very effective. The main shortcomings of integral and calculation methods in their relation to small rivers functioning as part of the modern agricultural landscape of Nizhny Pobuzhzhia are outlined. The inconsistency of the results of calculation-analog methods of assessing the state of small rivers and methods of zonal-group calculations of their flow, due to the significant diversity of the ecological and morphological conditions of watersheds and watercourses belonging to them, indicates the need for field work with each specific water body. Factors affecting the ecological condition of rivers and leveling group (regional) flow calculations are given. The main reasons for inconsistencies in the methods standard in the system of hydrological monitoring of steppe rivers of Ukraine have been established. The scope of assessment and approaches and ways of adapting existing methods for researching dynamic hydrosystems of small rivers are considered, as well as possible means of detailing the morphometric parameters of flow within transformed watersheds. The lack of long-term strategic visions regarding ways to protect and exploit the surface water bodies of the zonal Steppe is of key importance in the assessment of the water management prospects of hydrosystems of small rivers in the existing conditions of nature use, taking into account the factor of climatic instability.