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oa Assessment of the Water Resource Potential of the Lower Dnipro After the Destruction of the Kakhovka Reservoir Taking into Account the Impact of Climate Change
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 17th International Conference Monitoring of Geological Processes and Ecological Condition of the Environment, Nov 2023, Volume 2023, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Water resources of Ukraine are unevenly distributed across the country. The greatest shortage of water resources is observed in the southern regions of Ukraine, where the availability of local water resources is extremely low (0.14–0.72 thousand m3 per person per year). The availability of water resources is a significant limiting factor in the economic development of this region. That is why, in order to overcome water hunger and meet the needs of agriculture, industry, and energy, the Kakhovka reservoir on the Dnipro, the largest in Ukraine, was built with a water volume of 18.2 km3. For a long time, only climate changes were the main destabilizing factor in the development of the water sector in this region. But in June 2023, Russian occupying forces destroyed the Kakhov reservoir, which was used as a weapon against Ukraine. There has been a complete destabilization of the functioning of not only the water sector, but also the most important branches of the region’s economy, the social sphere, and enormous damage has been caused to the environment. The issue of water availability in this region arises in the new situation that has developed. In this study, an attempt was made to obtain preliminary quantitative estimates of the water resources of the region, taking into account the consequences of the destruction of the reservoir and the impact of climate change.
