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Hydrological forecasting in the U.S.S.R.
BOOK REVIEWS
221
V. A. URYVAEV: Scientific Problems of the International Hydrologic Decade in the U.S.S.R. Nature and Resources, Vol. IV, No. l, 1968. In this article V. A. Uryvaev, Director of the State Hydrological Institute of the U.S.S.R. Hydrometeorological Service, records that research carried out in 1966 in the U.S.S.R. covered 46 subjects within the framework of the I.H.D. programme. More than a hundred scientific institutes and higher educational establishments are taking part in these research activities and in many cases the findings are new. Some of the topics studied are the development of the water balance method at benchmark stations, representative and experimental basins in the Decade network and improvements in the accuracy of measurements and of the computation of water balanced components. Groundwater runoff in the U.S.S.R. is the title of a monograph which, together with a set of maps, rounds off a particular study of underground water and its relationship with surface water. Soviet hydrologists on the basis of their research have compiled a draft international "guide for research on representative and experimental basins" from which an international guide will be prepared. Similarly a monograph entitled: Water Resources and Water Balance of the U.S.S.R. has been published by the U.S.S.R. National Committee for the I.H.D., and a report on U.S.S.R. Activities for Evaluation of Water Resources and Water Balance was submitted for the information of participating countries of the I.H.D. Other research topics include revision of formulae for the computation of maximum snow-melt and rainwater runoff where hydrometric data are inadequate or completely lacking. A study has also been made of the parameters characterizing river discharges, such as the average and minimum values, to be computed and used in the design of hydraulic structures and in water management operations. The relation between fluctuations in river discharge over a period of years and fluctuations in solar activity and types of atmospheric circulation have also been considered as part of a general study of the factors affecting long term changes in river discharges. F.D. V. V. RAKHMANOV and A.P. SHASTIN: Hydrological forecasting in the U.S.S.R. Nature and Resources, Vol. V, No. l, 1969. p. 9-13. This article is largely concerned with forecasting the flow of rivers in the U.S.S.R. and their degree of icing. The principal research centre during the post-war period has been the Central Forecasting Institute which in 1966 became the Hydrometeorological Research Centre of the U.S.S.R. The main method of forecasting the flow of rivers in mountainous and
222
BOOK REVIEWS
level country is the water-balance method, which regards flow as the product of various moisture movements. The wide use of this method, particularly in research on spring flow, has made it possible to estimate with great accuracy the amounts of water contained in river basins, and of losses due to evaporation or infiltration according to the characteristics of the soil of the basins, their geomorphology and the vegetation with which they are covered. Considerable importance is also attached to the ground-water component of river flow. A major program of water resources research in Canada. Report 3. Science Council of Canada, Ottawa (1968). 37 p. Paper, 75¢. J. P. BRUCE and D. E. L. MAASALAND: Water resources research in Canada. Special Study 5. Science Secretariat, Privy Council Office, Ottawa (1968). 169 p. Paper, 2.50. Chronique d'Hydrog~ologie, Nos. 11 and 12, 1967. B.R.G.M., Paris. These two related issues of the Chronique d'Hydrog6ologie, published in June and July, 1967, are of special interest to hydrogeologists in that they are devoted to the study of artesian aquifers and to problems of the flow, leakage and quality of their waters. No. 11 comprises a series of papers on the main artesian basins of France and northern Africa, and on such matters as their recharge, water balance, and the application of analogues, and it includes also an account of the 1967 Haifa Symposium on the artificial recharge and control of ground waters and on seawater invasion by M, G. Castany. No. 12 is devoted to the proceedings of the Hydrology Section of the 86th Meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science held at Bordeaux during 7-13 July, 1967. The Hydrology Symposium was opened by Professor Schoeller and the President was M. Y. Emsellem. The subjects discussed comprised principally the recharge, flow, pressures and qualities of artesian waters, with special reference to leakage into or recharge from slightly permeable confining beds and the pollution of fresh waters by the invasion of saline waters from confining beds; the circulation of water in unsaturated media; and the application of isotope techniques to these studies. Eighteen papers were presented at the symposium. F.D. Soil Moisture: Proceedings of Hydrology Symposium No. 6, held at University of Saskatchewan, Nov. 15 and 16, 1967. National Research Council of
221
V. A. URYVAEV: Scientific Problems of the International Hydrologic Decade in the U.S.S.R. Nature and Resources, Vol. IV, No. l, 1968. In this article V. A. Uryvaev, Director of the State Hydrological Institute of the U.S.S.R. Hydrometeorological Service, records that research carried out in 1966 in the U.S.S.R. covered 46 subjects within the framework of the I.H.D. programme. More than a hundred scientific institutes and higher educational establishments are taking part in these research activities and in many cases the findings are new. Some of the topics studied are the development of the water balance method at benchmark stations, representative and experimental basins in the Decade network and improvements in the accuracy of measurements and of the computation of water balanced components. Groundwater runoff in the U.S.S.R. is the title of a monograph which, together with a set of maps, rounds off a particular study of underground water and its relationship with surface water. Soviet hydrologists on the basis of their research have compiled a draft international "guide for research on representative and experimental basins" from which an international guide will be prepared. Similarly a monograph entitled: Water Resources and Water Balance of the U.S.S.R. has been published by the U.S.S.R. National Committee for the I.H.D., and a report on U.S.S.R. Activities for Evaluation of Water Resources and Water Balance was submitted for the information of participating countries of the I.H.D. Other research topics include revision of formulae for the computation of maximum snow-melt and rainwater runoff where hydrometric data are inadequate or completely lacking. A study has also been made of the parameters characterizing river discharges, such as the average and minimum values, to be computed and used in the design of hydraulic structures and in water management operations. The relation between fluctuations in river discharge over a period of years and fluctuations in solar activity and types of atmospheric circulation have also been considered as part of a general study of the factors affecting long term changes in river discharges. F.D. V. V. RAKHMANOV and A.P. SHASTIN: Hydrological forecasting in the U.S.S.R. Nature and Resources, Vol. V, No. l, 1969. p. 9-13. This article is largely concerned with forecasting the flow of rivers in the U.S.S.R. and their degree of icing. The principal research centre during the post-war period has been the Central Forecasting Institute which in 1966 became the Hydrometeorological Research Centre of the U.S.S.R. The main method of forecasting the flow of rivers in mountainous and
222
BOOK REVIEWS
level country is the water-balance method, which regards flow as the product of various moisture movements. The wide use of this method, particularly in research on spring flow, has made it possible to estimate with great accuracy the amounts of water contained in river basins, and of losses due to evaporation or infiltration according to the characteristics of the soil of the basins, their geomorphology and the vegetation with which they are covered. Considerable importance is also attached to the ground-water component of river flow. A major program of water resources research in Canada. Report 3. Science Council of Canada, Ottawa (1968). 37 p. Paper, 75¢. J. P. BRUCE and D. E. L. MAASALAND: Water resources research in Canada. Special Study 5. Science Secretariat, Privy Council Office, Ottawa (1968). 169 p. Paper, 2.50. Chronique d'Hydrog~ologie, Nos. 11 and 12, 1967. B.R.G.M., Paris. These two related issues of the Chronique d'Hydrog6ologie, published in June and July, 1967, are of special interest to hydrogeologists in that they are devoted to the study of artesian aquifers and to problems of the flow, leakage and quality of their waters. No. 11 comprises a series of papers on the main artesian basins of France and northern Africa, and on such matters as their recharge, water balance, and the application of analogues, and it includes also an account of the 1967 Haifa Symposium on the artificial recharge and control of ground waters and on seawater invasion by M, G. Castany. No. 12 is devoted to the proceedings of the Hydrology Section of the 86th Meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science held at Bordeaux during 7-13 July, 1967. The Hydrology Symposium was opened by Professor Schoeller and the President was M. Y. Emsellem. The subjects discussed comprised principally the recharge, flow, pressures and qualities of artesian waters, with special reference to leakage into or recharge from slightly permeable confining beds and the pollution of fresh waters by the invasion of saline waters from confining beds; the circulation of water in unsaturated media; and the application of isotope techniques to these studies. Eighteen papers were presented at the symposium. F.D. Soil Moisture: Proceedings of Hydrology Symposium No. 6, held at University of Saskatchewan, Nov. 15 and 16, 1967. National Research Council of