COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF SOIL INFILTRATION PROPERTIES AND HYDRO/METEOROLOGICAL REGIME OF THE MAYMA RIVER, GORNIY ALTAY

Increasing anthropogenic pressure against the backdrop of ongoing climate changes made small rivers one of the most vulnerable and, as recent events show, unpredictable elements of the water/economy complex. To reduce the risk of floods damage, it is necessary to improve the methods of long-term forecasting, real-time forecasting (“nowcasting”) that requires obtaining detailed hydro/meteorological information about the river basin, taking into account the actual weather forecast. Obviously, against the background of the general patterns of river runoff formation for a particular region, the individual characteristics of the flow formation of each river in certain weather conditions should be taken into account. Predictively estimated maximums of possible rain floods and the flooding potential risks of residential areas of Gorniy Altay have shown that the area of the highest flood hazard is the district “Mayminsky”, which territory includes the catchment basin of the Mayma River. The autonomous monitoring system “Mayma” is distributed at several points on the river, starting from its source. It can provide the continuous real-time remote monitoring of the hydrological situation with any given measurement frequency at any point of the catch basin. This significantly increases the accuracy of data and enables predicting the development of the hydrological situation, including the flood periods. Thus, the hydrological information obtained with the Mayma autonomous complex, provided that the water level sensors have proper altitude alignment, can be used to predict the level regime and to provide operational data to the executive authorities, population and the Ministry of Emergencies.