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42
UDC 556.16
MINIMUM FLOW OF THE UPPER IRTYSH RIVER IN THE BASIN FLAT PART 
IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN UNDER ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT
Manira A. Beysembaeva 1, 
manira_ter@mail.ru
Larissa I. Dubrovskaya1, 
dubrli@sibmail.com
Valery A. Zemtsov1, 
Zemtsov_v@mail.ru
1 Tomsk State University, 
36 Lenin avenue, Tomsk, 634050, Russia.
In Russian hydropolitics, the Irtysh as the transboundary river is the subject of different level negotiations on the issue of shared use of
water resources with the Republic of Kazakhstan and China. In the result of putting in operation of the Upper-Irtysh multireservoir cas-
cade the deterioration of environmental condition, particularly, in a floodplain which has major significance as the source of feed sup-
plies for agricultural production, is observed in the flat part of the Irtysh basin. Therefore, it is important to analyze current condition and
changes of different characteristics of hydrological regime of the river, and specifically the minimum flow.
The aim of the research is to indicate the changes of water flow regime and minimum water flow rates in the Irtysh River in the flat part
of its basin (in the Republic of Kazakhstan).
Research methods. The authors have applies hydrological and geographical approach to analyze standard observational data on the Ir-
tysh flow in the cross section at Semiyarka village – a water level gauge station located directly downstream the multireservoir cascade
during two time periods: in natural (1935–1959) and regulated (1967–2010) conditions. Statistical methods were applied: testing homo-
geneity of the means and variances using the Student t-test and the Fisher F-test, and trend significance using parametric and non-pa-
rametric criteria.
Results. It is shown that water flow regulation by the Upper-Irtysh multireservoir cascade resulted in significant decrease of minimum
summer monthly river discharge (by 22 %), increase of minimum winter river discharge (by 78 %), redistribution of the Irtysh flow
between summer (decrease by 38 %) and winter (increase by 70 %) seasons, and, as a consequence, in deterioration of hydrological
and environmental condition of the floodplain. Corresponding flow characteristics under natural conditions were used as the base for
comparison.
Key words:
Minimum water flow, transboundary Irtysh river, flow regulation, cascade of reservoirs, intra-annual redistribution of flow.