You are here: Home / GIS / Ecological atlas of the Lake Baikal basin

Atlas

Atmospheric air condition map

Open full size

Atmospheric air condition

The atmospheric air deterioration in populated areas continues to be the result of:

  1. Emissions from industrial enterprises:

- Due to the use of raw products with a high content of pollutants;

- Due to the substantial aging of equipment and/or absence of the waste treatment facilities;

- Due to breakdowns in technological processes, etc.

  1. Vehicle emissions:

- Due to the growing number of motor vehicles including old cars;

- Due to poor technical condition of vehicles;

- Due to numerous traffic jams [On the sanitary and epidemiologic situation…, 2012].

Emissions from industrial enterprises and vehicles have a very high concentration of various pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, dust, carbon oxide, nitrogen oxides, benzopyrene, methylmercaptan, and so on that enter the air basin from numerous sources. As a result of photochemical reactions with oxygen and hydrocarbons, these substances generate other pollutants. Therefore, the study of spatiotemporal volatility of air pollutants remains a topical issue. Moreover, it appears important to determine not only the way pollutants spread through the atmosphere around industrial centers, but also the way they distribute over reference areas, one of which being the Baikal basin.

The wind regime over the Baikal shores is composed of windblasts resulted from the macro-scale processes of general circulation and of local origin that include breezes, highland-valley circulation, and gravity windblasts. The basic large-scale windblast over the Baikal basin and its shores is the northwestern air-mass transport. However, under the influence of complex orographic conditions, some typical Baikal winds are also observed here. In the cold period of the year, off-shore winds along with a large-scale air transport are observed at the coast. In the warm period – onshore winds, which is common to seashores. This fact has an apparent impact on the spread of pollutants from industrial enterprises of Irkutsk oblast and the Republic of Buryatia.

Today, almost entire coastal territory of the lake is under a protected status aiming to preserve Lake Baikal and its surroundings. However, despite the existence of specially protected territories around the lake, industrial activity continues to negatively impact the lake’s environment.

The main economic specialization of the Baikal Region is determined by its considerable fuel-and-power and primary natural resources. This fact stipulated the development of energy-intensive industries – ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mining, chemical, wood-processing, pulp and paper, and fuel and energy industries. Enterprises of the above-listed industries emit such common pollutants as dust, channel black, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, heavy metals, etc. Moreover, every production has its own specific list of pollutants.

Atmospheric pollution in the basin of Lake Baikal was assessed using a numerically simulated model based on analytical calculations of the differential equation of the transmission and eddy mixing of pollutants. The characteristics of the area of the atmosphere polluted from anthropogenic sources were evaluated. In addition, the critical concentration excess zones (MPC daily average), as well as the duration of such excess in hours per month were determined.

Inventory data on the parameters of the emission sources and long-term data of wind velocity and air temperature derived from daily weather observations conducted every 8 hours were used as input information for calculations to obtain statistically stable climatological characteristics.

The results demonstrate that the environmental situation in several settlements of the Baikal region does not meet the established standard (MPC daily average) for air quality. Furthermore, pollutants from industrial enterprises spread not only over the territory of the settlement, but go far beyond it.

In Irkutsk, there are approximately 250 industrial enterprises with over 3,000 stationary anthropogenic air pollution sources. They emit 113 different pollutants and cause a high level of pollution. It is proved by the fact that for the past 10 years Irkutsk has been regularly listed as a top-priority Russian city with the highest level of air pollution. The main production enterprises contributing to the increase of the concentration of harmful substances are JSC “Irkutskenergo” (contributes about 52.9% of pollutants), JSC “Baikalenergo”, and JSC “Irkut Corporation”. It should be noted that the energy sector is the leading industry in terms of air pollution emissions accounting for 82.7% of the total emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere of Irkutsk [Akhtimankina, 2013]. According to the results of calculations, almost the whole territory of the city is affected by the concentration of air pollutants exceeding the established hygienic standards and reaching maximum values in the vicinity of emission sources. Especially difficult situation takes place in winter months (Fig.1, 2).

The main stationary air pollution sources in Ulan-Ude are the city’s Central Heating and Power Plant (CHHP)-1 and CHPP-2, Locomotive Repair Plant, Aviation Plant, as well as construction and food processing companies and other enterprises [On the state of …, 2009] that have about 2,000 point-source and distributed pollution sources. The fuel-and-power complex of Ulan-Ude emits almost half of the total volume of the citywide pollution. Combustion gases from cogeneration and boiler plants and other power facilities travel long distances with the prevailing winds (about several kilometers) contributing to the regional environmental pollution. However, the most harmful emissions in Ulan-Ude are those that settle on the territory in the immediate vicinity of the pollution sources within the area of the so-called intensive technogenic pollution. This risk is further compounded by the fact that the majority of the fuel-and-power enterprises are located near the densely populated areas of the city (e.g. CHPP-1). Together with flue gases from power plants, a great number of solid and gaseous pollutants, such as refuse burnout, carbon oxide, and sulfur and nitrogen dioxides also get into the air basin (Fig. 3). Machine building enterprises emit dust, various acids and lye, nitriles and other compounds, phenol, methanol, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, solvents vapors (toluene, xylol, paint thinner, benzene chloride, dichloroethane, spirits, acetates, etc.), ingredients of organic and inorganic fillers (salts and oxides of titanium, zinc, lead, chrome and other metals), as well as components of the film-forming agents (styrole, formaldehyde, etc.). Major contamination sources are galvanizing, paint, and foundry plants, galvanic and accumulator shops, repair workshops, etc [Imetkhenov, 2001]. The research has also demonstrated that the environmental situation in Ulan-Ude is unfavorable due to, on the one hand, the high level of technogenic stress, and, on the other, poor dissipative capacity of the atmosphere resulting in the long-lasting persistence of polluted air. The city’s location in an intermountain basin contributes to the accumulation of industrial emissions.

In Ulaanbaatar, there are 860 areal sources of pollution that mostly represent household ovens [Arguchintseva, 2011]. According to the results of calculations, the highest level of air pollution was registered in the areas of concentration of gers (traditional mobile homes) that make up the entire northern part of the city and stretch from the west to the east from the center of Ulaanbaatar. Another high-level air pollution zone is situated on the southwestern edge of the city near Buyant-Ukhaa Airport, where there is a ger village. Here, the wind direction and relief facilitate the transmission of emissions towards the airport (Fig. 4, 5). Air emissions from heating in the ger village lead to the continuous excess of maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants in the area of the airport. Combined with unfavorable meteorological conditions, this means that the airport can experience difficulties with take-off and landing operations for almost half a month, which leads to risks and considerable financial losses due to the idling of aircrafts.

These data demonstrate that many settlements in the Baikal basin, especially large ones, have an unfavorable environmental situation, which undoubtedly affects the health of local communities. The population continuously living in the conditions of atmospheric pollution experiences an overall deterioration of health and higher disease incidence especially affecting the respiratory system.

 

References:

Akhtimankina, A. V., Arguchintseva, A. V. (2013). Air pollution from industrial plants of Irkutsk. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University: Earth Sciences, 6(1), 3-19.

Arguchintseva, A. V., Arguchintsev, V. K., & Ariunsanaa, B-E. (2011). Distribution of pollutants in the atmosphere of Ulaanbaatar. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University: Earth Sciences 4(2), 17-27.

Imetkhenov, A. B., Kulkov, A. I., & Atutov, A. A. (2001). Ecology, nature protection, and environmental management: Textbook for universities. Ulan-Ude: ESSTU Publishing. p 422.

Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor). (2012). On the sanitary and epidemiologic situation in Irkutsk oblast in 2011: State report. Irkutsk. p 256.

Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. (2009). On the state of Lake Baikal and measures for its protection in 2008: State report. Irkutsk. p 455.

Document Actions

Average annual rainfall in mm map

Open full size

Mean annual precipitation

Particular features of the mountainous topography have a significant impact on the formation and distribution of precipitation over the study area. The altitude and especially the location of mountains with respect to moisture-laden air flows lead to uneven distribution of precipitation. Different precipitation amount is observed at the same altitudes of mountain ranges. The greatest precipitation amount characterizes the north-western and western slopes of primary (with regard to prevailing air flows) ridges bordering Lake Baikal, i.e. up to 1400 mm; on the windward slopes of secondary ridges and within the plateau inner areas it reaches up to 400-700 mm. Precipitation amount of 200-250 mm fall out in the steppe part of the western shore of Lake Baikal and on its islands, and up to 300 mm precipitate in the intermontane depressions and in the Selenga and Uda river valleys.

Annual precipitation amount of 250-300 mm falls out in the mountains of Khentei at altitudes above 1000 m, in the mountains of the Khovsgol area at altitudes above 1500 m, and in the mountains of Khangai at altitudes above 2000 m. Summer precipitation predominate, constituting 60-70% of the annual amount.

Document Actions

Averagelong-termrunoff map

Open full size

Flow

The map “Mean annual flow” reflects the formation patterns of the water regime of the territory, which are determined by the properties of landscapes to transform atmospheric moisture into the runoff.

For a water body basin, the surface runoff is the total amount of water loss from the watershed landscapes. The runoff rate from landscape complexes is determined by solving the inverse problem, i.e. identification of the connection of flow rate at the main stream station of a catchment with the runoff from landscapes, occupying its area, and is calculated based on the equation Qj = ∑qi fij, where j is the index of the river basin, Qj is its runoff, L/s; qi is a modification of flow from the i-th landscape complex, L/s km2; fij is an area of the j-th basin occupied by the i-th landscape, km2. Long-term average runoff data for small and medium-sized rivers of theLake Baikal basin were used in calculations for the map construction [Long-term…, 1986, http://www.r-arcticnet.sr.unh.edu]. Characteristics of landscape components were obtained on the basis of the materials on landscape of the Baikal region [Landscapes…, 1977, Natural..., 2009, Landscapes…, 1990, Lysanova et al., 2009]. In accordance with the regional dimension, generalization degree is chosen at the geom level, and their average annual flow moduli are determined. The territory on the map is divided into regions according to five gradations of the module - from less than 1 to more than 10 L/s km2.

The catchment area of the lake covers a variety of landscape zones and altitudinal belts, which makes a great contrast between the runoff rates. The highest annual flow moduli are formed within the goletz and mountain-taiga landscapes. Steppe and forest-steppe areas are distinguished by the minimum runoff rates, and in the desert regions of Mongolia (the Selenga river basin) flow formation almost does not take place.

The maps of minimum and maximum flow were compiled based on the typological landscape classification represented on the map [Landscapes…, 1977]. In the course of investigation, landscapes of different types were generalized by identifying the most hydrologically informative properties (morphological characteristics, vegetation structure, altitudinal zonation, etc.). As a result, more than 200 landscapes were combined into sixteen types of natural complexes, and runoff rates were determined for them. The moduli of maximum snow runoff and minimum summer runoff were calculated as described above.

Areas with the highest runoff of floods are confined to the mountain ranges and systems with goletz open woodlands and mountain-taiga landscapes. The main areas, distinguished by formation of frequent and high floods are the Baikalsky Range on the north-eastern end of the lake; Barguzinsky Range, located in the south-eastern part of the catchment, and the Khamar-Daban, covering the south-western shore of Lake Baikal. The values of the maximum flow modification are shown in three gradations on the map, namely: less than 25, 25-70, and more than 100 L/s km2.

Features of formation of the minimum summer runoff in the Baikal basin are associated with the regime of atmospheric moisture, as well as with the effects of altitude and exposition. The calculations and analysis of the minimum summer runoff have shown a relatively high water yield in the low-flow period from high-mountain taiga landscapes and extremely low river flow formation in the central areas of the Selenga river catchment and in Priolkhonie, which are covered with light coniferous landscapes and steppe complexes on slopes and plains. The map shows the value of the minimum flow in three gradations, namely: less than 1.5, 3.0-5.0, and more than 5.0 L/s km2.

Landscape-hydrological mapping based on the quantitative characteristics of water yield of landscape complexes objectively reflects the hydrological organization of the territory.

References

Kuznetsova T.I. (2009). Map "Natural landscapes of the Baikal region and their use: purpose, structure, and content”.  T.I. Kuznetsova, A.R. Batuev, and A.V. Bardash. Geodeziya i kartografiya, , no 9, pp. 18-28.

Landscapes of southern East Siberia [Maps]: [physical map] (1977) / compiled and prep. for printing by factory no. 4 GUGK in 1976, authors: V.S. Mikheev and V.A. Ryashin. 1: 1 500 000, Moscow: GUGK, 1 map (4 sheets): col.

Landscapes [Maps] [physical map] / The National Atlas of the Mongolian People's Republic. / comp .and prep to print by GUGK in 1989, authors: B.M. Ishmuratov, K.N. Misevich, I.L. Savelyeva, et al.

Lysanova, G.I., Semenov, Yu.M., Shekhovtsov, A.I., and Sorokovoy, A.A. (2013). Geosystems of the Republic of Tuva. Geografiya i prirodnye resursy, no. 3, pp. 181-185.

Long-term data on the regime and surface water resources. The Baikal basin. (1986). Vol. 1, no. 14, Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat, 361 p.

A Regional, Electronic, Hydrographic Data Network For the Arctic Region. URL: http://www.r-arcticnet.sr.unh.edu

Document Actions
Document Actions
Navigation
June 2020 »
June
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930
June 2020 »
June
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930
IW:LEARN