A.N.Kosarikov 

Source:  Ispol’zovaniye and okhrana prirodnykh resursov v Rossiyi. 2003, N 4-5. - pp. 49-52

Currently basin management becomes more and more relevant. This is conditioned by both industrial, anthropogenic load on basin’s natural environment and climate change. The most serious consequences are increasing number and scale of disasters, sharp deterioration of surface and ground water quality and of aquatic ecosystems. The integration of management decisions in the area of environmental conservation and nature use is a necessary condition of sustainable development and particularly relevant for the river basins suffering from heightened residential, transport, energy and other anthropogenic loads. The catastrophic floods in northern and southern regions in summer 2002 and their economic and social damage once again proved the obvious weakness of sectoral approaches to the development and safety problems.