About the field of hydrology
Department of Hydrology and State Water Cadastre
The Department of Hydrology and State Water Cadastre is a structural unit of the Central Geophysical Observatory. The department is staffed by both experienced, qualified employees and young promising specialists who are able to perform the tasks assigned. The Department includes the Hydrology Sector, the State Water Cadastre Sector and the Hydrography Sector. The department employs 15 hydrologists of various qualifications. Most specialists have over 10 years of experience in the department.
The main tasks of the department are: methodological guidance of hydrometeorological organizations of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Service with hydrological section of work, of which there are 23 in Ukraine; testing and implementation of new instruments and methods of observation, data processing and analysis; maintains the State Water Cadastre in Ukraine in the section "Surface Waters". Planning and control of 328 river and 59 lake hydrological stations.
The department prepares hydrological yearbooks, reference books "Long-term data on the regime and resources of land surface waters" and "Materials of observations of evaporation from the water surface". These publications contain data on water levels, flows, water temperature, ice thickness and ice phenomena on rivers, as well as the main hydrological characteristics of spring floods, rain floods and other hydrological seasonal phenomena in scientifically based formats. The above-mentioned data are stored in paper and technical media in the Branch State Archive of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Service, which has been operating as part of the CSO since 1995.
The complete information on the peculiarities of the hydrological regime of water bodies prepared by the Hydrology Department and the PEC is used by designers in the design and construction of hydraulic structures, hydroelectric power plants, bridges, roads, reservoirs, canals, and reclamation systems. For forecasting and warning about the threat and development of dangerous natural hydrological phenomena on the rivers of Ukraine.
History of the department creation
The Department of Hydrology and State Water Cadastre dates back to October 1927, when the Hydrometric Unit of the People's Commissariat of Land Resources of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR) was merged with the Department of Meteorological Service of the USSR People's Commissariat of Land Resources and the Department of Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Ukraine was formed.
In 1941, despite the fact that most of the territory of Ukraine was occupied by German troops, observations at most posts did not stop. In particular, the following posts operated on major rivers of Ukraine: Kyiv on the Dnipro River, Chornobyl on the Pripyat River, Chernihiv on the Desna River, Kryvyi Rih on the Ingulets River, Halych and Zalishchyky on the Dniester River, Oleksandrivka on the Southern Bug River, Luhansk on the Luhan River, and the Yalta post on the Derekoyka River.
Restoring the network of hydrological stations and posts on the liberated territory of Ukraine and staffing them with specialists and observers also required considerable effort. The hydrological network was largely restored by the end of 1945, and by 1950 the network of hydrological stations included 685 stations, of which 296 were measuring water flow. In this postwar period, Borys Markovych Steinholz, Hryhorii Ivanovych Musienko, and Ihor Ivanovych Okuniev made a significant contribution to the restoration of the hydrological network.
In 1944, the Kyiv Geophysical Observatory resumed its activities, and the hydrology department was located within it at 14 b Tolstoho St. This is the department that, together with the production part of the institution (meteorological station, aerology department, and radar station), transferred its historical and labor traditions to the Kyiv Hydrometeorological Observatory, which resumed its work in 1956.
Borys Markovych Steinholz, who headed the department in the postwar years, continued to manage the unit until 1973.
In 1973-1975, the Hydrology Department was headed by Volodymyr Nikiforovych Lytvyn, PhD, former head of the Baryshivka Marsh Station (from 1975 to 1980, Deputy Director of UkrGMO). In 1976-1983, the department was headed by Hryhorii Stepaniuk. From 1985-1989, it was headed by Vyacheslav Lipinsky.
In 1978, by the order of the Head of the Ukrainian Republican Hydrometeorological Service Administration of 19.05.1978 No. 84, a new State Water Cadastre Department (SWCD) was established on the basis of the Hydrology Department, headed by Mykola Padun, PhD in Geography.
From 1983 to 1988, the State Water Cadastre Department was headed by Bronislava Fedorivna Benda. In April 1988, the PEC department was reorganized into the relevant sector within the Hydrology Department, which was headed by B.F. Benda, who had been in service for over 50 years.
In 1989-1990, the restored Department of Hydrology was headed by Serhii Shendryk. Between 1990 and May 1993, the department was headed by B.F. Benda, and for a short time by Vasyl Fedorovych Senkovych and Leonid Ananiovych Doroshenko. From May 1993 to July 2001, the department was headed by Mykhailo Ivanovych Dovhych, who is currently the head of the Sectoral State Archives of the MGS. From August 2001 to May 2006, the department was headed by Vasyl Fedorovych Senkovych, from July 2006 to October 2018. Nataliia Anatoliivna Samoilenko, from October 2018 to the present time, Kyrylo Volodymyrovych Biletskyi has been working in this position.
Current state of the department
Today, the Hydrology and Hydrography Department provides methodological guidance to 23 hydrometeorological organizations with hydrological sections, plans and controls the work of 328 river and 59 lake hydrological stations in Ukraine, located on 240 rivers and 8 lakes. The Department includes the State Water Cadastre Sector, the Hydrology Sector and the Hydrography Sector.
The department consists of 15 specialists. The average age of the employees is 58 years, the youngest employee is Maria Ruslanivna Klyon (30 years old) The oldest employee of the department is Olga Smirnova, who has been working in the department since 1970 (she has been with the service for almost 50 years).
The department assists the units of the Hydrometeorological Service network in organizing and conducting specialized hydrological observations. Under the supervision of the department, the network units conduct studies of certain elements of the hydrological regime of rivers, in particular, the level regime and water flow regime, check the representativeness of observation sites for water temperature and ice thickness, and water turbidity.
The Hydrology Department also provides methodological recommendations to the units of the Hydrometeorological Service network in conducting hydrological observations during spring floods and rainfall floods, especially in the flood-prone region of the Ukrainian Carpathians.
The main task of the State Water Cadastre Sector, headed by the Sector Head, Halyna Didenko, is to process and analyze the results of all types of observations of the hydrological regime of Ukrainian rivers in order to prepare materials of the State Water Cadastre, which are used by interested organizations, ministries and departments.
The SEC sector edits hydrological yearbooks for the Dnipro basin - editor Olga Smirnova, Vistula, Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, and Black Sea rivers - editor Galina Didenko, responsible for the yearbook for the Siverskyi Donets basin and the Azov rivers - Svitlana Abashina.
Materials of the State Water Cadastre are prepared in the form of regular issues of "Annual Data on the Regime and Resources of Land Surface Waters" and in the form of generalizations for the entire observation period - "Long-term Data on the Regime and Resources of Land Surface Waters".
Over the past five years, the Department's specialists have been preparing "Long-term data on the regime and resources of land surface waters" 1-3 for the basins of the Vistula, Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, Black Sea, Dnipro (middle and lower reaches), Siverskyi Donets, Azov and Crimean rivers for 2016-2020. An appendix to the BDS "Characteristic Water Levels" for 2011-2020 has been prepared
The department also summarizes the materials of observations of evaporation from the water surface and prepares them in the form of "Materials of observations of evaporation from the water surface".
In addition to the methodological management of the hydrological river network, processing of observation materials and preparation of the State Water Cadastre materials for publication, the department plans and controls the work of specialized (water balance) stations for studying the hydrological regime and water balance elements of small catchments, prepares draft plans for the development and rationalization of the hydrological network in Ukraine.
The Hydrology and State Water Cadastre Department, as the main methodological body for river hydrology in Ukraine, coordinates the introduction of modern instruments and equipment to the Hydrometeorological Service's observation network and analyzes the results of trial operation of hydrological instruments.
The main consumers of hydrological information are government and management bodies at all levels, organizations of the SES system and economic sectors whose activities directly depend on the situation and indicators of the hydrological regime of rivers, including water management, hydropower, water transport, municipal, agricultural and fisheries.
In 2000, the department incorporated the Integrated Hydrographic Party, which was established in 1952 to clarify the hydrographic characteristics of Ukraine's rivers, study natural and dangerous hydrological phenomena, and provide methodological guidance to specialized hydrometeorological organizations. Since 2019, the CGHP has been reorganized into the Hydrography Sector of the Hydrology and PEC Department.
The Hydrography Sector is headed by the Head of the Department, Mr. Serhii Shevchuk.
Specialists of the department systematically organize and conduct meetings and seminars aimed at improving the quality of hydrological observations on rivers and lakes.
One of these meetings-seminars of specialists of hydrometeorological organizations on lake hydrometeorological observations and customer service was held in June 2019 in Svitlovodsk at the Svitlovodsk HMO. At this meeting, the current state of the Ukrainian lake hydrological network was reviewed, issues of methodological guidance of the network of subordinate posts of hydrometeorological service organizations that carry out lake observations, the state and prospects for the development of the hydrological network, the introduction of new devices on the hydrometeorological network, and problems of technical equipment were discussed.
Since 2016, the specialists of the Hydrology and PEC Department have been actively participating in workshops on the EU Water and Flood Directives and on the conduct and implementation of hydromorphological monitoring In the future, the Department's specialists will participate in the implementation of the provisions of these directives in Ukraine together with the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute and other agencies involved in the implementation of the directives.
