ABSTRACT
The Dnieper river is third in terms of size, after the Volga and the Danube, on the European continent. Its water catchment area is 509 x 106 km2 and its length is 2,285 km. The natural, average long-term discharge of the Dnieper is 52 km3 and the average annual flow is 1,650 m3 s"1 (Voskresensky, 1962). The source of the Dnieper is in the Valdai Highland. On its way to the Black Sea, the Dnieper crosses three natural vegetation zones: forest, forest steppe and steppe. It also flows through the territories of three states: Russia (500 km), Byelorussia (735 km) and the Ukraine (1,050 km). It is the largest river of the Ukraine. 17.1 The Dnieper basin By its morphological characteristics, the Dnieper is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower (USSR Surface Water Resources, 1971). The Upper Dnieper includes the part from the source to Kiev (1,375 km). This part receives the main tributaries, the Berezina, Sozh, Pripyat and Desna rivers (Figure 17.1 and General Appendix IV). The Middle Dnieper is the part of the river which runs from Kiev to Zaporozhye and is 570 km long. The largest tributaries of this section of the river are the Ros, Sula, Psel, Vorskla, Orel and Samara. The Lower Dnieper is the part of the river from Zaporozhye to the mouth and is 340 km long. This part includes the lower reaches, i.e. the area from the dam of the Kakhovka hydropower station (HPS) to the mouth (90 km) which, together with the Dnieper estuary, forms the mouth area of the Dnieper.
