ABSTRACT
As far as the extent of its water resources is concerned, the vast territory of the Soviet Union, with its great variety of climatic zones, can be divided into two sections, one with inadequate water reserves and the other with surplus water. The arid regions are, for the most part, situated in the present-day Central Asian Republics, the Transcaucsian Republics and also in a large part of Kazakhstan and Georgia. This chapter considers the areas where there is a constant, annually recurring, water shortage. Water requirements vary for different types of crop in different elimatic and soil conditions. Large-scale hydro-geological research was undertaken everywhere in an endeavour to discover the extent of underground water stocks. Water losses through river banks vary with the over-all surface area through which the seepage occurs, and with the magnitude of the seepage coefficient, which depends on the porosity of the ground.
