ABSTRACT
The River Don is one of the largest rivers in the European part of Russia (see General Appendix IV). It is 1,967 km long and the basin area is 422,500 km2. The Don and its tributaries flow through 17 regions of Russia and the Ukraine and discharge into the Taganrog Bay of the Azov Sea. Many cities (Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Voronezh, Belgorod, Lugansk, etc.) are situated in its basin, as well as some of the largest industrial enterprises of the Donbass industrial region (Eastern Ukraine) and Southern Russia. The basin is densely populated (50-100 inhabitants per km ) and is used intensively for agricultural production. 14.1 Principal physico-geographic characteristics
14.1.1 Climate, soil and vegetation Due to its location, the Lower Don basin is under the influence of different air masses, in particular a cold Arctic air mass, a maritime air mass of the Atlantic Ocean, dry air from Kazakhstan and subtropical air from the Mediterranean basin.
