Geography

Ukraine is situated on the South-West of the Eastern-European plain. The relief of Ukraine is mainly represented by plains (95% of total area) which belong to the southwestern borderlands of the East European Plain. Mountains in Ukraine are represented by the part of Carpathian Mountains - Ukrainian Carpathians and Crimean Mountains. The territory of the country is divided in 24 regions, 1 autonomic republic, and 2 cities with the special status. Kyiv is the capital of the country.

Population and land use

The area of Ukraine is 604,000 Sq.Km. with a population of about 42 million. Almost 60% of the territory is occupied by black soils that are located in forest-steppe and steppe zones. The coastal areas have saline and alkaline soils, which are problematic soils and require reclamation. Forests cover less than 20% of the land. More than 3/4 of the territory is ploughed up, the greater half of the territory is set aside for cereals, fodder and other crops/cultures.

Climate and rainfall

Ukraine is situated in three climatic zones: Polissya, Forest Steppe, and Steppe. These zones have highly different levels of humidity – from the overwetted (Polissya) to the dry (Steppe) zone. Average annual temperature in Ukraine ranges from +11 ° to +13 °C in the South and from +5 °C to +7 °C in the North. The greatest annual precipitation is observed in Ukrainian Carpathians - 1500 mm and 1000-1200 mm in Crimean Mountains and about 300 mm to 400 mm, the lowest, in the Black Sea and the Azov Sea coasts. On the most part of the country, the average rainfall ranges from 600-650 mm in the West to 400-450 mm in the South and South-East. About 60% of precipitation occurs during warm season only.

Food and agriculture

Agricultural lands occupy 42 Mha or 70% of the country’s total producing about 74 MT of food grains in 2019. Arable lands and perennial plants cover 78.9% of total agricultural lands, pastures - 13.0% and meadows - 8.4%. The highest share of arable lands is in the Steppe regions (70 - 80%) and the forest-steppe zone. Pastures are concentrated mainly in the Carpathians, in Polissya and in the Southeastern Steppe regions and grasslands - in river valleys and forest-steppe zones. Crop production includes cereals, industrial crops, fodder, vegetables, melons, gourds and potatoes. Horticulture and floriculture are also practiced.

Water resources management

Water resources of major rivers in Ukraine have the flow of water up to 95 billion m³ per year. Flow in the years of different water availability is different and equals to 89.8 (mean), 71.3 (shallow) and 50.2 (very shallow) billion m³ per year. The influx of runoff in Ukraine is 40.5 Km³ per year. The most water utilization comes from rivers - 78-81%, ground water - 12%, sea water - 3.4% and mine water - 3-5%. The use of water by all sectors of the economy is 9.1 billion m³. It is distributed as follows: Communal services sector, 2.6 billion m³ (28%); Industry - 4.5 billion m³ (49%); and Agriculture - 1.9 billion m³ (21%). At the same time the water resources of Dnipro provide 70% of national needs, including 66% for agricultural requirements. Water management is carried out by the State Water Resources Agency.

The most part of the territory belongs to the Black Sea and the Azov Sea Basins (98%), and only 2% of the country belongs to Baltic Sea Basin. There are 9 main river basins within the country. The main river is Dnipro which bisects the country into two parts - the Right Bank and the Left Bank. Dnipro has the third largest river basin in Europe after Volga and Danube. Dnister is the second largest river of Ukraine which flows from North-West to South-East through Ukraine and Moldova. Southern Bug is the largest river with its basin entirely located within Ukraine.

In order to regulate river flows in Ukraine, 1160 reservoirs were built including Dnipro cascade of six major reservoirs which has full capacity of 43.7 Km³, and useful capacity of 18.6 Km³. In Ukraine there are 1046 small reservoirs with capacities from 1 to 10 million m³, 95 reservoirs with capacities from 10 to 100 million m³. In Ukraine, reservoirs and ponds cover an area of 12,000 Sq.Km. containing 58.6 Km³ of water.

Irrigation and drainage

The total area under irrigation in Ukraine is 2.17 Mha. However, currently only about 1/5 is actually irrigated. The main irrigation method is sprinkler irrigation (centre pivots mostly). Drip irrigation is widely used on 75,000 ha. The surface irrigation (flooding) is only used for Paddy cultivation (25,000 ha). Due to many reasons, during the last 25 years, the area of irrigated lands continue to decline with the state of deteriorating infrastructure. The reasons for deterioration are the lack of financing, lack of farmer interest and sense of ownership, and unsuccessful reforms.

The overwetted areas that require drainage are concentrated in the northern and western parts of the country. The drainage systems generally cover 3.2 Mha and include 1671 drainage reclamation systems, including 835 single-action drainage systems on the area of 1.7 Mha, 585 drainage-humidifying systems of bilateral action on the area of 1.1 Mha and 251 polder system on the area of 0.4 Mha. The total area of irrigated land with drainage is 0.7 Mha, 450,000 hectares of which are the systems of horizontal drainage, and 250,000 hectares – of vertical drainage. Drainage infrastructure also needs improvement through modernization and reconstruction.

Total area of salt affected and alkaline soils in Ukraine reached up to 775 ha. Areas where there are active processes of salinity and alkalinity are mainly observed in AR Crimea and Kherson regions. Some small areas of salted and alkaline soils are observed in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. When farming, especially under irrigation, additional attention should be paid to the problems of salinization and alkalinisation.

Predicted groundwater resources in Ukraine are estimated at the level of 22.5 Km³ per year and operating reserves are 5.7 Km³ per year. There are 110,000 wells to extract the groundwater. Moreover, in rural areas, this water is used through 1,900,000 wells to provide drinking water for the population.

Water policy

In Ukraine, the legal basis for water policy are Water Code (1995) and National Programme on Water Resources Management and Environmental Rehabilitation of the Dnipro river basin for the period until 2021. The basic principles (strategy) of the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine for the period till 2020 is passed in Ukraine. Also, draft Water Strategy of Ukraine till 2025 is being developed. Today, ten basin administrations have been established in the country to move from the transition state to integrated water resources management based on the basin principles.

ICID and National Committee

Ukraine became a full member of ICID in 1996 and has been ever since pursuing the ICID mission actively through its National Committee and members. Prof. Peter Kovalenko served as the Vice-President of ICID from 2007 to 2010. The Ukrainian National Committee of ICID (UACID) had successfully hosted the 23^rd European Regional Conference (2009) on the Theme “Progress in Managing Water for Food and Rural Development”.