Water Resources of the Kuban River Basin and Their Change under the Influence of Climatic and Anthropogenic Factors

The results of evaluating the statistical characteristics of the annual runoff of the Kuban River and its main tributaries, which was retrieved taking into account the influence of economic activity, are presented. The evaluation is based on the data for 1926–2021. Natural water resources of the river, including the “trans-Kuban” rivers, amounted to 14.8 km3/year. The features of long-term fluctuations in annual runoff of the rivers, taking into account their genesis, are considered. It has been found that under conditions of the warming progressing in recent decades in the Kuban River basin, a phase of increased water content is observed on the rivers, the bulk of whose runoff is formed during the spring-summer flood. The synphase pattern of long-term changes in annual runoff of the rivers and annual total precipitation in their basins has been revealed. The results of estimating the changes in annual runoff of the Kuban River under the influence of anthropogenic factors are presented. It is shown that the greatest impact on water resources is caused by irrevocable withdrawals of water outside the basin through the Great Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk canals.