Artifi cial mountain glaciers for water supply in the eastern Ciscaucasia

The paper deals with a method of reducing the need for water transportation and water scarcity in the BRICS countries using the example of the eastern Ciscaucasia of Russia, where reservoirs are losing a large amount of water through evaporation. It is proposed to take in a supply of water for agriculture, urban and transport infrastructure by reducing the rate of spring melting of high-altitude snow by building large ice pools at the sources of mountain rivers. Pools are horizontal platforms with a cold base, where the rate of melting of winter snow is minimal. They will reduce the intensity of spring fl oods which cause mudslides, water loss, and destruction of transport infrastructure. Ice pools are built by building a cascade of prefabricated lightweight wooden barriers that are assembled on site without heavy machinery. The cascade of barriers ensures that ice pools grow in winter and accumulated ice is preserved in summer without changing the fl ow of the river. The cascade is periodically made taller, contributing to the growth of the ice basin up to the formation of a new mountain glacier with up to 3 million tonnes of water over 8–10 years of constru