ИСТИНА

The results of the study of modern spatial and temporal patterns of the water regime characteristics of the rivers and their cartographic and geographic information generalization for the European territory of Russia (ETR) are presented. Based on the analysis and the developed criteria of the river flow parameterizing characteristics, the transformation of the types of water regime during the period of climatic changes is estimated in comparison with the previous steady period. The zoning of the territory according to the direction and scale of the modern climatic changes effect on the water regime of rivers was carried out, new methods of zoning the territory according to the degree of hydrological processes danger, as well as new technologies for summarizing the hydrological information to generate thematic maps for assessing the risk of dangerous hydrological phenomena for modern and future water use. The results obtained give an idea of the reaction of river basins to the ongoing processes of climate change in various natural and geographical zones. The created series of maps includes analytical, synthetic, and complex maps of the characteristics of the water regime and various parameters averaged over two periods: “historical” (until 1977) and “modern” (from 1978 to the present). Based on the generated maps, a number of spatio-temporal trends have been revealed: intensification of the hydrological cycle; increase in the annual runoff in the central part of the ETR; an increase in the absolute irregularity of the runoff during summer low flow period and a decrease in its relative irregularity; reduction of maximum water discharges; a significant change in the ratio of the shares of feed sources for most of the rivers, the most important feature of which is a decrease in the proportion of snowmelt.