Experience and Methodology of Developing Water–Resource and Water–Ecological Thematic Maps at the Institute for Water and Environmental Problems Using the Example of Siberian River Basins

The Institute for Water and Environmental Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, carries out a wide range of research on water resources and water management, most of which involves cartography. Considerable experience has been accumulated in creating maps of water resource availability, anthropogenic load, water-use systems and assessing the negative impact of natural waters on the population and economic objects of the Ob and Irtysh river basins, as well as the relevant regions of the Russian Federation and water management areas. This article presents methodological approaches to the development and creation of cartographic databases and geoinformation cartographic models that provide clear representations of regional features of water management conditions and the anthropogenic load on water bodies. The key element of the methodological basis of the creation of these maps is the integration of heterogeneous and multilevel information for the purposes of spatial analysis and assessment, as well as forecasting future prospects. The article provides the examples of applications of the cartographic method for problems related to water management and substantiates the feasibility and practical significance of such application. Meanwhile, the lack of uniform requirements and methods for creating cartographic models required the development of independent GIS projects based on original thematic databases of initial data. The implementation of a comprehensive landscape–basin approach to solving these problems, as well as cartographic interpretation of water management indicators, often requires original, nonstandard solutions, in particular, for displaying the analyzed and calculated data and for improving the system of map symbols. As a result, the final cartographic models represent the spatiotemporal features of the estimated indicators of water management conditions in the regions of the Ob–Irtysh basin to the fullest degree and with the highest clarity.