Wood mass clogging of hydroelectric power plants reservoirs in forested areas

The paper analyzes the design peculiarity and construction of hydroelectric power plants in Siberia and the Far East, it also identifies environmental, economic and social problems, it presents the study results of the volumes of wood planned (design) and actually flooded in the beds, as well as being afloat in the water area of the Angara–Yenisei reservoirs region. The study identified the reasons for leaving significant amounts of tree and shrub vegetation in the zones of flooding of reservoirs, characterized the negative phenomena caused by the presence of floating wood pulp and organic substances of plant origin in the water areas. The article states the main applied direction of wood utilization from water bodies as ground disposal at the landfill. A wider use of floating and water-logged wood in the production of various products is recommended, which will help save growing forest stands from cuttings. The article shows the necessity of developing at the design stage of hydroelectric power plants a complex of protective and compensatory measures and scientific justification of volumes of wood, safe for a water body, left in the process of preparing reservoir beds for flooding. It was noted that the ongoing work on monitoring wood pulp stocks and assessing the state of the reservoirs shoreline built on forested lands should be continued with the involvement of remote sensing methods and unmanned aerial vehicles in order to quickly assess changes. A timely assessment of changes in the state of reservoir waters will make it possible to track the development of adverse geological processes, the direction of movement of wood mass, to establish the places and volumes of its concentration, which is important for the further development of technologies and the creation of technical means for cleaning reservoirs from floating wood.