Seversky Donets River - Current

Current

The flow is slow, between 0.15 m/s (0.49 ft/s) at Chuhuiv and 1.41 m/s (4.6 ft/s) near Lysychansk. The river valley is wide: from 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) in the upper part and up to 20–26 km (12–16 mi) downstream, and is asymmetrical. The right bank is usually high, sometimes with chalk cliffs, and is dissected by gullies. The left bank is more flat, contains numerous swamps, lakes and oxbow lakes, the largest of which is lake Lyman. The river is curvy, especially above the tributary river Oskol.

In the upstream, above Belgorod, the river contains several dams and small reservoirs. In the downstream, after the confluence of the Wolf River (Volchiya River), there is Pechenga Reservoir (volume 86 km3) which supplies water to the city of Kiev. Below Pechenga Reservoir, Donets is fed by Udy and by its largest tributary Oskol. There the valley widens and contains numerous oxbow lakes in its floodplain. In its middle, the river is partly fed by the Dnieper River waters which are brought though the Dnieper–Donbass–Seversky Donets channels which provide water to the coal industry of the Donets Basin. Near the Russian city of Donetsk (Rostov oblast), the river crosses the Donets ridge and flows in a narrow valley with steep and rocky slopes. In the lower part, the flow is interrupted by sluices and is slow. At the delta it splits into three distributaries.