Recent transformation of the Oka River channel profile in its upper reaches

Abstract

During the cultivation of the upper Oka drainage basin the river's level and channel floor were continuously rising owing to alluviation which resulted from active erosion of watersheds. In the past three decades gravel extraction and dredging initiated bottom erosion. The volume of the gravel extraction is 10 times as large as the total solid discharge of the river. The erosion may slow down on the condition the gravel extraction by channel quarrying does not exceed channel-forming alluvium supply.