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Vorotan. The area is extremely diverse in its climatic
conditions. The difference in altitudes is more than
3,600 m – from 374 to 3904 m above sea level. Due
to this range of elevation and varying climate, eight
successive landscape zones are represented in the
area of the basin – from semi-desert to subnival,
and almost all the major ecosystems characteristic
of Armenia are found in the region. The river
network density of the basin is 1.36 km/km
2
, which
is significantly greater than in the whole of Armenia
– 0.85 km/km
2
. The total number of rivers is 2,985,
97 per cent of which are less than 10 km long, but
when combined add up to a length of 5,528 km. Only
the Vorotan River has a length of over 100 km. In
January 2014 the total water flow of all rivers of the
basin was 1.174 billion m
3
.
22
Development of pilot plans for watershed
management, including mountain territories,
especially
with
integrated
climate
change
considerations is a step forward in application of
legal provisions of integrated water management in
practice; however, there are certain shortcomings
presented below. The Southern Basin Management
Plan does not sufficiently consider possible conflicts
between the major water consumers in the energy
and agriculture sectors. If the currently developed
agricultural strategy to some extent takes into
account climate change and proposes some measures
for adaptation; hydropower sector development,
especially small hydropower plants, does not reflect
the projected decline in rainfall and other negative
climate change outcomes.
The approach taken to river basin management
takes not only water resources and climate change
into account, but also socioeconomic aspects as
appropriate; however, ecosystem considerations are
absent. The management plan does not consider
the conservation of natural ecosystems and the
rational use of water resources. Therefore, the
process of drafting river basin management plans
should involve biologists, ecologists, physicians and
epidemiologists to ensure an integrated ecosystem
approach that effectively addresses climate change
and nature conservation in general.
Moreover, getting final approval for new legislation
involves a lengthy administrative process that is
both complicated and time-consuming. This process
requires a number of coordination events, approvals,
revisions and consultations at different bureaucratic
levels, which is often prolonged and delayed.
Therefore, due to the poorly functioning bureaucracy
it is often very hard to achieve desirable changes in
the legal framework on any issue, let alone on climate
change and water management.
Nevertheless, despite the abovementioned obstacles,
the initiative is considered as innovative since it is the
first time that a river basin management plan is being
developed, due to its considerations on the effects
from climate change, and because of the readiness of
government structures to approve the RBMP.
Vorotan river