Geography Sea and river transport. Inland water (river) transport

The role of water transport in Russia has always been enormous. In which regions of the country is it especially high? What natural features of rivers and lakes are important for the development of water transport? How do human activities and the development of science affect the possibilities of using water transport in the country’s economy?

Water transport includes river (inland waterway) and sea transport. The importance of river transport is greatest in the Volga region, Volga-Vyatka region, the European North, northern Siberia and the Far East, where it accounts for over a third of all transported cargo.

For the development of river transport, large lowland navigable rivers (Volga, Neva, Svir, Dnieper, Don, Northern Dvina, Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Angara, Lena, Amur, etc.) and lakes (Ladoga, Onega, etc.) are needed. For most regions of Russia, river transport is seasonal, which is explained by freeze-up in the winter. A great difficulty for river transport in the north of Siberia and the Far East is ice jams that form in the spring. A huge role is played by navigable river canals (Moscow Canal, Volga-Baltic Canal, White Sea-Baltic Canal, Volga-Donskoy Canal), which together with the system of rivers and lakes form a single deep-water system of the European part of Russia, thanks to which Moscow is called the “port of five seas.” The emergence of new types of ships (hydrofoil, hovercraft, river-sea, container ships, modern icebreakers) significantly expands the capabilities of river transport.

Maritime transport is of great importance in the coastal regions of Russia: in the North-Western region (Baltic Sea), in the North Caucasus (Azov-Black Sea and Caspian basins), in the European North and northern Siberia (exit to the North Atlantic and the Northern Sea Route), and also in the Far East (Pacific Basin). For the development of maritime transport in Russia, it is necessary to modernize existing and build new deep-sea ports, modernize the existing merchant fleet and build modern specialized ships (ferries, tankers, gas carriers, container ships, lighter carriers, refrigerators, nuclear icebreakers, etc.), as well as the development of cruise fleet. Without the development of water transport, it is impossible to develop the regions of the Far North and develop Russia's foreign trade.

Freight river transport of the Russian Federation, created during the years of the planned economy, has now lost its position as the main freight carrier serving enterprises in the river shipping area. This is reflected in the reluctance of the market economy to spend huge amounts of money to support the inefficient activities of river transport and the industry it serves in the winter. The economic policy of using the Russian river fleet in winter to operate in the seas of Europe and Asia (“River - Sea”) ultimately brings nothing but harm, because the fleet serves the economies of other states, transporting their cargo 9-10 months a year. In addition, the economic efficiency of using river vessels in the seas, due to their design features, is significantly lower than when using sea vessels. In order for Russian river transport to work effectively all year round for the Russian manufacturer, it is necessary to solve the problem of forced downtime of the river fleet in the winter.

What are the main advantages of transportation by sea?

The need for sea transport is obvious. Are there any advantages to sea transport? Eat:
lower cost compared to other modes of transport. The construction of large specialized ships and the use of the latest technological advances, including for organizing loading and unloading operations in ports, have in recent years reduced the share of transportation in the final price of goods from 11% to 2%. The construction of large-capacity vessels provides an “economy of scale”: the greater the vessel’s carrying capacity, the cheaper the delivery of a unit of goods.
high load capacity. No type of land or air transport is capable of transporting as much cargo at one time as a sea vessel. The Norwegian supertanker Knock Nevis simultaneously transported over 0.5 million tons of oil.
practically no restrictions on cargo dimensions and maritime transport capacity. Even if port parameters (for example, depth) do not allow a large-capacity vessel to approach the shore, modern technologies for transshipment of goods on the high seas or in a roadstead are used.
unified standards. Modern vessels are built according to uniform standards, which significantly speeds up the loading and unloading processes.
the use of containers for sea transportation protects cargo not only from criminal attacks and accidental damage, but also from the adverse effects of nature.
high security. In general, worldwide losses from shipping by sea account for only 1–1.5% of the cost of goods. Maritime transport has the lowest proportion of disasters and accidents.
unified legal field. Maritime transport transportation is regulated by uniform international documents - the Brussels and Athens Conventions.

What are the main disadvantages of this type of transportation?

As analysts of the Lithuanian community of the Masterforex-V Academy note, sea transportation also has disadvantages:
low speed compared to other modes of transport. Moreover, this indicator is influenced not only by the speed of the vessel, but also by the time spent on loading and unloading operations. However, modern technologies make it possible to significantly speed up this work, not least through the use of multimodal transportation, when the cargo is immediately transferred to another mode of transport (rail or road);
technological difficulties of the loading and unloading complex. The multimodal system allows you to reduce the number of repackings and save cargo.
dependence on weather conditions. Adverse weather conditions can increase the time it takes to transport goods by sea and make loading and unloading operations more difficult or even suspended.
dependence on the capacity of ports, canals and other structures.
sea piracy.
significant investment. The construction of modern maritime transport and ports with developed infrastructure is a very expensive undertaking.

Maritime transport is important primarily because it provides a significant part of Russia’s foreign trade relations. Internal transportation (cabotage) is essential only for supplying the northern and eastern coasts of the country. The share of sea transport in cargo turnover is 8%, although the mass of transported cargo is less than 1% of the total. This ratio is achieved due to longest average transportation distance - about 4.5 thousand km. Passenger transportation by sea is insignificant.

Globally maritime transport ranks first in terms of cargo turnover, standing out for its minimal cargo transportation. In Russia it is relatively poorly developed, since the main economic centers of the country are located far from the sea coasts. In addition, most of the seas surrounding the country's territory are frozen, which increases the cost of using sea transport. A serious problem is the country's outdated fleet. Most of the ships were built more than 20 years ago and should be decommissioned by world standards. There are practically no ships of modern types: gas carriers, lighter carriers, container ships, ships with horizontal loading and unloading, etc. There are only 11 large seaports on the territory of Russia, which is not enough for a country of this size. About half of Russian cargo transported by sea is serviced by ports of other countries. These are mainly ports of the former Soviet republics: Odessa (Ukraine), Ventspils (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Klaipeda (Lithuania). The use of seaports of other states leads to financial losses. To solve this problem, new ports are being built on the coasts of the Baltic and Black Seas.

The leading sea basin in Russia in terms of cargo turnover is currently the Far Eastern. Its main ports are Vladivostok and Nakhodka, which rarely freeze. A modern Vostochny port with terminals for the export of coal and timber cargo was built near Nakhodka. The port of Vanino, located on the final section of the Baikal-Amur Railway, is also of great importance. This port operates a ferry connecting the railway network of mainland Russia with the network of Sakhalin Island (port of Kholmsk).

The Northern Basin is in second place in terms of cargo turnover. The main ports in it are: Murmansk (non-freezing, although located beyond the Arctic Circle) and Arkhangelsk (timber export, both sea and river). Large ports also operate at the mouth of the Yenisei. These are Dudinka, through which ore concentrates are exported from Norilsk, and Igarka, through which timber and forest products are transported. The section of the Northern Sea Route between the mouth of the Yenisei and Murmansk is year-round, which is ensured by the use of powerful icebreakers, including nuclear ones. Navigation east of the mouth of the Yenisei is carried out only 2-3 months in the summer

The third most important is the Baltic Basin. Its main ports are St. Petersburg (freezing) and Kaliningrad (non-freezing). Using the convenient Kaliningrad port is difficult, since it is separated from the main part of Russia by the territories of foreign countries. Near St. Petersburg there is a small port of Vyborg, through which mainly timber cargo is transported. The ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk are being built.

The Cheriomorsk-Azov basin is in fourth place in terms of cargo turnover. There are two ice-free oil export ports here - Novorossiysk (the most powerful in Russia) and Tuapse. Maritime transport also includes transportation across the Caspian Sea. The largest ports here are the ports of Astrakhan (both sea and river) and Makhachkala, through which mainly oil cargo passes.

River transport

River transport (or inland waterway) was the main one in Russia until the end of the 19th century. At present its importance is small - about 2% of cargo turnover and weight of transported goods. Although this is a cheap mode of transport, it has serious disadvantages. The main thing is that the directions of river flow often do not coincide with the directions of cargo transportation. Expensive canals have to be built to connect neighboring river basins. In Russia, river transport is a seasonal mode of transport, since rivers freeze for several months a year. The total length of navigable river routes in Russia is 85 thousand km. 3/4 of the cargo currently transported by Russian river transport is mineral and construction materials. Passenger transportation by river transport is insignificant, as well as by sea.

More than half of the country's river transport freight turnover falls on the Volga-Kama basin. It is connected by channels with neighboring basins (Don, Neva, Northern Dvina, White Sea), being the basis of the Unified deep-water system of the European part of the country. The largest river ports are also located here: Nizhny Novgorod, Northern, Southern and Western in Moscow, Kazan, Samara, Volgograd, Astrakhan. In second place in terms of cargo turnover is the West Siberian basin, which includes the Ob and its tributaries. In addition to construction materials, oil cargo makes up a significant share of transportation. The main ports are Novosibirsk, Tobolsk, Surgut, Labytnangi, Tyumen. The third in Russia is the Northern Dvina basin with its tributaries Sukhona and Vychegda. A significant share of its transportation is made up of timber cargo. The main ports are Arkhangelsk and Kotlas.

River transport is of great importance in the northeastern part of Russia, where there are virtually no networks of other modes of transport. The bulk of cargo is delivered to these territories in the summer either from the south of the railway (along the Yenisei from Krasnoyarsk, along the Lena from Ust-Kut), or from the mouths of rivers, where cargo is delivered by sea.

Water transport is an integral part of a single transport complex. It is divided into sea and river fleets. Maritime transport, in turn, is divided into merchant fleet and trawler, or fishing.

Maritime transport is of great importance in the Russian transport system: it ranks fourth in terms of cargo turnover after railway, road and pipeline. Unlike other types of transport, this type of transport mainly transports export-import cargo. External (overseas) cargo transportation predominates. Inland (coastal) transportation is not of great importance, with the exception of the coasts of the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Among coastal shipping, the main role is played by small cabotage, or navigation along one's shores within one or two adjacent sea basins. Large cabotage - the navigation of ships between Russian ports located in different sea basins, separated by the coastal territories of other states, is of less importance.

When using sea transport, the natural factor must be taken into account. The structure of cargo transported by sea is as follows: petroleum products predominate here, and the role of ore, building materials, timber and grain cargoes is also significant.

Inland water transport Recently, it cannot withstand intense competition and is used less and less. It competes with railway transport, since their scope of application is almost identical.

In the structure of transported cargo, the leading position is occupied by mineral construction materials (sand, gravel, crushed stone, etc.).

4.4 The role of pipeline transport

Over the past 15-20 years, Russia has become the largest state producing oil and gas. Most of the extracted raw materials are transported abroad. The Russian budget is directly tied to world prices for oil and gas, and therefore this type of transport is given great importance in our country, since it is the most profitable method of transportation. This type of transport has the lowest cost and is used for pumping oil and petroleum products and gas. According to their purpose, main pipelines are divided into oil pipelines, product pipelines, and gas pipelines. Recently, other types of pipelines have been developed (pulp pipelines, pneumatic pipelines, etc.)

The advantages of this type of transport are also the ability to operate throughout the year, high labor productivity, minimal losses during transportation, and the ability to lay pipelines over the shortest distance, almost regardless of the terrain.

4.5 The role of air transport in the country’s economy

In the Russian transport system, air transport is one of the main types of passenger transport. In its overall work, the transportation of passengers accounts for 4/5, and cargo and mail - 1/5. The use of air transport provides a large time gain (due to the high speed of the aircraft and the straightening of the flight path) compared to other modes of transport at medium and especially long distances. It is believed that at a distance of over 1000 km, this type of transport predominates in passenger transportation. (See Appendix 7)

Air transport plays an important role in providing communications with poorly developed areas of Siberia and the Far East, where it is almost the only means of communication.

Conclusion

The role of transport in the Russian economy is enormous. Transport has a comprehensive impact on the economic development of the country. Where the role of logistics is correctly understood, the state successfully develops economically, politically and socially. Conversely, underestimating the importance of the transport system inevitably leads to a slowdown in the development of the state. The transport system must constantly develop to meet growing needs.

The underestimation and chronic lag of logistics is to a large extent due to a lack of understanding of state importance as a special sector of the national economy. The transport factor is necessarily taken into account when locating production in a particular region; it is one of the most important.

The country's national economy annually suffers losses due to the disproportion in the technical equipment of various types of transport, and especially between the level of development of permanent structures and the rolling stock fleet, for example, between the capacity of stations and the size of the car fleet; line capacity and traffic density of transport units; the length of roads and the number of cars gravitating towards them.

Like all sectors of the economy of our country, they require attracting investment, but this problem is still not being solved due to the fact that foreign investors are afraid to invest money in the Russian economy because of its unpredictability. Problems due to lack of investment arise in the technical equipment of transport, especially from domestic manufacturers, whose products lag behind their Western counterparts for many years due to the lack of development and implementation of these projects.

Water transport Russia is divided into two types: sea and river transport.

Maritime transport important due to Russia's geographic location. Sea transportation is one of the cheapest modes of transport, thanks to the huge carrying capacity of ships and the relatively straight routes of their movement. But this type of transport requires significant costs for the construction of ships and ports and is highly dependent on natural conditions. Maritime transport has a complex economy: fleet, ports, ship repair yards. In terms of the number of merchant ships, the Russian fleet is among the top five in the world, along with Japan, Panama, Greece, and the USA. But the average wear rate of the fleet is more than 50%, and many types of vessels (tankers, cargo-passenger, container) are in short supply.

The growth of maritime transport depends not only on the fleet, but also on the number of ports and their capacity. There are 39 ports of different sizes in Russia, but only 11 relatively large ports. The distribution of the fleet and ports between sea basins, and, consequently, the role of these basins in Russian maritime transport is not the same.

The first place in cargo turnover belongs to the ports of the Pacific Basin (Vostochny, Vanino, Vladivostok, Nakhodka), which supply the northeast of the country with goods and establish connections with Asian countries and Australia. About 25% of the Russian fleet is concentrated here. The main disadvantage of this basin is its extreme remoteness from the most developed regions of the country.

In second place is the Baltic Basin, which provides connections with the countries of Europe and America. It has an exceptionally favorable geographical position. But here Russia has few ports (St. Petersburg, Vyborg, Kaliningrad).

Oil is mainly exported through the ports of the Black Sea basin (Novorossiysk). With the reconstruction of other ports (Tuapse, Anapa, Sochi), the importance of this basin in the transportation of other types of cargo will increase. However, the development of the port economy here is in conflict with another important function of the Black Sea coast - recreational.

The Northern Sea Route passes through the seas of the Northern Basin, which is of great importance for the life support of the regions of the Far North and the export of the products of these regions to the “Mainland”. The major ports of this basin are Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.

Rice. 1. Maritime transport of Russia

River transport plays an important role in those areas where high-water rivers flow, and the creation of land transport requires a lot of money and time. Mainly these are areas of the North zone. It is profitable to transport bulk cargo that does not require fast delivery (timber, oil, grain, building materials) along rivers.

Russia's navigable river routes belong to different basins. The main one among them is the Volga-Kama basin, to which the economically most developed part of the country gravitates. This is the core of the Unified Deep-Sea System of the European part of Russia.

Rice. 2. River transport in Russia

Aviation transport is the only mode of transport that covers almost all areas of the country. But due to the high cost, the volume of cargo transported by it is small. Airplanes deliver cargo to hard-to-reach areas and transport particularly valuable or perishable products. The main specialization of air transport is the transportation of passengers over long distances. The main problem of air transport is the old fleet of aircraft.

The country's largest air hubs are located in Moscow (Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo airports), St. Petersburg (Pulkovo), Yekaterinburg (Koltsovo), Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo), Krasnodar, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Samara.

The role and importance of water transport for the economic activity of the Russian Federation.

Communication routes are a unique vital system of the country’s economic organism. In its unified transport system, inland water transport occupies an important place, which carries out transportation along the inland waterways (IWW) of Russia.

Inland water transport – a complex consisting of GDP (rivers, shipping canals, lakes and reservoirs), fleet, ports, ship repair and shipbuilding enterprises.

GDPs are divided into natural (inland seas, lakes and rivers) and artificial (lock rivers, shipping canals, artificial seas, reservoirs). Main waterways are distinguished, including international ones, serving foreign trade transport of several countries (Danube, Oder, Rhine, Amur, Paraguay, Niger), and main waterways, serving transport between large regions within the country (Volga, Yangtze, Mississippi), as well as local servicing intra-district communications.

Russia was the first European country to complete (1975) the process of creating a Unified deep-water system of routes for the country and the continent as a whole, which connected all the seas washing Europe with shipping routes. There is no such water transport system in any country or continent (Fig. 1). The creation of an intracontinental system of deep-sea routes stimulated the construction of a new type of vessels (mixed “river-sea” navigation), carrying out transportation along all waterways of the specified system - rivers, lakes and seas, made it possible to reduce the delivery time of goods and the cost of transportation, and eliminate transshipment operations in intermediate seas. ports of the transportation route.

They expand GDP through: the construction of hydroelectric complexes (Svirsky, Ivankovsky, Uglichsky, Rybinsk, Perm, Volgograd, Saratov, Nizhnekamsk, etc.); construction of canals (White Sea-Baltic, Moscow, Dnieper-Bug, Volga-Don, etc.); formation of reservoirs (in the Volga basin, West and East Siberian, etc.); development of port facilities (commissioning of new ports and berths, modernization of existing ones); extensive dredging and straightening operations; improving navigation conditions on rivers with shallow depths (so-called “small rivers”).

The main feature of inland water transport is the relative cheapness of transportation. Its additional advantage is lower specific consumption of metal and fuel for a comparable volume of transportation of straightening work; improving navigation conditions on rivers with shallow depths (so-called “small rivers”).

The main feature of inland water transport is the relative cheapness of transportation. Its additional advantage is lower specific consumption of metal and fuel for a comparable volume of transportation and lower initial capital investments. The latter is greatly facilitated by the fact that inland water transport mostly uses natural waterways - rivers and lakes. Artificial canals and reservoirs are built for the purpose of their integrated use not only for transport, but also for energy, water supply to industry and agriculture, i.e. the costs of their use are only partially allocated to transport.

Fig. 1.1 Scheme of a single deep-sea continental system

The advantage of inland water transport – high capacity of the GDP, which is ensured by creating transport flows of ships.

The traffic flow of ships can be represented as a time-uneven sequence of movement of heterogeneous ship vehicles. This allows for the simultaneous movement of vessels and heavy-duty trains while simultaneously being overtaken by high-speed vessels. The carrying capacity of the Volga River is more than 100 million tons per navigation, which is significantly greater than the capacity of a double-track railway of the same length.

In 1913, the length of shipping lanes was 64.6 thousand km. Cargo transportation along them reached 49.1 million tons, and the number of passengers transported exceeded 11 million people. These transportations took place mainly on the rivers of the European part of Russia. The rivers of Siberia and the Far East were almost never used for navigation. Only a few ships sailed along the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Lena, and Amur. The share of transportation along the rivers of the eastern basins was only 6% of the total cargo turnover of Russia.

During the first five-year plans, grandiose work began on the reconstruction of GDP. With the commissioning of the Volkhov hydroelectric complex in December 1926, the conditions for navigation of ships along the Volkhov significantly improved. The high-pressure Dneproges dam raised the water level on the rapids, and the Dnieper became navigable along its entire length. The commissioning of the first hydroelectric complex on the Svir River in 1933 increased the depth in its lower reaches, and the commissioning of the White Sea-Baltic Canal in the same year connected the White Sea with the Baltic.

In the mid-30s. Much work began to create a Unified deep-sea network for the European part of the USSR. A cascade of waterworks and reservoirs was built on the Volga, the first of which, Ivankovsky, went into operation along with the Moscow Canal. In 1952, the construction of the Volga-Don Shipping Canal named after V.I. Lenin was completed, which connected the most important economic regions of the European part of Russia - the Urals, Volga region, Center - with Donbass and the South. In 1955, 2 largest hydroelectric complexes came into operation on the Volga - Gorky and Kuibyshevsky, as a result of which the guaranteed depth on the Volga and Kama increased by 0.9 m.

The commissioning of the first hydroelectric complex on the Kama, above Perm, in 1957 contributed to the further improvement of navigation on the river. In 1964, the Votkinsk reservoir was put into operation, and in the same year the reconstruction of the Volga-Baltic waterway named after V.I. Lenin was completed, which provided reliable transport links between the economic regions of the Center and the North-West. Russia. The construction of complex ship canals of the White Sea-Baltic, Volga-Don and Volga-Baltic waterways made it possible to connect the seas washing the European part of Russia with internal deep-water river highways and form a single transport network.

In the 50-60s. The construction of waterworks began on the eastern rivers of Siberia. Hydroelectric power stations were built: Irkutsk and Bratsk on the Angara, Novosibirsk on the Ob, Bukhtarma and Ust-Kamenogorsk on the Irtysh, Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei.

Thanks to the creation of reservoirs, powerful Siberian rivers turned from routes of local importance into transit highways connected by the Northern Sea Route with the ports of the European part of the country.

Waterways are mainly used for cargo that does not require urgent delivery and is transported in large quantities. These are the so-called bulk cargoes: timber, oil, grain, ore, coal, building materials, chemical fertilizers,

Fig. 1.2 Passenger ships.

salt. Some particularly large cargoes are also transported exclusively by water.

The river fleet has a wide variety of vessels, both by purpose and by carrying capacity. According to their purpose, ships can be cargo, passenger, mixed - cargo-passenger, of various carrying capacity from 150 tons to 5300 tons. Passenger ships are divided by passenger capacity and the number of decks. There can be displacement and non-displacement hydrofoils and hovercraft. These are the so-called high-speed vessels, the speed of which is 30 km/h or more. (Fig. 2,3)

Fig. 1.3 Hydrofoil

On main rivers there are large tugs and pusher tugs with a power from 883 to 1472 kW, as well as pushers and tugs of average power from 446 to 588 kW, which can transfer large and complex trains consisting of non-self-propelled vessels and rafts. (Fig. 4, 5 ,6)

Of great interest are mixed (river-sea) navigation vessels, which are designed for non-transshipment transportation of goods along sea and inland waterways. These ships have restrictions on waves up to 6 points and distance from ports of refuge up to 50 -100 miles. Such vessels include vessels of the type “Baltic”, “Volgo-Balt”, “Sormovsky”, “Volgo-Tanker”, etc. (Fig. 7)