Читать книгу Explore it. Britain - Д. С. Ведунова - Страница 7

Britain is rich with water resources. Almost throughout the country except for some south-eastern regions, the amount of rainfall exceeds evaporation, and therefore there is a dense network of deep rivers. The largest of them are the Severn having a length of 354 km, and the Thames – 338 km. Thames has the greatest value to the UK economy.

There are many rivers in the UK, but they are short and are situated close to each other. This allowed creating a dense network of waterways, which were widely used until the development of rail transport. Now these ways are mostly used in sport. This has also created a lot of ports; some have grown into large industrial units. A good accessibility for maritime transport is particularly important for the island countries.

Rivers of lowlands are quiet. In the mountain areas of Scotland and Wales, the origins of rivers are quite high so the rivers are fast; they often overflow the banks, especially in the rainy season. Rapid rivers north-west of Scotland and Wales are used to produce electricity. More than 60 hydropower plants were built there.

The UK’s largest rivers are the Thames, Severn, Humber, Mersey, Clyde and Forth. They are deep and have artificially straightened bays. The largest seaports and industrial centers are placed there. Sometimes, salt water penetrates the upstream so the majority of the population of sea ports is supplied with drinking water from the underground reservoirs and mountain lakes.

The largest lakes of Great Britain are Loch Tay (about 400 km²) in Northern Ireland, as well as Loch Lomond and Loch Ness in Scotland. The Lake District is very picturesque and attracts many tourists to numerous lakes of Highlands. They are used as transport routes of the local destination. So Loch Ness and Loch Lomond, located in the Great Glen and the combined channel, create a direct water route between the east and the west coast of Scotland. The Lake District has long been the supplier of fresh water for Manchester. In the flat part of the UK a lot of artificial lakes were created.

The main source of high-quality water for the population of low-lying parts of Britain are the underground reservoirs. Currently, underground reservoirs provide 2/5 of all water consumed in England and Wales. In addition to natural waterways significant work to improve access to sea ports a wide network of canals was constructed

Questions on the basis of the material studied:

1. What are the largest lakes of Great Britain?

2. What are the biggest UK Rivers?