Summary

Water bodies in Užpaliai area and their hydrographic peculiarities

Aldona Baubinienė

The paper deals with hydrographic features of water bodies present in Užpaliai Valsčius (rural district) area under different litho-morphogenetic conditions and their changes during a forty-year period. As the place name indicates, the area is surrounded by bogs. Užpaliai in Lithuanian implies a site being beyond the bogs.

The whole area of the district lies within the Šventoji River basin. This river runs about 20 kilometres in the district and represents the most winding segment of the Šventoji in its total length. Its winding coefficient is 1.75. From the Lygiamiškis hill one can see seven mystic bends, which changed about 50 metres during a hundred of years. The river's floodplain is found to contain remains of the bends representing parts of the old river channel.

Numbers of right and left tributaries of the Šventoji River are approximately equal, while more lakes are located in the upper part of the district on the left bank of the river. The lakes lie mainly at the absolute heights of 99–135 metres. Majority of them have inflowing tributaries and outflowing rivers often joined by passages.

Low bogs prevail in the area of Užpaliai. The Bekinčiai peat-bog (63 hectares) is the largest one and lies on the right bank of the Šventoji River.