General summary for the countries of the Former Soviet Union

The former Soviet Union (FSU), which covers part of the European and Asian continents, comprises 15 countries. The area extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.

For the purpose of this study, the 15 countries have been grouped in five regions, based primarily on geographic conditions and, as far as possible, on hydro-climatic homogeneity, although the Russian Federation is, due to its size, subject to a wide variation of geographic and hydro-climatic conditions. The regions, listed by size and presented in Figure 3, are here referred to as: Russian Federation, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Baltic States.

This section briefly presents the particularities which can be observed at national and regional level, as well as trends which emerge from the information which was collected. The section is divided into the following sub-sections:

	Geography, climate and population
	Organization of the agricultural sector
	Water resources
	Water withdrawal
	Irrigation
	Drainage
	The Aral Sea basin
	Thematic maps