Lvovich, Mark

Born May 2 (15), 1906, in Aleksandrovsk, now Zaporozh’e. Soviet hydrologist; doctor of geographic sciences (1942); professor (1947). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

L’vovich graduated from the department of geography of Leningrad University. From 1924 to 1952 he worked at the State Hydrologic Institute. L’vovich directed hydrologic explorations in the Far East (1930-34) and served as director of the Central All-Union Office for Hydrologic Forecasting (1937-41); he was also deputy director at the institute (1943-48). During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 he was one of those responsible for meeting the hydrological needs of the Soviet Army. Since 1960, L’vovich has been head of the Hydrology Division of the geographic Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His main works deal with the worldwide water balance (he compiled the first worldwide maps of streamflow published in the USSR) and the water balance in the USSR, with the typology of the hydrologic regime of rivers in the USSR and in the world, with the principles of complex utilization and safeguarding of water resources, with the methodology of forecasting the state of water resources, and with the water components of the natural environment. L’vovich invented a method for computing changes in streamflow and water balance resulting from agricultural measures or the reclamation of forests. In 1971 he became president of the Commission on Surface Water of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences. He has been awarded four orders and various medals.