Ay River

Location of A i ( Ай ) in the catchment area of the Belaya

Ford on the Love River

The Ai (Russian Ай, Bashkir Әй ) is a 549 km long left tributary of the Ufa in the Urals (Russia).

Course

The river rises in about 880 m west of the Uraltau - comb in the Southern Urals. The source is located in the west of Chelyabinsk region, about 45 km as the crow southeast of the city Satka and 40 km northwest of Utschaly near the border with the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Ai initially flows to the largest city Zlatoust in a northeasterly direction before he generally turns to the northwest with several changes of direction. He cuts through several parallel to Uralhauptkamm running mountain ranges and reaches the territory of Bashkortostan. In the middle reaches of the Ai flows through a wide valley, in the lower course traverses the many places karst Ufaplateau occupying this part of the western Uralvorlandes. In this case, its valley is relatively narrow and rocky.

The Ai finally flows about 50 km south of Krasnoufimsk in Ufa, which flows through Belaya and Kama and the Volga River marks the border of Bashkortostan for Sverdlovsk Oblast on this section. In estuaries near the Ai is nearly 100 feet wide; The flow rate is here 0.7 m / s

Its most important tributaries are Koussa, Kigi, Big Ik ( Bolshoi Ik) and Ik from the right as well as the Great Satka ( Bolschaja Satka ) from the left.

Hydrology

The catchment area of ​​Ai covers 15,000 km ². The river freezes from late October / early November to late April.

The mean annual river discharge at the mouth is 84 m³ / s At the headwaters at Zlatoust accounts for 67.1 % of the annual discharge from the period of spring high water during the snowmelt from April to June, 25.6% in the months of July to November and only 7.3% to the winter period from December to March. The water flow of the river is several smaller reservoirs in the room Zlatoust, are also used for water supply, regulated.

Infrastructure

The Ai is not navigable.

The most attractive places on the river, in addition to the small town of Zlatoust Koussa, the urban-type settlement Meschewoi and the larger villages and Rajonverwaltungszentren Messjagutowo and Bolscheustikinskoje. In Zlatoust the river crossing the original route ( today's southern route ) of the Trans-Siberian Railway Samara - Chelyabinsk - Omsk and the M5 highway Moscow - Chelyabinsk, part of the transcontinental rail link. In space the Zlatoust railway line follows a few kilometers directly to the river, further down in the distance. In Koussa crossed him the former Western Ural Railway Tschussowoi - Berdjausch - Bakal. The predominantly agricultural area in the middle reaches of the Ai is of the regional roads R317 Satka - developed Atschit - Meschewoi - Messjagutowo - Janaul and R350 Messjagutowo - Bolscheustikinskoje - Krasnoufimsk.