Luza River

BW

Lusa in the southern basin of the Northern Dvina

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Lusa (Russian Луза ) is a 574 km long right tributary of the Jug in the northeast of the European part of Russia.

Course

The Lusa rises on the northern flank of the North Russian ridge approximately 200 m altitude, in the southwestern autonomous republic of Komi in the immediate vicinity of the border with the Kirov Oblast. It flows through the territory of the Kirov Oblast initially to about 40 km roughly north before it turns to the northeast and returned to the Republic of Komi. In the taiga landscape of southwestern Republic of Komi the course of the river Lusa describes a wide arc, first north, then west. This predominant direction he then retains in to the mouth, where, again, the Kirov oblast is crossed in the far north. The mouth of the jug, the right- source river of the Northern Dvina, is already in the Vologda Oblast, 20 km south-east of the city of Veliky Ustjug in 56 m height.

The main tributaries of the Lusa are Soksja, Lopju, Porub, Lechta and Lala from the right and Ula and Scheljug from the left.

Hydrographic

The catchment area of ​​18,300 km ² comprises Lusa. In estuaries near the river reaches a width of up to 200 meters at a depth of about 1.5 meters; flow rate: 0.4 m / s

The Lusa freezes between end of October until the second half of April to early May. The Drainage of Krassawino, 99 km above the mouth, is an annual average of 132 m³ / s at a minimum of 30 m³ / s in March and a maximum of 690 m³ / s in May.

Infrastructure and economy

The Lusa is navigable for 401 km from the village Noschul, at high water level already from Prilusje (476 km, is not considered as inland waterways ).

It flows through a total sparsely populated area. However, along the river is a large number of smaller towns that owe their existence largely to forestry; in smaller areas especially on the middle and lower reaches also farming is done. The largest towns on the river are at the headwaters of the urban-type settlement Oparino and the lower reaches of the former, which was founded in 1570 city Lalsk ( at the mouth of the eponymous river Lala, today also urban-type settlement ) and named after the river town Lusa. A few miles below its source, the Lusa is crossed by the railway line opened in 1899 Kirov Kotlas, a second and third time gained importance in connection with Oparino and Lusa that arose in connection with the railway construction or in the.

Between Noschul and Sanulje follows the continuation of the highway Vyatka Kirov in the capital of the Republic of Komi Syktyvkar the course of the river on the right side.

For purposes of forestry originated from places along the Lusa starting a number of narrow gauge railways with a total length of several hundred kilometers, so at Oparino, Weldorja, Waimos, Kalininskaja and Lalsk. Some of the routes in 2009 were still in operation, as in Oparino ( opened in 1952, today 76 km) and Lalsk ( opened in 1950, now located about 100 km). During the construction of these routes and generally in forestry were used many Gulag prisoners in the 1930s to 1950s, as well as the aborted after 45 km, in 1938 began construction of a broad- gauge line of Pinjug ( station along the route Kirov Kotlas ) direction Lalsk and continue to Syktyvkar ( Lalsk route was 40 km southeast already led to the Lusa - crossing ).