The aim of the study is to develop methodological approaches for assessing the availability of the Ob-Irtysh basin for the development of irrigated agriculture. The data of the Department of Land Reclamation Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation on the availability of irrigated lands in 2013–2014 and database of the Institute of Water and Ecological Problems, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences were used. The regularities of the current spreading of irrigated agriculture centers on the territory of the Ob-Irtysh basin were studied. It was found out that the largest irrigated areas are concentrated in six natural provinces: Yuzhnoprialeyskaya, Kulunda, Yuzhnobarabinskaya, Zapadnobarabinskaya, Ishim and Verhneobskaya. The main natural and reclamation conditions typical for these provinces, which limit the development of large-scale irrigation systems were analyzed. On the basis of ecological and landscape approach and analysis of the existing research in this field the main criteria for assessing the availability of areas for irrigation at the terrain level and the natural boundaries level taking into account geo-ecological constraints were selected and systematized. The four categories of available areas are selected: the most available; limitedly available; slightly available and absolutely unavailable. The proposed methodological approach allows to identify the most sustainable to irrigation effects lands and to assess irrigation and resource potential of the area from the point of ecological and landscape approach, which, in turn, helps to prevent the negative ecological processes in natural systems at irrigation reclamation.
Keywords: irrigated agriculture, criteria, geo-ecological constraints, territory availability, the Ob-Irtysh basin.
