The Saratov Region is situated in the south-east of the East-European plain in the Low Volga region.

In the North it borders on the Samara, Ulyanovsk and Penza Regions, in the West — on the Voronezh and Tambov Regions, in the South — on the Volgograd Region and in the East — on the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Orenburg Region.

The Saratov Region extends 575 km from the west to the east and 240 km from the north to the south. Its area is 101,2 thousand sq.km. The administrative centre is Saratov. The distance from Saratov to Moscow is 858 km.

Climate in the Saratov Region is moderate and continental. Average monthly temperature in summer is from 20°C in the north of the Right-bank region up to 24°C in the south-east of the Left-bank region. Average monthly temperature in January fluctuates from -11°C in the south-west of the Right-bank region to -14°C in the north-east of the Left-bank region.

Annual rainfall in the north-west meadow steps of the Right-bank region is from 500-580 mm to 375-425 mm in the semi desert of the Left-bank region. In winter relative air humidity exceeds 80% in all parts of the region. In summer it is 60-65% in the north-west and about 50% in the south-east.

Snow cover is formed by the beginning of December and melts in the last ten-day period of March. Average maximum height of the snow cover in forest-steppe zone is 28,5 cm, in steppes — 26,5 cm and in semi deserts – 24 cm.

In April productive water storage in one-meter topsoil in the Right-bank region reaches 125-175 mm and 80-150 mm in the Left-bank region.

NATURAL RESOURCES

Land resources. Predominance of black earth and chestnut soils, formed in conditions of water deficiency even under the herbage, is explained by the region’s location in forest-steppe, steppe and semi desert zones. Nevertheless, local landscape differences in soil-forming greatly diversify the structure of Saratov Region’s soil covering. The Right-bank and the Left-bank regions particularly differ from each other in soil covering. The characteristic feature of the Right-bank region is the local geographic soil variability, while the so-called latitude zonality predominates in the Left-bank region. Land resources of the region amount to 10 million hectares all in all.

Forest resources. The steppe zone covers the greater part of the region. Indigenous forests and afferostation occupy 560 thousand hectares or 5,5% of the region’s territory. 61,1% of the forestry performs the protection function, 19,8% - hygiene and sanitary function, the rest — mainly soil and water protection functions.

Water resources. The Saratov Region is repleted with water. There are 358 rivers of the total length of more than 12 thousand km in the region. All the rivers that flow in the Saratov Region belong to three water basins: the Volga, Don and Kamysh-Samara lakes basins. The main water resource is the Volga River which length on the territory of the Saratov Region is 420 km.

Resources of the river flowing of many years taken on average in the Saratov Region are 264,8 km3/year, including 6,91 km3/year that is formed on the territory of the region, specific resources – 69 thousand m3/year per 1 km2 of the territory and 2,5 thousand m3/year per one resident. On the territory of the region there are more than 3,5 thousand ponds and storage pools, 184 of them have the capacity of over 1 million m3 of water.

Natural resources. On the territory of the Saratov Region there are natural resources and the following of them are extracted: oil, gas, raw building materials (chalk, marl, sands, brick and tile clay, cement), oil shale, drinking and balneological mineral waters, fresh subterranean waters. Total hydrocarbon resources are 2517 million tons of standard fuel, as for the quantity of prospective and potential resources the region ranks the first in the Volga region.435 deposits and 238 potential fields of mineral resources used in construction are known.

As for cement reserves the Saratov Region is one of the leading regions in Russia. For the moment 5 deposits are explored with the total reserve of over 537 million tons.

On the territory of the Saratov Region there are several sorts of mineral raw materials prospective for application in agriculture. These are zeolites, peat, shell rock, phosphorites. Total reserves of these mineral raw materials amount to 126 million m3.