Belarus Geography Profile 2008

Location

Eastern Europe, east of Poland

Geographic coordinates

53 00 N, 28 00 E

Map references

Europe

Area

total: 207,600 sq km
land: 207,600 sq km
water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative

slightly smaller than Kansas

Land boundaries

total: 3,098 km
border countries: Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km

Coastline

0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims

none (landlocked)

Climate

cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime

Terrain

generally flat and contains much marshland

Elevation extremes

lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m
highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m

Natural resources

forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay

Land use

arable land: 26.77%
permanent crops: 0.6%
other: 72.63% (2005)

Irrigated land

1,310 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources

58 cu km (1997)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)

total: 2.79 cu km/yr (23%/47%/30%)
per capita: 286 cu m/yr (2000)

Natural hazards

NA

Environment - current issues

soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note

landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes