ST. PETERSBURG

St. Petersburg is the northernmost major city of the world. It is located at 59° 57' Latitude North, 30° 19' Longitude East (Pulkovo meridian).

Due to the city's northern position it enjoys the phenomenon of the «white nights», lasting from May 25-26 till July 16-17. July 22, the Solstice Day is the longest day (18 hours 53 minutes); the shortest day is December 22 (5 hours 52 minutes).

The climate is humid, close to maritime, with a moderately warm summer and a rather long moderately cold winter. The average winter temperature is -8°C, the average summer temperature is +17.8°C. In dry hot) weather the temperature may rise to +25°C - +30°С. The temperature may seriously drop in winter, reaching -25°C - -30°C. Precipitation reaches 550-600 mm per year.

The Neva River is the city's main waterway The name of the river derives from the ancient name of Lake Ladoga, the Neva where it begins. The Neva is 74 kilometers long, flowing 32 kilometers within the city boundaries. The average width of the Neva within the city is 600 meters, depth - up to 24 meters.

In the delta, the Neva splits into three main branches: the Bolshaya Neva, the Malaya Neva and the Bolshaya Nevka.

St. Petersburg is situated in the North-West of Russia in the Neva River delta on the Eastern coast of the Gulf of Finland and occupies, together with the administratively subordinated territories, the terri-tory of 1439 square kilometres. The city is located on 44 islands formed by the Neva River and 90 more rivers and canals.

The abundance of islands has led to the construction of a multitude of bridges. Of these, nowadays there are308 within the city proper, and 5 34 if suburbs are included. 22 of the bridges are drawbridges. The total length of all the bridges is ;about 16 kilometers. The longest bridge across the Neva is the Alexander Nevsky Bridge (909 meters with runways), the widest bridge is the Siniy Bridge on the Moika River (99.5 meters).

The highest elevation equals 42 meters above the sea level (Poklonnaya Gora).

Floods occur frequently in the city Most often they happen in autumn due to strong westerly winds. In the history of the city the Neva has risen above ordinary level more than 300 times.

A water-meter was built near the Mining Institute in 1877. A flood is registered if the water rises 180 cm above the normal level. The biggest flood was on November 7 1824 when the water rose 4.1 metres above the ordinary level.

Neighbouring countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ger-many, Denmark (The Baltic Sea Region).

The neighbouring Russian regions: Leningrad Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Vologda Oblast, Pskov Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast and Republic of Karelia.

Distance to the nearest cities: Helsinki - 383 km, Stockholm - about 700 km.

The city is advantageously located at the sea routes and on land roads (12 radii of railroads and 11 highways). This is the European gateway gate-way of Russia, it's a strategic centre which is closest to the European Union countries of Russia, it's a strategic centre which is closest to the Euro-pean Union countries.

Natural and Economical Resources

Water resources - fresh surface waters and underground waters. The surface fresh waters are concentrated in the columbine of the water system "Lake Ladoga - the Neva River - the Neva Inlet -the Gulf of Finland".

On the territory of the city and its environs there are sand and gravel quarries, pebble stones, sands, clays, sandstone, loamy soils, as well as peat (the resources make approximately 17.5 bin m3 of raw peat which is the equivalent of about 2 bin tons of dried peat).

Population

4.70 min inhabitants as of 01.01.2000 (which makes approximately 3% of the Russian population).