Assessment of the State of Forestry and the Effects of its Changes on Hazardous Natural Events in the Carpathian Region

Over the recent years, the occurrence and scale of natural disasters in the Carpathian region have increased. One of the main indicators of environmental sustainability in Zakarpattia is the level of forest cover of slopes within the river network of the region. At the same time, according to some data, the upper forest bound has lowered by 200-300 m. Time and area changes of this indicator can be assessed with an appropriate level of adequacy and immediacy using satellite data and results of their digital processing.

In 2001, under a subcontract with ERRIU, ULRMC participated in the project "Assessment of the State of Forestry and the Effects of its Changes on Hazardous Natural Events in the Carpathian Region". The Project was implemented at the request of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDCU) under the grant of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID-Kyiv).

The Project's objective was to identify changes in the forest cover, especially, within the river basins of the Carpathian region, and to assess possible interrelation between the forest cover change dynamics, as well as other factors, and natural disasters occurrence.

Within the Project implementation, the following materials were used:

  • Results of engineering-geological estimation of Zakarpattia and identification of landslides and their condition, done on March 20 and May 18, 2001;
  • Statistical information about landslides within the river basins of Zakarpattia Oblast during 1998-1999;
  • SPOT image, acquired on November 22, 1998;
  • 2 Landsat images, acquired on July 27, 1988 and July 31, 1998;
  • 1:200,000 digital map of Zakarpattia Oblast.

The main Project results are:

  • Identification of forest cover changes that occurred over the period from 1988 till 2000 within the researched area, covered by ULRMC's archive satellite imagery;
  • Identification of areas with the highest level of landslide activity and their distribution across Zakarpattia river basins. Over the recent years, there has been registered an increase in the number of landslides that occurred near the settlements, roads and the flood plains where there was no forest cover for a long time;
  • Analysis of possible interrelation between the forest cover state and the occurrence of landslides.
  • Integration into GIS of work results in a form of thematic data layers;
  • Development of recommendations on the organization of forest cover change and natural disasters monitoring using remote sensing tools.

More about remote sensing application in the research of water basins environmental state in ULRMC article "Remotely Sensed Materials Application in Studying Water Impact on the Water Basins Environmental State" >>>

More about the nature of floods and flood control methods in ULRMC article "Early Warning and Assessment of Consequences of Emergency Flood Situations" >>>

More on forestry terms from the Glossary of Forestry Terms >>>


[ Last updated : 07-May-2003 13:51 ]
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