Assessment of the state of forest vegetation of waste dumps of coal mines in Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of the work was to assess the current state of protective vegetation cover formed as a result of forest reclamation and natural overgrowth of all rock dumps of coal mines in Ukraine. The relevance of the research is conditioned by the important role of taking into account the degree of forest cover on the surface of dumps when assessing their ecological hazard to the environment. Forest plantations reduce the intensity of deflation and erosion of the surface of dumps, so the intensity of pollutants entering the adjacent territory is also sharply reduced. The main research method was the analysis of space images. The scientific novelty of the research results consists in the estimation of the average afforestation of the surface of dumps of the Lviv-Volynsky coal basin, Western and Central Donbass and in the established dependence of the afforestation of dumps slopes on their exposure and insolation coefficient proposed by the authors. Differences in afforestation of dumps of the above-mentioned basins (50.6%, 5.6% and 10.6%, respectively) testify both to the role of differences in climatic conditions and to the low level of dump reclamation in the Donetsk coal basin. Almost 1,900 ha or 79.5% of the dump surface in the north-eastern part of the Central Donbas is not forested and is a source of intensive environmental pollution. The afforestation of southern slopes in the Central Donbas is 4.7 times lower than that of northern slopes. However, a part of dumps is characterised by almost complete afforestation of southern slopes. This important fact proves the possibility of growing plantations under conditions of unstable moisture inherent in Donbas, even on such slopes. The practical significance of the work consists in the presented low-cost reclamation technology and the results of its use by the authors in forest reclamation of two rock dumps of PJSC ‘Lisichanskvugillia’. The given results of the survey of forest plantations more than 30 years after their creation by the authors prove the possibility of mass afforestation of rock dumps in Ukraine and, as a consequence, the reduction of the area of agricultural lands polluted by dumps and the intensity of their pollution.