Dynamics of steppe arable land in zones of oil fields development (Orenburg region)

Abstract

The reported paper presents the analysis data on the arable land dynamics in oil extraction zones. The long-term development of oil fields leads inevitably to farmland losses for a variety of destructive processes and, as a consequence, to withdrawal of lands from a turnover, and land abandonment. Our study was carried out on two sample territories in the steppe zone of Orenburg region with two key land utilization sectors – agriculture and long-term oil extraction. To reveal the dynamics of agricultural lands and oil fields we adapted time series of satellite (Landsat) imagery. An analysis was divided into several phases dealing with quantity-related assessment of fields withdrawn from the farmland turnover and tracing the relationship between their position and objects of oil extraction infrastructure. A period of interest covered 40 years – from 1980 to 2020. The research has highlighted a thirteen and eightfold increase of zones with oil production facilities on the first and second territory, respectively. Recently, 24% and 26% oil fields are located on arable lands. Another outcome of the study is that the expansion of territories designated for subsurface use is the reason that both directly abandoned areas and neighboring lands are removed from the farmland turnover. Agricultural lands affected by oil fields are at a high risk of being withdrawn from the turnover – losses may range to the firth of arable lands.