Ecological assessment of the territorial complexes of Tatarbunars’kyi district of Odessa region

Abstract

Formulation of the problem. The Tatarbunars’kyi District is located in the southwestern part of Odessa region and reflects the main features of the landscape-economic structure of the region: water, agricultural, resort and environmental areas. On the other hand, the form of land use is characterized by widespread plowing of land with degradation and erosion of soil cover. Land structure and use patterns have a complex negative impact on ecological and economic processes and cannot ensure the sustainable development of the region, in particular it is antagonistic to the unique transitional wetland ecosystems of international importance located within the area. To solve the issues of balanced environmental management and zoning of the landscape and economic structure of the region, Earth remote sensing (ERS) data can be used - spectrozonal satellite imagery and geographic information systems (GIS), which can simultaneously cover the research area as a whole, carry out regular monitoring and significantly reduce costs by expensive expeditionary work. Using space monitoring data allows you to get a large array of characteristics of the state of the territorial complexes of the region. Purpose of the work is: assessment of the ecological state of the landscape economic structure and development of recommendations for the protection of natural and territorial complexes of the Tatarbunar’skyi District of Odessa region based on the use of GIS and remote sensing data. Methods. Landsat8 satellite images with OLI and TIRS sensors, digital terrain models (SRTM) with a spatial resolution of 30 m were used as initial data. The spatial distribution of the population was carried out on the basis of OpenStreetMap data using automatic interpolation using the IDW method. Spatial analysis and data processing were carried out in the QGIS v3.4.6 software package. To quantify the vegetation cover, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index - NDVI was calculated. Waterlog distribution was estimated using a modified normalized differential moisture index (NDMI). The analysis of the structure of land use and anthropogenic load was carried out on the basis of ranking of territorial objects into homogeneous groups to calculate geoecological coefficients. Results. The article discusses the possibilities of using Earth remote sensing data for a functional assessment of land changes as a result of anthropogenic activities, primarily arable land, analyzes the ecological and economic equilibrium of the region based on geoecological coefficients, identifies areas that are primarily exposed to environmental risks, exogenous processes and the impact anthropogenic factors. Measures are proposed to increase the environmental sustainability of agrolandscapes and the landscape-anthropogenic structure of the region’s lands. A detailed hydrological and morphometric analysis of the catchment basin was carried out. Karachaus within the boundaries of the District. For the catchment estuary, remediation and nature conservation measures based on GIS are proposed and designed.