The article presents the results of the use of geoinformation modelling of the processes of urbanised territories’ flooding by river waters. Physical, geographical, and climatic parameters of the key river basin (Vezelka River within the boundaries of the city of Belgorod) have been determined. A list of input data and methods that were used to create geoinformation models is presented. The peculiarities of the technique of aerial photography and the creation of a digital terrain model on its basis are disclosed. The formulas for the calculation of the level of water rise and calculation of the flooding model corrected by the terrain are disclosed. The results of determining high levels of river water by calculated sites are shown, longitudinal and transverse profiles with estimated water levels during flooding with different levels of the expected probability of occurrence have been created. The final map of the boundaries of flood zones in the urban area, which are calculated using geoinformation modelling, is demonstrated. We propose that the results of geoinformation modelling of flooding scenarios for large rivers be included in the regional GIS portal.
As an effect of intensive agricultural development of the steppes of the northern Black Sea coast, the finds of postantique agricultural landscapes that preserve relic elements of ancient land-use infrastructure are extremely rare. To these belongs the uniquely preserved ancient Greek land division system on the Tarkhankut Peninsula (north-western Crimea), which was studied using the methods of soil science and biomorphic analysis. This paper explores ancient land-use practices in order to reconstruct the original parameters of the land division system, as well as agricultural techniques employed. For postantique agricultural landscapes, an integrated geoarchaeological approach that includes GIS and remote sensing methodologies, in-field study of microrelief and soil registrograms, pedochronological dating technique, and physicochemical, geochemical, and biomorphic soil analyses has been developed and tested. The soil-geomorphological reconstruction shows that the Hellenistic land division system included a 4.5–4.9 m wide strip of land bordered by a 4.1–4.7 m wide (at the base) and c. 0.2 m high wall and a c. 2 m wide and over 15 cm deep trench, which controlled surface runoff and erosion. Ancient agricultural practices of slope farming resembled the modern ones. Surface runoff and soil erosion were controlled by dividing the catchment area into narrow plots, the borders of which on arable land were marked by simple earthen structures (low walls with shallow trenches). The biomorphic analysis of soil sampled atop these structures indicates that in ancient times, these earthen walls were not cultivated. The study of conservative properties preserved in pedomemory of postagrogenic soils provided valuable evidence of agricultural techniques used in the palaeogeographic conditions of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the cultivated land located in the European part of Russia decreased, which resulted in the formation of a stable area of young fallows, presented both in forest and steppe zones. In the steppe, any cultivated areas with long agricultural history can open up opportunities for studying fallows in a wider chronological range and for assessing the rates of restoration of soil and plant cover. The aim of the study was to comparatively analyse the soils of fallow lands of different times near the ancient settlement of the NW Crimea and to identify relict and recent evidence of pedogenesis. Having analysed intra-horizon differences in geochemical parameters, it has been revealed that the lower layers of the humus horizon kept in soil memory the evidence of two centuries with a more arid climate (before the 1st c. AD). The indicators of such bioclimatic environment include higher content of Cl, Ca, S, As, P in post-agrogenic horizons. The study of recently ploughed fallows has resulted in the discovery of the phenomenon of heterogeneous horizons which retained agropedogenesis relics from agricultural pre-history (increased share of fulvic acids and content of the above-mentioned elements), but also acquired recent properties in the current bioclimatic environment.
Palaeogeographic markers can be justified among a large number of geochemical indicators in separate layers of pedosediments. This determines the need to develop a system of most information-rich pedogenetic indicators for reconstruction of the dynamics of erosion-accumulative processes based on dated earthen defensive constructions of the historical period. We demonstrated this solution at the example of a frontier rampart with a ditch of the mid-17th century (“Catena linking of landscape-geochemical processes and reconstruction of pedosedimentogenesis: a case study of defensive constructions of the mid-17th century, South Russia” [1]). Using individual of macroelements and trace elements as part of complex geochemical relationships and indicators allows us to determine the geochemical associations of elements that diagnose migration of the sediments at the trans-eluvial catenas. It is shown that in the forest-steppe conditions the determined system of pedogenic indicators, such as content of particles (%) with the size >0.01 and < 0.005 mm, pHH2O, CO2, (CaО+MgO):Al2O3, Si:Al, CaO:TiO2, the eluviation coefficient, the association of mobile (Ca, Na, Mg, Sr) and weakly mobile (K, Ba, Rb) elements, the sum of the elements accumulated in the soil (P, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Cu). They can be the basis of this classification and chronostratigraphy of pedosediments. The data obtained in these investigations are aimed at the establishment of soil-geomorphologic interrelations and calibration of mathematical models of natural processes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.