Impact of forest fire on the vegetable cover of radioactively contaminated areas

Abstract

This article presents the results of assessing the impact of fires on the vegetation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the zone of unconditional (mandatory) resettlement, Drevlyansky Nature Reserve using means of remote sensing of the Earth for the period from 1986 to 2020. The methods and criteria for assessing vegetation damage using spectral data obtained from space satellites of the Earth and using methods of geoinformation technologies are proposed. This methodology provides mapping vegetation through remote sensing imagery. Comparing space images of the territory of the exclusion zone and the zone of unconditional mandatory resettlement for 1986, 1999, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, for the period of 34 years after the accident, identified significant changes in the condition of lands belonging to forest and agricultural lands. In the result of the study revealed the changes observed in the boundaries of water bodies because drying of artificial reservoirs, changes in the direction of riverbeds, waterlogging of drainage canals and adjacent forest areas. The identified effect from fires in forests where dry forest materials have accumulated and from consequences of forest management. It is also noted, that according to the spectral data of space images, areas of forest damaged by insects are well defined. The study reveals

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“…In the 36 years that have passed since this terrible accident, many studies have been conducted to find the level of radiation pollution in the affected areas and to establish ways to reduce the impact of radiation on the body of animals and people. Minimisation of the consequences of an accident in the agricultural sphere on territories contaminated with radionuclides, which includes the implementation of radioprotective measures in crop and animal husbandry, is one of the main elements of the radiation safety system (Hudkov & Lazariev, 2018;Landin et al, 2017;Romanchuk et al, 2019). Therefore, one of the priority tasks of modern radioecological science is the systematic control of 137 Cs and 90 Sr contamination of plant and animal products and the study of the specific features of their migration in agricultural ecosystems.…”