Geoecological Situation in Land Use

Abstract

The principles for the construction of the scale of geoecological situation in land use were substantiated. This situation is based on the parameter of landscape anthropization extent. The parameter was called a geosituation index. Such index is the area proportion for geoecological positive (or geo-positive) and geoecological negative (or geo-negative) land use and/or land cover (LULC) systems. The first systems are still called in essence nature-accentuated, near-to-nature or simply natural systems. Percents of geo-positive LULC systems' area are also used as a separate parameter additional to the geosituation index. The scale of geosituation concerning land use in model landscapes or other territorial units was developed. Such scale for the first time has the logic-parametric consistency with previously developed scheme of the landscape anthropization extent. The geosituation is classified in the scale by categories. They vary from excessively favorable to catastrophic category. The developed geosituation scale was implemented for the selected megaregion. It includes Ukrainian physic-geographic zones of mixed and broad-leaved forests and forest-steppe and their regions, areas and districts. The digital choropleths were modeled for the geosituation in land use in the areas and districts.

The all obtained results indicated the validity and further implementation suitability of proposed geosituation indexes and their scale. The developed approaches can be applied in the territorial schemes and projects of modern environmental management.

Keywords: land use, anthropization, landscape, geoecological situation, near-to-nature systems