Геохімія техногенезу (Sep 2020)
KEY ISSUES FOR ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATED FOREST ECOSYSTEMS IN UKRAINE
Abstract
The article discusses problematic issues related to the implementation of the environmental management and its specific features in forestry in the radioactively contaminated territories of Ukraine. The modern requirements and recommendations of regulatory documents of Ukraine and the EU on environmental protection and biodiversity conservation are analyzed. Analysis of the MODIS satellite system data showed a significant effect of forest fires, in particular in radioactively contaminated areas, on the decrease of the forest ecosystem areas. Fires are the second most important factor, after deforestation, of the forest ecosystem reduction. Ecological problems of radioactively contaminated forest ecosystems can be overcome only with the improvement of approaches, methods, and standards from the standpoint of the environmental management. It is shown that the basis of the environmental management of radioactively contaminated forest ecosys-tems is to increase their fire safety. Prevention and suppression of forest fires in radioactively contaminated areas is a key environmental management problem. It requires development of a system of scientifically based fire protection measures and forest management, effective fire extinguishing management methods (remote, safe, fire prevention, monitoring, and ongoing preventive measures), preventing exces-sive exposure of personnel and the public from various sources, the secondary spread of radionuclides due to fires into relatively clean areas. As a result of forest fires, radionuclides in the aerosols, gaseous products of combustion (smoke and dust) are removed from forest ecosystems, creating a source of external exposure, inhalation and ingestion of radionuclides. In this case, the depositing function of the forest is lost and the migration ability of radionuclides increases. Measures have been proposed to reduce the radiation dose of the per-sonnel of the fire departments during extinguishing a forest fire, which can be achieved using hydrodynamically active water extinguishing agents with the simultaneous laying of barriers based on polyhexamethylene guanidine salts in front of the fire front.
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