Impact of military activities and hostilities on the ecosystem services of the North-Western Black Sea coastal zone

Abstract

Satisfaction of human needs for living environment and food, as well as level and quality of life, depend on ecosystem services. The article studies the main methodological principles of ecosystem services assessment for the coastal zone of the North-Westen Black Sea region. Reduction of opportunities for using the ecosystem services negatively reflects the growing anthropogenic impact on environmental components due to urbanization processes, development of industry, energy sector, transport, agricultural sector of the economy, etc. and, since February 2022, - due to military activities and hostilities. The research presents the main indicators used to assess the ecosystem services. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the environment of Odesa Oblast was subject to the highest anthropogenic pressure across the whole NWBS region. The forecast indicators of anthropogenic pressure on the components of the NWBS's environment for the next 10 years showed that, within Odesa Oblast, there was a trend towards increasing level of anthropogenic pressure for almost all components. As for Mykolaiv Oblast, an increasing load was predicted for air basin and water bodies, and as for Kherson Oblast – for air basin and soil and geological environment. The article considers the groups of ecosystem services and the factors reducing the possibility of their use as a result of ongoing military operations. Affected by military activities and hostilities, the possibilities of using the resource component of the ecosystem services are brought to minimum. Military activities and hostilities practically stopped the recreational and health function within the coastal zone of the NWBS region. The primary task is to determine the needs of local communities in terms of use of ecosystem services, to collect and summarize information on their condition, agree on methods for assessment of services for the NWBS region, and conduct such assessment. It is necessary to identify the ways to transition to the models of natural resource management across the coastal zone of the NWBS region, taking into account the decline in delivery of the ecosystem services due to both anthropogenic load and military activities and hostilities affecting environmental components.

Keywords

• ecosystem services
• coastal zone
• military activities
• the north-western black sea region