Designing of Water Protection Zones in the Cities of Ukraine: Problems and Ways to Solve Them by Landscape Ecologycal Planning

Abstract

Purpose. Development of methodical approaches to the development of water protection zones in cities based on the principles of landscape-ecological planning. Methods. GIS modeling using remote sensing data. ArcGIS 10.0 operational features (in particular, vectorization, buffering, algebra mapping tools) were used as a software for spatial analysis of data. Results. The analysis of modern Ukrainian water protection legislation has allowed to identify a number of problems in the design and development of water protection areas in the rivers within a city. For their solution, initial provisions of the organization of water protection zones in cities, derived from the principles of landscape-ecological planning, have been formulated: 1) unified rules and unequivocal demands for project development; 2) an integrated approach for solutions development; 3) subordination of goals of city-planning to the goals of environmental protection; 4) strategic goals and progressive implementation of the water protection policy. The basic algorithm of landscape-ecological planning of "urban" water protection zones has been substantiated. It consists of the following 4 stages: inventory, estimation, analysis and generalization, development of the concept for development of the water protective zone. A "hybrid" approach to the design of water protection zones is proposed, which allows to adjust the normatively defined territorial configuration in accordance with the value of the water protection potential of the landscape. Approbation of the methodology is carried out for the Udy River within the Kharkiv city borders, as a result of which a set of cartographic models was created, including the design of the boundaries of the territory of the water protection zone and the zoning of its territory in accordance with the integral goals. For a specific territory of the water protection zone, a list of recommended envi ronmental measures has been developed. Conclusions. Application of the landscape and ecological planning principles during development of water protection zones within cities implies the need for changes in existing approaches to their development. As a result of the approbation of the proposed methodology we have developed the GIS project which can be used as the basic model of the territorial configuration of the water protection zone of the Udy River within Kharkiv in the course of its developemt.

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