TECHNOGENIC EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE NORILSK INDUSTRIAL AREA

Abstract

The relevance of the research is caused by the increased necessity to solve ecological issues in Russian Arctic regions considering their importance for the development of the country. On the one hand, the task complexity lies in the presence of cumulative environmental damage; on the other hand, in the topicality of elaborating sustainable approaches to natural resource development in the immediate future. The main aim of the research is to analyze the condition of the ecosystem and its separate components in the Norilsk industrial area as one of the significant resource territories in the Russian Arctic. Special attention is made to techniques of monitoring the environment and official documents regulating ecology that require the elimination of acute contradictions and legislative vacuum. Methods of research include analyses of research papers published in Russian and foreign sources in the last decade on environmental challenges in the Russian Arctic and especially in the Norilsk industrial area. The authors used a wide range of bibliographic systems including the Russian Science Citation Index, Scopus, and “Environment protection” abstract service by All-Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information. Research results: Unique characteristics of Arctic regions were revealed that require both non-traditional technological concepts when conducting an industrial activity, and special approaches when regulating and controlling ecological state. The example of the Norilsk industrial area was used to demonstrate improvements in ecological aspects of industrial activity of mining and smelting enterprise even despite the incident with a fuel spill in 2020. At the same time, the attempted measures are still insufficient to regard the current ecological situation as satisfactory. The problems of neutralization of cumulative environmental damage have awaited solutions. The efficiency of planned measures for improvement of the state of the environment essentially depends on changes in legal acts poorly considering specific features of Arctic territories, as well as on closer collaboration of industrial enterprises both with the scientific community and local residents.

Keywords

• norilsk industrial area
• arctic
• ecology
• cumulative environmental damage
• monitoring